STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

In Spain in the last third of the nineteenth century
and the first half of the twentieth century, the concern
to reduce infant mortality led to a health campaign to
deal with the problem. In turn, the campaign found its
professional expression in childcare. The regulation of
food for the very young was one of its aims. Childcare
discourse maintained its support for breast-feeding,
against all other options. Nevertheless, throughout the
first half of the twentieth century, in the special conditions
arising from the Civil War and post-war period,
there was a growing use of infant feeding formulas. This
article seeks to explore the process of their introduction
and the subsequent increase in the use of milk formulas
and “milk substitutes” in the Spain of the first third
of the twentieth century, with special emphasis on the
1920s and 1930s. It describes and analyses some of the
actors that played a part in the process.