History

The origins of “Consultorios de Niños de Pecho y Gota de Leche“ (English: surgeries for infants and milk drop) go way back to the 19^th century in France. There are to be found some important persons and moments.

The first known consultation for mothers is the „Hospital de la Caridad“ (hospital of charity) in Paris which was opened in 1892 by the Frenchman Pierre Budin. Additionally to this consultation, in which the weight of infants was controlled weekly and they were examined, Budin founded a school for mothers to teach them how to take care of a child.

Dr. Variot (professor of paediatrics in the hospital for children in Paris and person responsible for the health care centre for poor children in Belleville) established a medical praxis for infants medicating mothers who weren’t able to breastfeed their children and offering them artificial milk for breastfeeding.

Dr. León Dufour de Fecamp (also France) organized the „Gota de Leche“ (English: milk drop) to offer artificial nutrition which was paid by the mothers only if they could. The name “Gota de Leche” traces back to a poem written by the romantic poet Alfred de Musset (1810-1857).

Furthermore, it is proved that already in the 19^th century existed institutions in which milk was treatened by autoclave sterilizing it by a temperature of 105 to 115 degrees Celsius within 15 minutes.

It didn’t take long until also in Spain the first „Consultorio de Niños de Pecho y Gota de Leche“ was established. Rafael Ulecia y Cardona (1850-1912) opened the first one in Madrid the 22^nd of January 1904. To be well-informed about the medical praxis and the health care centre, he travelled to Budin and Belleville to be able to use the techniques of treating the cow milk (to make it suitable for infants) also in his institution in the future.

So it is Ulecia being the introducer of institutions like this which was also recognized in Brussels in 1907 during the first “International congress of Gota de Leche”, though there is also known Dr. Francisco Vidal Soares who had a medical praxis in Barcelona already in 1890  in which he examined infants gratis and distributed milk and flour to them as well as vegetables and bread to under thirteens.

The idea to create new „Consultorios de Niños de Pecho y Gota de Leche“ soon spread out to many other Spanish cities, like for example: Seville (1906), Bilbao (1906), Málaga (1906), Valladolid (1911), Granada (1916), Córdoba (1916), Salamanca (1919), Ciudad Real (1921) and Huelva (1922).