To Nurse the Young: Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding in Late Imperial China

Abstract

The article concerns breastfeeding and infant feeding in late imperial China, as described in medical texts and family records. Special instructions on nursing appeared in Chinese medical writings from the tenth century on as pediatrics became a medical profession. Instructions changed over time, as did the notion of human milk itself. Advice dealt with how best to select a wetnurse and with how and when to provide solid foods as a complementary and supplementary infant diet. Practical examples from medical case records, and biographical and family documents, reveal people's real experience with breastfeeding and infant feeding.