Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet

California Studies in Food and Culture #51

by Amy Bentley

Food consumption is a significant and complex social activity—and what a society chooses to feed its children reveals much about its tastes and ideas regarding health. In this groundbreaking historical work, Amy Bentley explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care. Until the late nineteenth century, infants were almost exclusively fed breast milk. But over the course of a few short decades, Americans began feeding their babies formula and solid foods, frequently as early as a few weeks after birth. By the 1950s, commercial baby food had become emblematic of all things modern in postwar America. Little jars of baby food were thought to resolve a multitude of problems in the domestic they reduced parental anxieties about nutrition and health; they made caretakers feel empowered; and they offered women entering the workforce an irresistible convenience. But these baby food products laden with sugar, salt, and starch also became a gateway to the industrialized diet that blossomed during this period. Today, baby food continues to be shaped by medical, commercial, and parenting trends. Baby food producers now contend with health and nutrition problems as well as the rise of alternative food movements. All of this matters because, as the author suggests, it’s during infancy that American palates become acclimated to tastes and textures, including those of highly processed, minimally nutritious, and calorie-dense industrial food products.

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, American History, Research, Food History

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 19, 2014

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun history lesson! Bentley details how baby food changed over time, from a novelty with the onset of canning in the early 1900s, to the rejection in the counterculture of the 70s, to the modern era and the rise of homemade baby food.
It was interesting to hear the social elements that come with such a fraught topic as how to raise one's children - something we are generally discouraged from foisting upon others. The teeter-totter of mother knows best, to trusting companies because they're the professionals and regulated, to the reveals of chemical seepage or simplicity of the ingredients; who knew there was such contention around when to start your baby on solid food, or what kind? Though maybe I just don't have that view as a male.
Another element I hadn't considered was the cultural aspect, how breastfeeding was scorned as simplistic during the rise of "modern, civilized society;" perhaps unsurprising in retrospect, but nonetheless fascinating. We so quickly abandon the methods that we have used for hundreds or thousands of years once something new and technologically advanced comes along.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well researched and well presented in a balanced manner. Totally legible and applicable to Families expecting or currently having babies. It was an accessible and enjoyable read as well.

A few quotes from the book that sum up the topics covered:


"Inventing Baby Food, then, tells for the first time the story of the industrialization of baby food in the United States, in the hopes that an in- depth historical examination of the subject will reveal, among other things, how the interaction between culture and science has created different standards and practices of infant feeding at various points in time."

"Thus the overall focus and argument of Inventing Baby Food— that the creation and industrialization of baby food in the twentieth century played a central role in shaping American food preferences— consists of three central components. First, while mothers and health professionals alike in the early to mid- twentieth century welcomed commercially mass- produced baby food as a convenient, affordable way to provide more fruits and vegetables year- round to American babies, the creation and marketing of baby food helped spur the introduction of solid foods into babies’ diets at increasingly early ages...Second, as these chapters suggest, early consumption of commercial baby food may have helped to prime Americans’ palates for the highly processed industrialized products that have contributed to our health problems today...Third, the book documents and analyzes the shifting notions of what it means to be a good mother, particularly the anxiety inherent in the responsibility to adequately feed one’s infant."

"At base, infants are incredibly resilient creatures and it’s hard to inflict serious damage on a baby as long as you feed him or her sufficiently and provide care, protection, and love."

[Chloe A-L · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is engaging (if repetitive at times) and the early sections of this book, talking about attitudes and production of baby food in the 1920s through the 1960s are genuinely incredibly interesting and tracks so much information that's difficult to access as a layperson, but the later chapters of this book are entirely bogged down with fearmongering about "obesity", and even references famously debunked documentary Super Size Me as if it's a reliable resource. It's also short to the point of feeling a bit bare bones. I'm honestly quite disappointed, this topic is fascinating and I wish the book had better served it.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. I would love to see an updated version with more information about baby-lead weaning. I also hoped to get more of the history of pre-20th century baby feeding practices than was included, but still found the information that was included to be fascinating.

[Adrienne Bitar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, smart, and thoughtful book that opens up the world of motherhood, nutrition, and gender into the larger field of 20th century American history.

[Shahna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for school.

meep

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for class, it was fine but not great. A good introduction to the industrialization North American diets.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a succinct, fascinating history of American baby food.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history

[Leena Saini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful! Well-researched and fascinating read.