| Despite recent detractors, there can be no doubt | | | | approach to "percentage feeding." He coined the |
| that baby milk formula has saved countless lives over | | | | term when he was trying to devise the best mix of |
| the years. The first successful milk formula was | | | | the various constituents that make up baby formula. |
| produced in the 1860s by Henri Nestle, in Switzerland. | | | | A common basic formula, at the time, at Infant's |
| It was based on cows' milk and cereals and was the | | | | Hospital in Boston was 2-6-2, meaning 2% fat, 6% |
| first scientific attempt to imitate breast milk.It isn't | | | | carbohydrate, and 2% protein. During the twentieth |
| just in modern times that some mothers have | | | | century many commercial companies have strived to |
| difficulty is producing enough breast milk to feed their | | | | improv milk formula. Franklin Infant Food introduced, |
| baby: t has always been a problem and remains so. | | | | in 1923, was a powdered formulation, later to be |
| This inability to produce breast milk is more prevalent | | | | called Similac. Enfamil, by Mead Johnson, was a |
| in mothers who themselves have poor diets and is a | | | | latecomer in 1959, but the company, established in |
| major problem for mothers living in grinding poverty. | | | | 1905, and pioneered vitamin research in the 1920's |
| It was whilst visiting mothers living in poverty and | | | | with the first cod liver oil of standardized potency in |
| children in orphanages that Henri Nestle first | | | | 1924 and pure solution of Vitamin D in 1929.There has |
| determined to come up with substitute to breast | | | | been much controversy with formula milk in recent |
| milk. He eventually came up with a concoction he | | | | years. Slick advertising campaigns led to many millions |
| called farine lactee, based, as he put it, on | | | | of women feeding their children formula rather than |
| "wholesome Swiss milk and a cereal component | | | | breast milk. Whilst the negative effects in the West |
| baked by a special process of my invention". In 1867, | | | | have been minimal (if at all any) the same can't be |
| he fed this to a premature baby boy whose mother | | | | said for mothers in the Third World who bottle-feed |
| was dangerously ill herself; the boy survived, and | | | | their babies. The lack of basic safe, clean water has |
| Nestle's reputation skyrocketed. Nestle's major | | | | led to the deaths of millions of children who were fed |
| strength wasn't invention, he was an extremely good | | | | contaminated formula milk. Despite many campaigns, |
| marketer, and within 5 years he was selling he had | | | | the practice of dumping milk formula on the |
| offices in London, and was exporting formula to | | | | developing world appears to be an ongoing |
| South America and Australia.Nestle was not the only | | | | problem.The history of bottle formula milk is not very |
| manufacturer of formula milk. Others included Justus | | | | old and the take up by millions of women all over the |
| von Liebig, Horlicks and Mellins Foods. The success of | | | | world has been staggering. It is also a controversial |
| formula milk based on sows' milk owes everything to | | | | history and its future seems set to be one of |
| the massive strides in bacteriology made by the like | | | | controversy.Robin O'Brien is a successfully |
| of Louis Pasteur and others who made the handling | | | | webmaster and founder of He provides help, support |
| of milk far safer than it had been before.The term | | | | and bottle feeding tips that you can research at your |
| 'formula' is derived from Thomas Morgan Botch's | | | | leisure on his website. |