Panic over formula shortage

[Della]

I'm a little surprised at all the brouhaha around the baby formula scarcity. When I had my baby 42 years ago, they urged "breast feed, breast feed, breast feed". Are they still not urging mothers to breast feed their babies? That was supposed to be the most natural, greastest act a mother could do for her baby. And she was supposed to do this for months if not for years. How many babies out there aren't getting breast fed now?

I've been trying to find recent stats on that and all that seems sure is that the percentage of breast feeding mothers went way down the past couple of years. Go figure.

I had my son 54 years ago today and the hospital told me I was the first breast feeder they had had in thirty years. (That tells you how many babies were raised on that Karo syrup formula) My baby book had about twenty pages of instructions on how to make formula at home and one paragraph about breast feeding, saying that it was best for baby, and that's all I needed to know. I didn't understand the reluctance then and I don't now.

 

[JaniceM]

I've been trying to find recent stats on that and all that seems sure is that the percentage of breast feeding mothers went way down the past couple of years. Go figure.

I had my son 54 years ago today and the hospital told me I was the first breast feeder they had had in thirty years. (That tells you how many babies were raised on that Karo syrup formula) My baby book had about twenty pages of instructions on how to make formula at home and one paragraph about breast feeding, saying that it was best for baby, and that's all I needed to know. I didn't understand the reluctance then and I don't now.

I'm always surprised to read so many references to the homemade formula that was made with Karo syrup and evaporated milk, because I'd been told the reason it'd been given to me was because I was a low-birthweight baby (just a shade over 5 pounds). So it surprises me to hear it was a widely-popular formula.

On a side note, for years when I was a child we used Karo syrup as pancake syrup.. I would not mind never seeing that again!!

 

[mrstime]

I was cleaning out some really old boxes in my garage last night and found my baby information and that is exactly what they had my mom feed me. Sounds so unhealthy to feed karo syrup, but I guess we all survived it.

It was actually very little Karo, it was added to keep babies from getting constipated.