Baby Formula

Infant formula is a modern artificial substitute for human breast milk. Formulas are designed for infant consumption, and are usually based on either cow milk or soy milk. more...

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Modern scientific research has established that breastfed babies have lower rates of medical problems and hospital admissions, and most major medial and health organizations strongly advocate breastfeeding over the use of infant formula except in unusual circumstances.

History of Formula

Early Infant Foods

Throughout history, mothers who could not (or chose not to) breastfeed their babies either employed the use of a wet nurse or, less frequently, prepared food for their baby, a process known as "dry nursing." Baby food composition varied according to region and economic status.. In Europe and America during the early 19th century, the prevalence of wet nursing began to decrease, while the practice of feeding babies mixtures based on animal milk rose in popularity.

This trend was driven both by cultural changes as well as increased sanitation measures, and it continued throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century, with a notable increase after Elijah Pratt invented and patented the India-rubber nipple in 1845. As early as 1846, scientists and nutritionists noted an increase in medical problems and infant mortality was associated with dry nursing. In an attempt to improve the quality of manufactured baby foods, in 1867, Justus von Liebig developed the world's first commercial infant formula, Liebig's Soluble Food for Babies. The success of this product quickly gave rise to competitors such as Mellin's Inftant Food, Ridge's Food for Infants and Nestle's Milk.

Raw Milk Formulas

As physicians became increasingly concerned about the quality of such foods, medical recommendations such as Thomas Morgan Rotch's "percentage method" (published in 1890) began to be distributed, and gained widespread popularity by 1907. These complex formulas recommended that parents mix cow's milk, water, cream, and sugar or honey in specific ratios to achieve the nutritional balance believed to approximate human milk reformulated in such a way as to accommodate the believed digestive capability of the infant.

Read more at Wikipedia.org