Infant Food, Nestle's Lactogen
name: label: founder of the company
content: Nestle, Henri
label: retailer
content: Tupper's Pharmacy
label: maker
content: Nestle Company
notes: label: Description
content: This example of Nestle's Lactogen, a pediatric food product claiming to be "highly suitable for nursing mothers, convalescents and others in delicate health," was collected from the shelves of Tupper's Pharmacy, a neighborhood drugstore that existed in Summerville, S.C., from 1902 to 1977.
label: Description
content: Lactogen is manufactured by the Nestle Company, the Swiss firm founded by pharmacist Henri Nestle, inventor of the first fully artificial infant milk formula, "Farine Lactee." Farine Lactee, a malt- and cow milk-based product, was first introduced in the 1860s. It and other commercial pediatric formulas of the time attempted to reproduce the nutritional formula found in breast milk.
label: Description
content: Companies continued to try to create synthetics that more closely replicated human milk. Gerstenberger and Ruh introduced SMA (Synthetic Milk Adapted) in 1919; Nestle introduced Lactogen, and Franklin Foods, Similac, soon after. These new products gained the trust of the medical establishment, and the 1950s saw a sharp increase in infant formula use within the United States. Use of infant formula peaked within the 1970s, when approximately 75 percent of American newborns received formula instead of being breastfed. The reasons for this increase include successful marketing campaigns, including the provision of free products; mid-century consumer confidence in "scientific products"; the acceptance of infant formula's nutritional value by nurses and pediatricians; and the increase of women in the workforce.
label: Description
content: The use of infant formulas has decreased greatly in recent years; today only three out of ten newborns in the United States are given formula. This change is primarily due to more recent medical studies determining that while babies can thrive on formula, breast milk is superior, especially in that it strengthens the immune system. Nestle and other commercial infant food manufacturers have come under worldwide censure for the aggressive marketing of formulas within third-world countries.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Infant & Children's Products - Pediatrics
label: Subject
content: Dietary/ Nutritional Supplements & Reducing Aids
label: associated subject
content: Infant Feeding
label: associated subject
content: Infant Nutrition
label: associated subject
content: Infant Care
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mary E. and Joseph F. Melfi, Jr., Tupper's Drug Store, Summerville, South Carolina
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0698.135
label: accession number
content: 1980.0698
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0698.135
objectType: label: Object Name
content: infant food
label: Object Name
content: nutritional product
label: Other Terms
content: infant food; Food Supplements; Pharmaceuticals; Drugs; Non-Liquid
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: spray dried cows' milk (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: milk fat (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: milk proteins (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: milk sugar (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ash (mineral salts) (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron citrate (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/4 in x 4 3/8 in; 10.795 cm x 11.1125 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 cm x 11 cm; 4 5/16 in x 4 5/16 in