A history of infant feeding.
The historical evolution of infant feeding includes wet nursing, the feeding bottle, and formula use. Before the invention of bottles and formula, wet nursing was the safest and most common alternative to the natural mother's breastmilk. Society's negative view of wet nursing, combined with improvements of the feeding bottle, the availability of animal's milk, and advances in formula development, gradually led to the substitution of artificial feeding for wet nursing. In addition, the advertising and safety of formula products increased their popularity and use among society. Currently, infant formula-feeding is widely practiced in the United States and appears to contribute to the development of several common childhood illnesses, including atopy, diabetes mellitus, and childhood obesity.
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Emily E
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EMILY E. STEVENS is a postdoctoral genetics fellow in the School of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her fellowship is focused on cleft lip and cleft palate genetics in relation to infant feeding. THELMA PATRICK is an associate professor in the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. She is a perinatal clinical nurse specialist with a program of research in reproductive health. RITA PICKLER is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Community Health Nursing in the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Her research is focused on feeding preterm infants and on improving health outcomes for preterm infants and their mothers.
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