History Professor Dismantles Notion That All Babies Ate Breastmilk Before Modern Baby Formula Was Invented

You may be hearing the argument that before the rise of modern commercial infant formula, babies all ate breastmilk and everything was great. As a historian of infant feeding, let me tell you why that\u2019s not true.

— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312425

Sometimes baby was unable to breastfeed. Because: poor latch, prematurity, cleft palate, other health or disability reasons, etc.

— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312499

In early modern Europe, babies often ate pap or panada, mixtures of animal milk or water, bread crumbs or flour. Sometimes these were boiled, sometimes they weren\u2019t.

— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312830

Let me repeat that: in the absence of modern formula, A LOT OF BABIES DIED OF ILLNESS OR STARVATION DUE TO LACK OF SAFE OR ADEQUATE FOOD.

— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312900

Of course! More people would be able to breastfeed if they had access to things like paid parental leave, free lactation consultants and breastfeeding education, access to pumping rooms and the right to breastfeed in public...you get the picture.

— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Carla Cevasco, PhD) 1652312996

I do think that American women and their baby's are at a huge disadvantage with breastfeeding because of the prehistoric parental leave policies of the country they live in. It's a lot easier to breastfeed when you don't work the day after delivery! Fed is best, regardless.

— Leslie Miikal (@Leslie Miikal) 1652327162

Thank you for this thread. I\u2019m due in July and very anxious about breastfeeding/pumping because I know how hard it can be. It\u2019s a lot of work. I also have to go back to work 6 weeks after so I\u2019m worried I won\u2019t be able to keep it up for long.

— Jordan Riffle (@Jordan Riffle) 1652332103

I\u2019m just here to be the mom that says I chose to formula-feed because I wanted to. That\u2019s it. \n\nI have empathy for those who had awful reasons why they HAD to formula-feed but I want to remove the shame. Period.\n\nMoms: you can use formula just because you want to.

— kristy (@kristy) 1652317875

Also, it's constantly forgotten, but some birthing parents straight up don't habe breast milk, or not enough to feed their child. It happens.

— And-ersson\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83d\udcce\ud83c\udf3b (@And-ersson\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83d\udcce\ud83c\udf3b) 1652314483

It astounds me how many people don't get that the answer to "What did people in the past do?" is "They died". It's that simple, people died so we invented ways so they wouldn't die.

— Laura Carr (@Laura Carr) 1652322830

I couldn\u2019t produce breast milk. My baby starved because over zealous women made me feel like I was a garbage mother.

— Rita Powell (@Rita Powell) 1652326089

Thank you for a fascinating thread. I note the almost complete lack of recognition of women, upon whose Labour your work is based. Why is that?

— Elizabeth (@Elizabeth) 1652357786

And the argument is irrelevant, regardless.\n\nIf a woman chooses to bottle feed, her milk dries up. Any time past a couple of weeks, and there isn't a choice to bottle or breast feed. It's bottle or nothing.

— Laurie Rodriguez (@Laurie Rodriguez) 1652317239

I\u2019m thinking when most people read \u201ca lot of babies died\u201d it really doesn\u2019t hit them what this actually means. In my parent\u2019s generation it was really odd to find a family who had not lost any children, most did. My parent\u2019s firstborn did not survive birth. Go walk old graveyards

— TK-Squared, LLC \ud83e\udde2 (@TK-Squared, LLC \ud83e\udde2) 1652322679