Inventing Baby Food
– Amy Bentley
2014
This fascinating historical account explores how commercial baby food emerged in the 20th century and reshaped cultural expectations around infant feeding. Amy Bentley traces the shift from homemade, responsive feeding to industrialised convenience, examining how marketing, gender roles, and medicalisation influenced what — and how — babies are fed.
Why It’s Included:
This book offers essential context for understanding how feeding norms were constructed — and how they continue to affect parents today. It aligns with our philosophy by encouraging critical thinking about food culture, feeding timelines, and the loss of traditional knowledge in infant care. Bentley helps us unpack where our assumptions come from.
Who It’s For:
Ideal for anyone interested in the history of infant feeding, food culture, or public health. A valuable resource for breastfeeding advocates, weaning educators, and those navigating the transition to solids with a reflective, informed lens.
“Reading this book made me angry. The manipulation of parents a hundred years ago, all in the name of profits and consumerism continues unchecked. Creating a product which didn’t exist and then tapping into parental insecurities to market it is sadly a model which continues to effectively increase the profits of multi-national corporations and decrease the health and safety of infants and young children. Amy Bentley has presented the problem which society needs to recognise and act upon”
Further Reading:
– The Politics of Breastfeeding – Gabrielle Palmer
– Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives – Stuart-Macadam & Dettwyler
