Baby Food: Milk, Industrialization, and Ideology

Changing practices of infant feeding were brought about in part by industrialization, which led to innovations in the mass production and distribution of canned goods. Industrialization also led to a rise in the number of women in the workforce, including mothers of young children and infants. By the late nineteenth century, the growth in advertising, made possible by increased circulation of books, newspapers, and magazines, helped promote the rapid introduction of new food products to the American consumer.