Baby foods have been traced by a cultural historian named Amy Bentley in a new book that aimed to trace how Americans fed their infants.
Bentley is a mom of three and is an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. Her book is entitled: "Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health and the Industrialization of the American Diet" has been published by the University of California Press.
First, she talked about what families did before commercial baby food was introduced. She said that before the 20th century, the age that an infant was fed solid food was at nine to twelve months. And in the 1950s and 1960s, people feed their children four to six weeks after birth while today, parents feed solid food to their children at four to six months.
According to Bentley, there has been the speculation that infants should not be fed with fruits and vegetables until the baby reaches the age of two as there has been distrust over these kinds of food that has started back in the medieval period.
As for her stand in commercialized baby food, she noted that she is not against it but she thinks that her book is a story of the industrialization of food in the United States. She noted that the industrialization notes that there is a stable supply and it creates low cost.
The baby foods are said to provide convenience to mothers as it gives them mobility and allow women to be able to go to work.
When asked about how commercialized baby food impacted the palates of generations who first started using it, Bentley pressed that the food processing has changed the flavor as well as the vitamin content. Meaning, infants learn through taste as everything has a flavor such as breast milk and other foods.
However, due to the increased sugar or salt content in children's food, it then limits the development of their palate as well as the education of a child.
The mother-consumer relationship was also discussed and Bentley noted that the mother's job to nurture actually is intertwined with the consumer. Basically, a part of a mother's job is to purchase products for her baby or for her family in general.
As for today, the baby food industry has again evolved as more companies try to make organic food that contains new foods and flavors.
