>
>
>Hi Jeanette:
>
>This was done in Britain during World War II, with National Dried Milk
>provided free to mothers.


Virgina, had to respond to this one! National dried milk - began in 
WW2 as you say - was made for the government by infant food 
manufacturers. This link shows that manufacturers were concerned 
about the market share of their proprietary milks if too many women 
used NDM:
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1940/sep/05/national-dried-milk

Note National Dried Milk  was available only to infants over the age 
of 12 months at that time.  I am not sure when it became available to 
younger babies.

This milk continued to be produced until the 1970s when it was 
withdrawn.  There was a 'milk scare' about the safety of NDM and 
other 'non-humanised milks' which I can vaguely remember, though it 
was years before I had my own babies.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/20408862

>   While done with the best will in the world, other
>authors have found that it actually resulted in more mothers turning to
>artificial feeding - to use something free that was *endorsed* by the
>*government*.  The implication, at least as seen by some of the mothers, was
>that it must be better.


I think the reasons why mothers used NDM are complex. Something 
provided by the government is often seen as inferior - I remember 
'National Health specs', which were the 2 styles of 'government' 
spectacles available for kids when I was growing up (pink owlish 
frames for girls, blue owlish frames for boys) in the 1950s and 1960s 
and how my parents did really not want to burden my spec-needing 
brothers with these obvious signs of being strapped for cash, and so 
they paid for private frames.

Is there good evidence that women who used NDM (as opposed to 
breastfeeding) really factored in the idea that it had to be better 
'cos of being state-supplied?

There is no prospect of a return to non-branded formula milk in the 
UK, but I would welcome it, because the product could at least be 
marketed ethically.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 

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