Round paper cylinder container (a) with removable lid (b) with blue paper label covering all container; label provides details about the composition or ingredients, analysis, food value and instructions for preparing as a food source for infant and sick or elderly persons.
Round paper cylinder container (a) with removable lid (b) with blue paper label covering all container; label provides details about the composition or ingredients, analysis, food value and instructions for preparing as a food source for infant and sick or elderly persons.
Printed on front label: "1 LB. 2 OZ. NET (510 GM.) // REPLACE LID - KEEP IN COOL DRY PLACE // PABLUM // CANAD. PAT. NO. 346,700 (1934) T. M. REG. CANAD. PAT OFF. // A thoroughly cooked and dried palatable mixed cereal // food, with vitamin B complex and mineral supplements // Pablum consists of wheatmeal (farina), oatmeal, wheat germ, yellow cornmeal, powdered beef bone specially prepared for // human use, sodium chloride, powdered alfalfa leaf, powdered // yeast and reduced iron. It is thoroguhly cooked under pressure // and dried, with resultant rupture for the starch granules and some dextrinization. Pablum is an excellent source of the vita- // B complex and supplies nutritionally important minerals // (iron, copper, calcium and phosphorus). It is readily digested, // low in crude fiber, palatable, and convenient and // economical to prepare. // REQUIRES NO COOKING // MEAD JOHNSON & COMPANY // OF CANADA, LIMITED // BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO // LOT NO 12122 // SERVAMUS FIDEM"; on back panel: "TO PREPARE PABLUM // For Infants // For Persons of Other Ages // (full instruction in both English and French) // Formula devised in the Research Laboratories // of the Department of Paediatrics, University // of Toronto. Regularly tested by Paediatic // Research Foundation of Toronto."
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-A1-1
Length
a - 19.7 cm
Depth
b - 1.7 cm
Diameter
a - 12.7 cm
b - 12.8 cm
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Condition Remarks
Paper torn at edge of lid to container with ragged edges, all pieces intack; surface grime
Copy Type
original
Reference Types
Internet
Reference Comments
Wikipedia
Research Facts
Pablum was developed by Canadian pediatricians Frederick Tisdall, Theodore Drake, and Alan Brown, 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. 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 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.
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. Pablum is palatable and easily digested without causing side effects like diarrhea or constipation. It is also unlikely to cause allergic reactions, as it does not contain eggs, lactose or nuts of any kind (although it does 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.
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, which means "foodstuff". The name had long been used in botany and medicine to refer to nutrition or substances of which the nutritive elements are passively absorbed.
The word can also refer to something that is bland, mushy, unappetizing, or infantile.