Sweet Baby :Evidence shows us that thousands of years ago many babies were artificially fed from a variety of bottles, feeding cups and other utensils, often with disastrous consequences.In the Middle Ages horn was commonly used as drinking vessel for adults. It is documented that a cow's horn with a scrap of soft leather tied on as a teat was also often used to feed babies.
In 17th centaury Europe, leather or wood feeding bottles were used; these were later developed into pewter feeding bottles and pap boats, of which many have survived to this day. The majority of these early suckling bottles were of a flask shape, with screw on tops forming a hard round nipple.
Although the bottles evolved, both in materials and design over the next 400 years, they all had the common attribute of being unhygienic and impossible to clean thoroughly. In conjunction with an overall lack of hygiene, contaminated milk supplies and very little knowledge of babies dietary needs, the horrendous mortality rates of the under twos was only to be expected.
Pap boats, feeding cups and suckling bottles of the 1880's were made by many of the leading potteries, such as Wedgwood. The most common being the cream glazed earthenware, the blue and white transfer printed wares were not as common, and therefore command a high price among the present day collectors.The ceramic suckling bottles of the late 18c and early 19c were difficult to clean, this became a little better when the glass blowers copied the design to produce free blown bottles of the same shape.
The food was poured into the opening on the top; placing the thumb over the same opening regulated the flow of milk. The business end was stuffed with a piece of cloth or chamois leather. Cow teats preserved in spirit were also used, being tied onto the glass nipple.
A major breakthrough was the invention of vulcanized rubber in the 1840's. The early black Indian rubber teats had a very strong pungent smell and it was some years before suitable rubber teats were being manufactured in great numbers.
At about the same time bottles began to be mass-produced. Most were based on the either the banjo or torpedo shape and used a glass internal tube, attached to a length of black rubber tubing, culminating with a bone mouth shield and rubber teat. Because of the great difficulty in cleaning these bottles they were openly condemned by the doctors of the time, despite this thousands were still being sold well into the 1920's. The design was as such that the baby could be left to feed unattended.
The banjo shaped feeders of the late 1800's were
produced in great numbers. Many had sweet sounding names such as 'my little pet' and 'mummies darling' while others were very nationalistic like' The Empire', 'The National' 'The Victorian'. Some simply advertised the chemist from which they were bought but many cashed in on the popularity of the Princess of Wales in the 1880's. Hence the most common inscriptions bore the words, 'The Princess or 'The Alexandria'. However these sweet sounding names often belayed the hidden dangers of these little inconspicuous bottles. The later day nicknames 'The killer' or the 'The murderer' was indeed more apt.
Infant mortality rates were still extremely high even in the late Victorian era, with only 2 out of 10 infants reaching the age of two. Hygiene was often relegated to the point of non-existence, and the hand rearing of babies was fraught with danger.
The bottles were designed with a integral glass tube, and a stopper. Attached to the glass tube there was a length of Indian rubber tubing, which ended with a bone mouth shield and a rubber teat. This design of bottle was impossible to keep clean and even though openly condemned by much of the medical profession of the time, continued to sell well into the 1920's. Much of this popularity was attributed to the fact that the baby could be left unattended to feed, even before the baby was old enough to hold the bottle.The big breakthrough was the invention of the double-ended feeder by Allen and Hanbury in 1894. The design had a teat at one end and a valve at the other end. This enabled the flow of milk to be constant, but more importantly it was the ease of cleaning that made these bottles such a great success. Many other similar designs were to follow, but such was the success of the Allenbury, the improved 1900 model sold well into the 1950's.The 1950's saw the introduction of the popular narrow neck heat resistant upright Pyrex models. The UK market did not see the wide neck versions until the 1960's, even though these had been available in the USA since the early 1920's. The wide neck bottles now come in a multitude of colours, sizes and models, with plastics replacing the glass.
Proprietary or artificial infant foods became available on a commercial basis, thanks to pioneering efforts of Justus von Liebig, who marketed his "perfect" infant food in 1867. His "formula" was a mixture of wheat flour, cow's milk and malt flour cooked with bicarbonate of potash to reduce the flour's acidity. It was first sold as a liquid but later marketed as an entirely farinaceous powder. "Patent" or "instant" baby foods manufactured by Nestle's and Horlick's contained dried cow's milk with starch or malt and Mellin's Food was made with desiccated malt extract. A final group of foods of pure cereal origin was represented by brands such as Imperial Grain, Eskay's Food, and Robinson's Patent Barley.
Medicine made strides that would have overwhelming effects on health and nutrition. Advances in bacteriology by Pasteur, Koch and their contemporaries made milk handling safer for infant consumption. Milk chemistry and modifications for its improved digestibility were studied . Meigs in Philadelphia and Biedert in Germany, in the 1890's, studied milk composition. Finklestein devised "protein milk," one with low fat, low carbohydrate and high protein, to "counteract with harmful effects of carbohydrate fermentation in the intestines." Czerny in Austria developed a butter-flour mixture because he felt infant diarrhea was due to fat intolerance.
The term "formula" was derived from Thomas Morgan Botch's approach to "percentage feeding." Complexity in formula construction reached its zenith. Careful attention was paid to exact percentages of fat, carbohydrate and protein. The protein was often split to alter the proportion of whey and casein. A common basic formula, at the time, at Infant's Hospital in Boston was 2-6-2, meaning 2% fat, 6% carbohydrate, and 2% protein. Dr. Lee Forest Hill commenting on his training in Boston said, "One of my duties was examining each day the stools of some 20 infants for neutral fat, fatty acids and soaps. Although I have long since abandoned using carbofuchsin and Sudan 111, nevertheless, I have never overcome the habit of visual and olfactory inspection of stools of sick infants -- "stool gazing" is the present term -- much to the amusement of my house staff." Indeed, pediatric texts of the era were never without several pictures of stool types, adding vivid color when available.
Best Of Luck
Posts
