Mom didn’t breastfeed any of us,
so we were raised with formula. She says
I was a fussy baby. My stomach muscles
would cramp after each feeding, and I cried constantly. She didn’t know if it was because
of the milk substitute or from hunger, so after trying several different
formulas, our family doctor suggested evaporated milk. That went okay for a
while until someone accidentally fed me a bottle of it undiluted and I went
into convulsions. Next, he suggested goat’s milk, but she felt sorry for me and
that was that. In between all of these attempts she
would feed me rice water or oatmeal water, old remedies suggested by my
grandmothers. She started me on cow’s milk
early. I was close to my first birthday
and it was a little easier on my stomach than the others. Besides I was old
enough to supplement my nourishment through other foods. She continued to foist glasses of
milk on me throughout my childhood, and I refused to drink them unless they
were camouflaged with chocolate or str…