When a baby doesnt take breast milk

I was just wondering back in the olden days before formula was invented for babies, and if the woman wasnt producing no milk or not enough milk, or the baby didnt like to suck from the nipple, how would the baby have survived?

a reply to: Marcus069

The child would either have a wet nurse*, orrrr just not survive. That's about it, I would imagine.

*

A wet nurse can help when a baby's natural mother is unable or chooses not to feed the infant. Before the development of baby formulas in the 20th century, when a mother was unable to breastfeed her baby, the baby's life was put in danger if a wet nurse was not available

a reply to: kaelci

oh a wet nurse, okay. How about way back in Bronze and Iron ages, there another woman from the same clan would help out?

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originally posted by: Marcus069
a reply to: kaelci

oh a wet nurse, okay. How about way back in Bronze and Iron ages, there another woman from the same clan would help out?

I imagine a high mortality rate in the bronze age. Don't know if they milked goats or cows for that matter back then as a poor substitute. Perhaps only the strongest survived.

Interesting question.

kind regards,

bally

Wet nurse or milk mother, was the only way to go before formula.

In small villages it was a real problem. In cities not so much as there were bound to be other mothers around and of course there was usually some kind of payment or other help given in return.

Of course the Titled Ones always had someone available because they owned the slaves or surfs.

P

a reply to: Marcus069

Depends on a lot of things. Upper class used to hire a wet nurse. If people had access to goat or buffalo milk, they fed that. Some mothers used cow milk and thinned it with water. Some fed their babies pap or pureed rice.

They did what they had to because the mortality rate of birth mothers was pretty high. And in poor areas, if they didn't find some substitute the babies wouldn't make it, because a starving mother cannot produce adequate milk.

None of these things are much different today, really. There are still wet nurses. Some babies cannot tolerate formula at all and have to be fed goat milk. That happened to my brother. But now, babies get either formula or breast milk til they're a year old...in earlier times, they were weaned once they got teeth.

I think a baby not taking to the nip is actually quite rare though. It may seem less rare than it is when living in a world where other easier or convenient options are available.

In the past, if the baby didn't take the milk, you shoved the tit in it's mouth until it did!!

Wet nurses. There was always a woman who could feed a baby.

But to be honest, a baby that never got a rubber nipple wouldn't reject the breast. And without substitute sustenance the baby would try very hard to get milk and usually that alone will bring more milk on . It's a demand system.
Unfortunately infants were lost but if mama had a real problem some kind of bottle was implemented. And they were given cows milk.

Here's a brief history of the bottle which goes back to ancient times.

Obviously we've all walked the floor with a crying infant all the way back to the beginning.

www.alimentarium.org...

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

Yes. The breast is harder to get milk from and baby has to work for the milk where a bottle feeds fast and easy.
Moms, if you want to succeed don't give the baby a bottle ...ever.. it will indeed make them reject the breast.
My oldest never drank from a bottle. .
Number 2 and number 3 did because I had a business to run but even they had only breast milk for the first four months.

You do need to be consuming water or liquids all day long. Way more than you would normally drink.

a reply to: tigertatzen

I remember the teeth and each kid testing their strength on my boob.
Babies get teeth at three to four months so I don't think the breast feeding ended when teeth came in.
Children were usually nursed until age two. It was a natural form of birth control. Exclusively breast feeding almost always keeps a woman from ovulating.

My first is on the way learning all about this stuff now!

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

Here's some advice from a first time breast feeding mom...don't seek advice on the internet. Also, when you're in the hospital realize that every nurse you see will have slightly different training when it comes to breastfeeding, they'll tell you some contradictory things. If you need help, go see the lactation consultant.

Milk mothers were women who fed all the babies because she could. Some women feed babies for so long that they don't stop producing milk for years, even after their own children no longer need it. A wet nurse does the same job, though more exclusively. A milk mother may feed her baby and a couple of others from the village (for example), whereas a wet nurse may be employed by nobility to only feed their child/ren.

This wasn't the norm though, and even in the times you're thinking, it would very much be a case of feed or die. Not every town or village had feeding mothers, or even women who were capable of wet nursing.

We know today that animal milk is bad for babies because they're unable to digest some of the proteins within it, and some babies cannot tolerate milk at all. We're lucky enough that we live in a time where formula substitutes can be nutritious, though they lack the antibodies passed from mother to baby which would also help with survival rates.