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The Transition from Breast to Bottle in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century North America

Submitted by

Elizabeth Ping

Submitted to the Department of History

January 30, 2011

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social consequences families who chose this method of infant nutrition. In colonial America,

religion dictated that women who hired wet nurses were in disobedience with God because they

were essentially neglecting their children in favor for increased freedom.3 These religious

undertones carried through to the nineteenth century as wet nursing became viewed as a selfish

act which could potentially expose the infant to disease.

Women who conscientiously chose wet nurses in favor over feeding their own infants

using natural means did so in order to be able to resume sexual relations with their spouses who

were often socially proscribed during the period of lactation during this era, the perception of

increased social status, and alleviation of the never-ending duties of motherhood. Wet nursing

fell out favor for several reasons other reasons. Upper and middle class women often disliked the

expense and inconvenience of having a lactating woman in the home. Furthermore, the use of

formula became refuted as cheaper and superior to the milk provided by wet nurses and relieved

the mother of the possibility that her infant could contract a disease or character flaw by suckling

on another womans breasts. The risk of endowing the lowly character of the wet nurse onto the

baby was enough for many women to choose bottle feeding than to expose her child to traits of

the wet nurse who most certainly had to be worse than the traits of the wealthier mother.4 By

1920s, wet nursing had become nearly extinct of in the United States.5

Artificial Nutrition and Methods

3 Janet Golden, A Social History of Wet Nursing in America: From Breast to Bottle,

(Columbus: Ohio, Ohio State University, 2001), 12.4 Ibid., 74.5 Ibid., 179.

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It had been observed by the nineteenth century that proper infant feeding was critical to

the development and welfare of the child.6 Without the correct mix of nutrients, the rate of infant

morbidity and mortality increased dramatically. Accordingly, up to an appalling rate of 100

percent of infants at some foundling hospitals in America and Europe succumbed to inadequate

nutrition from hand-feeding efforts during the 1700 and 1800s.7 Recognizing that a relationship

existed between the approach to infant feeding and the wellbeing of the infant, Johann Simon,

made the first comparison between human and bovine milk using chemical analysis. Justus Von

Leibig would later confirm earlier findings that different foods provide varying quantities of fats,

carbohydrates, and proteins.

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He speculated that the human body needed these nutrients in

specific amounts, and these findings would later influence the commercial baby food industry to

decide what recipe or formula should be used for making artificial milk. Nestle became one of

the first successful manufactures of artificial milk in the 1860s and began widespread marketing

campaigns of their product which consisted of flour, cows milk, and sugar.9

Formula became the most perfect substitute for mothers milk, and with the

combination of the rubber nipple by Elijah Pratt in 1845, mothers had a viable new option for

feeding their infants.10 Nestle and other formula companies took advantage, and advertisements

endorsed the safeness and ease of bottle feeding. 11 In 1890, advancements in formula came

again when Thomas Rotch discovered that human milk varied according to the age of the infant

6 Michael Seear, An Introduction to International Health (Toronto, Ontario: Canadian

Scholars Press, 2007), 85.7

Jan Riordan, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Sudbury: MA, Jones and Bartlett,2005), 8.8 Richard Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of

Infant 54.9 Jan Riordan, 9.10 Mary Spaulding and Penny Welch, Nurturing Yesterdays Child: A Portrayal of the

Drake Collection of Paediatric History (Toronto: Ontario, Natural Heritage, 1994), 82.11 Jan Riordan, 9.

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and was in a state of constant transformation an understanding very different from the static

view of breast milk. This led to a more complex system of feeding that relied on frequent

composition changes in the formula. Ironically, the goal of the formula makers became to devise

a milk product identical to human milk while persuading women that bottle feeding was easier,

more luxurious, safe, and even healthier than breastfeeding and using wet nurses.

Scientific View

Before the invention of formula, the act of infant feeding was directly linked to the role

of motherhood because breastfeeding represented an act of biological necessity. A mothers

feeding choices were further influenced by the changing scientific view that inventions and

modernity were always better than nature. These views were endorsed by physicians who

reinforced these views with their patients.12 Artificial nutrition was no different from other

discoveries in the nineteenth century, and the pubic felt that formula was nutritionally better,

more sterile, and safer than human breast milk. Once a mother made the choice to exclusively

bottle feed her infant the relationship between physician and mother became more closely

intertwined. This was because mothers needed the direct guidance of physicians to recommend

feeding schedules and alterations in formula according to the health and development of the

individual baby.

By the early twentieth century, the scientific view of infant nutrition pervaded child

welfare education. Accordingly, mothers were encouraged to bottle feed their infants at least

once daily which served two purposes to make the eventual weaning process easier on mother

and baby and to afford the mother more freedom from her suckling infant. 13 This advice was

even given to mothers who had no apparent deficiency in the amount or quality of their breast

12 Ann Oakley, Essays on Women, Medicine, and Health (Oxford, Edinburgh University

Press, 1993), 131.

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milk. Likewise, those mothers who had difficulty with breastfeeding were given information of

formula feeding instead of trying to correct simple complications of breastfeeding first. Since

breastfeeding works by supply and demand (meaning the more that an infant suckles, the more

milk is produced), the less that an infant nurses resulted in more difficulties in breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding had been the mainstay of infant nutrition and well-being for centuries.

Today, initial breastfeeding rates are at an all-time low, and prolonged breastfeeding efforts

beyond the world health organizations recommendation that babies should be breastfeed until

two years of age is extremely rare in economically advanced countries.14 The historical

perspective of the transition from breast to bottle lends to new insights into how the current

maternal care of infants has been influenced by a decline in the use of wet nurses during the early

nineteenth century, the advancements in alternatives of nutrition for infants, and the scientific

view of the mothers role in the welfare of her child. By understanding the changing tides in

breastfeeding practice that have occurred, mothers can better evaluate the decision to either

breast or bottle feed their newborns.

13 Rima Apple, Mothers and Medicine: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890-1950,

(Madison: Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987) 109.14 Rebecca Black, The Support of Breastfeeding (Toronto: ON, Jones and Bartlett, 1990),

177.

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Bibliography

Apple, Rima. Mothers and Medicine: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890-1950. Madison:

University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Black, Rebecca. The Support of Breastfeeding. Toronto: Jones and Bartlett, 1990.

Golden, Janet. A Social History of Wet Nursing in America: From Breast to Bottle. Columbus:

Ohio State University, 2001.

Oakley, Ann. Essays on Women, Medicine, and Health. Oxford, Edinburgh University Press,

1993.

Riordan, Jan. Breastfeeding and Human Lactation. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett, 2005.

Seear, Michael. An Introduction to International Health. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press,

2007.

Spaulding, Mary and Penny Welch. Nurturing Yesterdays Child: A Portrayal of the Drake

Collection of Paediatric History. Toronto: Natural Heritage, 1994.

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