Pablum

Pablum is a processed cereal for infants originally marketed by the Mead Johnson Company in 1931. The trademarked name is a contracted form of the Latin word pabulum, meaning "foodstuff". The name is also used metaphorically, especially in literary criticism, to refer to something bland, unappetizing, or with little content value.

History

Pablum was developed by Canadian pediatricians Frederick Tisdall, Theodore Drake, and Alan Brown,^[1] in collaboration with nutrition laboratory technician Ruth Herbert (all of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto), along with Mead Johnson chemist Harry H. Engel.^[2] The cereal marked a breakthrough in nutritional science: it helped prevent rickets, a crippling childhood disease, by ensuring that children had sufficient vitamin D in their diet.

Although neither Pablum nor its biscuit predecessor ^[3] was the first food designed and sold specifically for babies, it was the first baby food to come precooked and thoroughly dried. The ease of preparation made Pablum successful in an era when infant malnutrition was still a major problem in industrialized countries.^{[citation needed]}

Pablum Mixed Cereal was made from a mixture of ground and precooked wheat (farina), oatmeal, yellow corn meal, bone meal, dried brewer's yeast, and powdered alfalfa leaf, fortified with reduced iron — providing an assortment of minerals and vitamins A, B₁, B₂, D, and E.^[1][4] Pablum is palatable and easily digested without causing side effects like diarrhea or constipation. It is also unlikely to cause allergic reactions,^{[citation needed]} as it does not contain eggs, lactose or nuts of any kind (although it may contain wheat and corn, either of which can be allergenic for some individuals).

For a period of 25 years, the Hospital for Sick Children and the Toronto Pediatric Foundation received a royalty on every package of Pablum sold. In 2005, the Pablum brand was acquired by the H. J. Heinz Company.

See also

• Baby food
• Infant formula
• Genericized trademark

References

External links

Look up pablum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Canadian Medicine: Doctors and Discoveries
• The Hospital for Sick Children