The History of Formula (talk amongst yourselves ;o)!
This is one of those comics that I can’t believe I’ve never done :o) It came to me the other day when I was in an email exchange with Sheepdoc (hi!) and lamenting the ‘thickening agents’ and wrote:
(but I suppose it comes from the formula mindset-if they survive it, it must be okay for them! (hey, that’s a comic idea right there!)
there’s three altogether, I’m off to a book club, also have to finish making my husband’s ren fare shirt, and then an all day club tomorrow, busy! …enjoy!
Love,
Heather
queenmommy911 said,
April 10, 2008 @ 11:46 am
I know it’s all about the breastfeeding and babywearing and natural birthing and unschooling here, but you’ve really got me itching to find out about your ren faire wear…can you share a link with a craft-happy mommy who’d love to sew some? Pretty please.
Dbouch said,
April 11, 2008 @ 5:41 am
What a fabulous comic! My Grandmother had 7 children. I asked her if she nursed them and how long. She said they all were BF for about 6 months. What did they get as milk after they were weaned?? Condensed milk diluted with water…but they all survived didn’t they?? BTW my Grandmother was a college educated working woman in NYC when she was raising her kids. I love this subject. I find it morbidly fascinating the things people like to feed their babies in order to avoid breastfeeding. I would highly recommend the book “Milk, Money and Madness” to anyone who likes to be kept awake at night!
mamaof5 said,
April 11, 2008 @ 8:11 am
I read Milk Money and Madness and I got the impression that in the beginning formula was for “foundlings”. Becuase those poor babies just kept dying (they actually stuck them on a goat’s udder). I get the reason for formula… in the beginning, I just don’t get why it caught on and now is the norm here. It is amazing to me that if you can nurse why you don’t.
My grandmas both formula fed. Neither worked outside the home when their children were little. My mom’s mom breast fed one child for 6 weeks and said she would never do it again… then pestered me to stop when dd was 12 months. LOL
I guess anither thing that puzzles me is that KNOWING what we know now and knowing that all the things that make breastfeeding best are actually the NATURAL things and that formula is lacking why do people choose to not breastfeed? I don’t get it. I KNOW that there are some moms who try and can not breast feed, so those are not the moms I am talking about… but I know people IRL who have choosen to NOT breastfeed at all.
Heather in Tucson
sewathomemama said,
April 11, 2008 @ 10:18 am
i guess i’m just lucky. in the 50s my grandmother breastfed each of her 3 for the first 5 months, which, by current standards, is like 2 years! for ech subsequent generation, formula has never even been a whispered suggestion. my aunt & mother breastfed each of their 3, some much longer than others. i breastfeed my boy, going on a year & a half now with no end in sight. my dh, on the other hand, was bottle-fed, as were both his sisters & all of his sisters’ 6 combined children. one of his sisters even commented on how i’m nursing in almost every picture we sent them when the boy was tiny. she wasn’t bothered by it, persay, it’s just outside her personal everyday experience.
i breastfeed, cosleep & cloth diaper my kid & he’s turned out fine! (tongue in cheek)
deborahmarkus said,
April 11, 2008 @ 11:55 am
I really want to read more about this issue. I remember in “Great Expectations” that the older sister to the main character raised him “by hand” — that is, managed to rear him and keep him alive in spite of the fact that his mother had died and apparently no wet nurse was available to pick up the slack. Raising a child successfully “by hand” was considered a huge big deal, so far as I can see; and (also sfaics), the sole criterion for “success” was the survival of the child. Which might well have been as much as you could ask for, when it’s the mid-nineteenth century and nearly half of all children born don’t make it to the age of five anyway. I just keep hoping we’ll aim for a higher sort of “success.”
Deborah
Tired, tired editor, Secular Homeschooling Magazine
wiffersnapper said,
April 11, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
I am amazed by the fact that my mother breastfed me… apparently, although no one else was “into” that in 1972, she thought it would be better for me and did it anyway. (Although I’ve never asked how long, I’d suspect about 6 months.) This is from the woman whose “birth story” for me goes something like this: “I went into labor. I went to the hospital. They put me to sleep. When I woke up, there you were!” And she is an intensely personal person, so I know that sharing her body with me like that HAD to bother her- but she was determined! If only all the Mamas had that determination!
julie said,
April 11, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
My mother has always shown more faith in things you can buy in a store. She was raised on a farm owned by a strict and abusive step father and was rather turned off to most things “natural.” She prefers pesticides to organic (”people starved the old way” - she thinks organic farming is simply boycotting technology). Remember Mr. Goodbody? He would tell kids to eat their rainbow to be healthy.. well since then she’s been a big fan of Jello. She’s not a stupid woman! Really! But she comes from a generation that was easy to market to. TV and commercials were still relatively new and people were not entirely media-literate. She taught me to think for myself.. and she says that raising an independent thinker has been a humbling experience.. (I was an outspoken and sometimes rude child!)
