Video: La Leche League - 50th Anniversary

"We weren't gonna be organized as an international organization. We were going to be helping our friends and the people in our community."
Marian Tompson, LLL Founding Mother.

(Thanks to Dave at www.rattlingthekettle.com)

The theory and practice of infant feeding: with notes on development.

"It has often been stated that an artificial food for infants should contain nothing that is not found in mother's milk, and that it should contain just what is found in other's milk. To prove the suitability of various substitutes for mother's milk chemical analyses of both have been published, to show how closesly the substitutes approximate mother's milk. At first sight this seems a rational procedure, but when it is remembered that there is no difference between a diamond and a piece of charcoal chemically, and that mixtres of butter, cheese, sugar, salts, and water, or of beef set, raw beef, sugar, salts, and water can be made which when analyzed by the usual methods will show the same composition as mother's milk, the fallacy of judging the suitability of a food for an infant, or for an adult for that matter, by its chemical analysis only will be aparrent. Physiological chemistry has not advanced sufficiently to make it a safe guide by itself." (pp 6-7)

The theory and practice of infant feeding: with notes on development.
Chapin, Henry Dwight, 1857-1942.
Wood,
New York :
1902.
http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;idno=4273407

Am J Clin Nutr. 1987 Jul;46(1 Suppl):168-70.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/46/1/168 (free full text)

History of infant feeding practices.

Barness LA.

Human milk was the one successful infant food until the advent of scientific pediatrics, the invention of electric refrigeration, and the development of formulas containing the major nutrients in concentrations similar to human milk. Infants apparently thrive on artificial formulas but the current formulas represent only a stage in the journey to optimal nutrition for infants. Better analyses of the composition of human milk are likely to lead to an improved understanding of the infant's nutritional requirements and thus to better feeding practices.

PIP: Human milk was the 1 successful infant food until the advent of scientific pediatrics, the intervention of electric refrigeration, and development of formulas containing the major nutrients in concentrations similar to human milk. Improvements such as modification of protein by heat or lactc acid to improve digestibility, and development of dextri-maltose as an energy source had a large impact on quality of formulas. Direct advertising of new products and formulas to physicians probably influenced use of formulas. Infants apparently thrive on artificial formulas but the current formulas represent only a stage in the journey to optimal nutrition for infants. Better analyses of the composition of human milk are likely to lead to improved understanding of the infants nutritional requirements and thus to better feeding practices.

PMID: 3300255

Baby Bottle Museum

This picture as well as other interesting articles about infant feeders can be found at http://www.babybottle-museum.co.uk/