It was 1991, and I was living in Oklahoma when my first baby was born. When she was 6 weeks old I traveled to Michigan to show off my new bundle of joy. I didn't have any family or friends in Oklahoma City (I moved there for my husband's job) so you can imagine how tired and burned out I was. I eagerly took up my parent's offer to watch my little baby as I took a delicious nap (my mother pulled the curtains tight so it was nice and dark, and put on a CD of thunderstorm music and that's all it took for me to drift off to sleep).
What I didn't anticipate, however, was the long-held customs my parents brought to the table. As I walked bleary-eyed from my nap down the hall I found my dad giving my 6-week-old a bottle of orange juice! I know! After I gasped a little, I explained in the most diplomatic way that "Doctor's don't recommend giving babies orange juice anymore." He and my mother looked a bit perplexed as they pondered these silly doctor recommendations. Then I scooped up my little girl and proceeded to breastfeed her.
Although every baby doll I had as a child came with one bottle of white milk and one of orange juice (the cool bottles whose contents disappeared somehow when you turned it upside down to feed your baby doll), I never considered WHY we had OJ in our bottles until that moment.
So, as I started my journey to become a lactation educator in 1994, I started to do some research on historical infant feeding practices. Why we do the things we do – and why our ancestors did the things they did.
In the late 1800s, due to more families using cow's milk formulas to feed their infants, the incidence of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) skyrocketed. Breastmilk is perfectly formulated with vitamin C, so those breastfeeding did not have this affliction. But many women were switching to bottled cow's milk, which was deficient in this essential nutrient, so scurvy was on the rise.
Unfortunately, instead of protecting and promoting the continuation of breastfeeding in our culture, doctors recommended giving orange juice to newborns/infants.
An excerpt from "Good Health For You And Your Family" written in 1951 by E. Patricia Hagman (physical education teacher writing a book for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company) on what (and how) to feed your baby:
Your Baby's Daily Program:
From Birth to 6 Months
6 am – Nurse baby and put back to bed
9:15 am – Give fish liver oil and fruit juice (usually begun at 2-3 weeks of age)
9:30 am – Bathe baby and give him 10 o'clock nursing
10:15 am – Place baby in crib or carriage for a nap out of doors if weather is favorable. A sun bath may be given before or after nap.
2 pm – Nurse baby and return to crib or carriage. From week to week he will lie awake longer in the afternoon.
5 pm – Undress the baby and if room is warm enough, let him lie unclothed on a wide bed for exercise. This is his playtime, but the family must not excite him by too lively play.
5:30 pm – Put on baby's night clothes, nurse him, and put to bed.
10 pm – Nurse the baby.
2 am – Nurse baby if he is awake.
(5-6 nursings in 24 hours), plus some fruit juice and fish liver oil for vitamin C and vitamin D—preventing scurvy and rickets, respectively). Just as a reference, we know now that newborns/infants typically need to feed around 8-12x in 24 hours.
No wonder mother's milk diminished. This regimen would have (for most women) been the cause of reduction of milk supply and the imminent need to purchase formula). And we wonder why breastfeeding rates were so low back then. Follow the advice….follow the money and it's clear to see what happened.
My dad, who was born in 1933, was bottlefed evaporated milk with Karo syrup (to help with constipation) and cod liver oil (to prevent rickets – vitamin D deficiency) and had orange juice as a chaser every day. Just like the doctor recommended my grandmother do. I can't blame her (or my parents). I can only daydream about what my grandchildren will gasp at when they learn about what I did in the 1990s and 2000s as I raised my kids!
The word of the day: GRACE…everybody is doing the best they can with the knowledge and guidance they had at the time.
For further fun reading:
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