Anyway, if you look at ads starting in the 50’s, you’ll find a lot of things that say, “New and Improved.” That’s what they were looking for.. out with the old and in with the new… better living through chemistry.. So if it was the NEWEST formula, it was the most trustworthy thing out there. My mother never thought we were satisfied when she tried to nurse my brother and me. She says that we seemed so much happier and more satisfied when she switched to formula, and I’m sure we seemed even more “satisfied” when she added rice cereal to our bottles.
The next generations, they were started out on formula.. if it was good enough for them it’s not bad. I could argue this. I was put to bed every night with a bottle of juice. My teeth didn’t rot, I am not obese, I have very low blood pressure…
Breastfeeding is now the strange approach, even if it is the better one. Baby bottles come with dolls and they are all over baby shower stuff. Even a woman I know who was herself nursed for THREE years went straight to formula because her birth experience was so stressful she didn’t want to add to that the stress of learning to breastfeed. Bottle feeding is what we as a society understand.
Where the heck am I going with this?
I don’t know, but if you are currently nursing, do it in public, OK? Thanks. And double thanks if you do it in a cow’s mask.
crunchymama said,
April 12, 2008 @ 5:26 am
Heather.
You are really socking it to the man with the new series of “The Unofficial History of Formula” comics. I love it! So inspiring!!
-Alison Murphy
Memphis TN
mrs.mama21 said,
April 12, 2008 @ 9:56 am
I love this series. Well, ALL of them really, lol.
I was just looking down at my perfect little 4 week old and thinking to myself. You know what’s pretty amazing? These wonderful little people grow and thrive INSIDE our bodies. Then, when they are breastfed, they continue to grow and thrive off of our bodies! To look at her and know that my body and my milk have the power to give her EVERYTHING she needs is humbling. She is not only sustained by my body, she THRIVES because of it. Its all she needs. Really… its mind-blowing. I’d LOVE to see a comic related to that
sheepdoc said,
April 12, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
As I see it there are 2 big problems.
1) Very few people actually know what benefits breast milk and feeding at the breast convey. I know several moms who “breastfeed” by giving bottles of formula or pumped milk daily or weekly or whatever - bc the nurse at the hospital or the pediatrician told them too. They don’t believe me that as little as 1 oz of formula turns your child physiologically into a formula fed baby who is being supplemented w/ breastmilk for a minimum of 2 weeks.
2) Most people are selfish and lazy. Yes, there are a few women who truly don’t have enough milk or need chemo or other meds, but they’re rare. And hey then you supplement to make up the difference for 6 months or so and then guess what - you don’t need formula bc you can use real food.
A friend was a really good example. She’s very nice and loves to help others, but she also doesn’t like to make decisions for herself and she doesn’t care to put much effort into her life. She let her husband pick her OB. She didn’t care to spend the money or time on a birth class. She wasn’t willing to even try to push out her child which led to the c/s I knew was coming for 9 months. Despite baby nursing - the hospital started her on soy formula.
Despite this new mom coming from a very nursing friendly family - she would sleep for 6 hours plus at time and resented her child needing to be fed every 3 hours so she would make up bottles of soy for her husband/guests to feed so they wouldn’t need to wake her.
Thankfully, she had an epiphany at 6 weeks and realized that her daughter was her responsibility 100% and that she needed to be a mother.
That child hasn’t had formula since and is now over 1 year and still nursing w/ no weaning planned.
The problem is most people in our country never do have that epiphany/growing up moment where they become a responsible adult.
jeanette said,
April 13, 2008 @ 7:51 am
I am so glad my mom breastfed me for 9 months in 1979-80 because that played a huge part in my determination to breastfeed.
Kat_MomofMonkeys said,
April 13, 2008 @ 10:22 pm
My motivation - ignoring the part about how my mother was so glad to be able not to nurse anymore afterward - was knowing that, when we were babies, we had so many ear infections, that, when my sister had them even worse, our pediatrician INSISTED my mother NEEDED to breastfeed her until 18mo-2yrs (she stopped at 18mo, but still, for 1982, that’s not bad at all).
With a family history of a predisposition to bad ear infections, I was determined that if, even back then, docs were saying it, and then to look into it and find so much more info, I was determined to breastfeed if I could.
Ear infections were my big worry with the two I couldn’t nurse (first due to my milk never coming in and second due to the meds I need to keep me balanced). Luckily, they didn’t have them, but I swear, you definitely have to be thinking of all the advantages and know what they are.
It’s also why I refused to ever prop a bottle no matter what I was in the middle of… I wanted my babies held by ME (as they would have been if they were bf), and kept in that semi-upright position to reduce ear infections.
TracyKM said,
April 14, 2008 @ 9:22 am
I really enjoy your writings and comics, but I’m confused by the use of ‘cultural standard’. I don’t think formula is the ’standard’. If 7.5 out of 10 babies are breastfed at birth, how does that make formula the standard? I know that in the US, by 6 months the breastfeeding numbers are pretty low, but you might be forgetting that some of your readers are in other countries with much higher numbers.
sheepdoc said,
April 15, 2008 @ 6:47 am
Formula is the standard because 84%of all American babies get it. Its the standard because every week in the newspaper there’s a picture of a kid w/ a bottle. Story can be about day care or tragedy in Iraq or the cost of gas and there’s always a bottle.
