Feeding Babies in the Battle to Combat Infant Mortality a Century Ago *

Abstract

At the end of the nineteenth century Glasgow, like many large industrial European cities, had an infant mortality rate (IMR) of well over 100 deaths per 1000 live births. Recognition that ‘improper feeding’ was a significant factor in accounting for this prompted public health authorities to establish infant milk depots, to support breast-feeding mothers and to provide artificial milk feeds for their babies if necessary. The initiative was led by the medical officer of health of Glasgow, Archibald Chalmers, who promoted welfare services for mothers and infants during the first decade of the 20th century. However these initiatives were questioned by an up-and-coming paediatrician, Leonard Findlay, who was to go on to be Glasgow's first professor of medical paediatrics in 1924. Nevertheless IMRs started to go down from 1900 and have continued steadily ever since; and while artificial infant milks clearly posed a risk to the health of babies, attention to infant nutrition, growth and feeding may have played a part in initiating and perpetuating this decline in IMR and improving infant survival and welfare during the last century.