The Great Canadian Invention Series: Pablum Baby Food or Cereal

Time to feed your baby solid food. What are you going to feed her or him? Or do you have any ideas for breakfast for babies. Let me give you one suggestion, how about baby pablum - another great Canadian invention. Did you also know that Bobby Orr, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Trudeau and Anne Murray had pablum baby cereal for breakfast when they were infants. Well, I did not. The pablum baby food story started with three doctors working at the SickKids Hospital at Toronto back in 1930s who were concerned about the nutritional value of baby's daily diet. Back then cereals were part of the baby's diet, but there was not enough vitamins and minerals to ensure healthy growth and development. First, the nutritional biscuit for children was invented which was fortified with vitamins. After intensive research and testing in that area this lead to invention of the pre-cooked highly in the nutritional value cereal called pablum. It was based on the wheat meal, oatmeal, cornmeal, wheat germ, bone meal, dried brewer's yeast and alfalfa, and so it is now.