Have you ever know someone to be asked to leave a restaurant or museum (or in my case a FIRE STATION CAR SEAT SAFTEY INSPECTION!) because they were giving their kid a bottle?
Go find a congrats on your baby card or baby shower invite that doesn’t have a bottle in it.
frontierpsychiatrist said,
April 15, 2008 @ 11:25 am
I will have to ask my dad’s mom if she breastfed. It’s never come up.
I do know my mom’s mom breastfed her 7 (in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s) and that my mom nursed my siblings and I for a year each (80’s and 90’s). I’ve got the next few decades covered!
I’m loving this series!
mamaluxe said,
April 15, 2008 @ 11:43 am
A baby bottle is a fairly universal image for childhood…so as a cultural paradigm, I think it holds.
Also, I think the numbers hold up, both in the US and Worldwide. Here are a few links:
http://www.kellymom.com/writings/bf-numbers.html
http://www.childinfo.org/eddb/brfeed/probl3.htm
And in the Western world, which I think constitutes most of Hathor’s audience, breastfeeding definitely took a hit in the 70s. It is only recently that it has become seen as more “normal” among educated moms who research everything having to do with their babies. But I’m still shocked at how many moms, from all backgrounds, say they never even considered breastfeeding. I think statistically it is recovering the US, but slowly, and not everywhere, and not among all groups.
I really don’t know why.
I don’t think these mamas are lazy or selfish. I wish I could ask them without seeming offensive. It is funny that no one seems to hesitate to ask me about breastfeeding (which I don’t mind at all when it is done politely–maybe it will encourage others to try it next time around), but no one asks another mama, “How did you make the decision to bottle feed?”
mamataters said,
April 15, 2008 @ 11:45 am
They survived, but the question is… Because of or in spite of?
My mom breastfed me until I was almost 3. That was just about unheard of in 1977. But my mom was never a conformist. lol. That must be where I get it from. BTW- I survived and I don’t have allergies, I never get sick. I am not overweight. I am not diabetic. I have very low blood Pressure. Up until recently (I was in a bad car accident) I could do any activity I wanted to. I have perfect teeth and perfect vision. I believe I have my mother and her yummy breastmilk to thank for that. I am more than surviving.
mamataters said,
April 15, 2008 @ 11:56 am
You know what really bothers me? Sesame Street is one of the few televison shows I allow my children to watch, but I am considering even taking that one out. They claim to be all about teaching children about healthy living and such, and yet evey time they show a baby, the mommy is feeding it with a bottle! They even had an Elmo’s world segment all about babies, and they went through all the different kinds of families who can have babies, and all the different ways to care for them and how each one is equally acceptable, as long as babies are loved. Well the only “norm” they didn’t introduce was breastfeeding! In every family, “nuclear”, gay, blended, single mom or dad, the babies were all bottlefed!!! I almost started yelling at the tv right in front of my kids. lol. Everything is ok except breastfeeding. I am thinking of writing them a letter.
You know, I would like to see some hollywood moms who breastfeed. Does that even exist? I think it would go a long way toward changing the norm if they stopped defining glamour as feeding your baby from a bottle. After all, your breasts are already messed up from the pregnancy. Breastfeeding only makes them look better! lol!
mrs.mama21 said,
April 15, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
In response to mamataters, here’s a list of celebs who breastfed (although we dont know for how long) http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2005/02/which_celebs_br.html
sewathomemama said,
April 15, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
when buffy sainte marie was on sesame street in the 70s, she breastfed her baby on the show. i tried to find the clip that was on youtube, but it was “removed due to terms of use violation”. what do you suppose that means? copyright violation or obscenity?
sewathomemama said,
April 15, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
here it is! http://www.connietalk.com/bigbird123.html
agc said,
April 15, 2008 @ 7:55 pm
I have been a lurker for a while now and I love your site. I have to say about the history of formula, it is sooo bad did you know that they use to go to third world countries and they would hand out samples to the women the sample would last just long enough untill their breastmilk had dried up and then what were they to do? you guessed it they had no choice so they had to buy more formula. It is gross the things they put in formula. Thank you for your blogg I love it,
julie said,
April 18, 2008 @ 5:39 am
sewathomemama, it’s no longer available, but you can still she the picture of Big Bird watching the child nursing. AWESOME! I don’t remember ever seeing this episode, but I’m thinking about writing to Sesame Street and asking for another one like that. I saw the Elmo’s World about babies too and it bugged me too! I’m not a big fan of Elmo’s World to begin with. Fortunately, it is the most boring part so I can usually get away with turning the TV off before it comes on (an hour is an awfully long time for my kid to be in front of the tube).
Bottles were certainly MY cultural standard. I saw one mother breastfeed and who knows how many bottle feeding babies growing up. When I played with dolls, I bottle fed them. My daughter, however, when playing with a toy bottle, puts it under her shirt to fill and then hands it to me so I can babysit her doll.