Imagine, you are a woman living in Victorian times. You have many responsibilities as a woman of means but the one which you find most difficult is looking after your husbands invalid mother. It's expected of a woman of your status to look after a sick relative, but she's so difficult! She wants to eat the rich foods which are served to the household, and can't stand the invalid foods which the doctor has advised are better for her. Thank goodness for the invalid feeding cup you picked up at the chemist - it makes feeding her so much easier, when she cooperates anyway!
When I took this invalid feeding cup to show the children they were both interested and slightly disgusted. They didn't mind the idea of looking after a sick relative and were really very interested in the importance of caring for relatives in the Victorian era. They were not impressed however by the standard of care! When I showed them the invalid feeding cup, they immediately asked what sort of food would be able to be consumed through the spout. They are used to nourishing soups and light meals of things like rice when they're sick. The idea of being fed beef tea, pap or gruel was not one which impressed them at all. In the Victorian times though, the suggestion that an invalid could cope with much more would have been ridiculous!
In Victorian times, illness was common, far more so than today. Many of the diseases which plagued the Victorians are curable or even rare in todays society, but in the past they were life threatening and many people died. Influenza (the flu), Scarlet Fever, Pneumonia and Tuberculosis were common and many households had at least one person sick most of the time. Although there were hospitals where people could be cared for when ill, these were mainly used by poor people. The wealthy could afford to have doctors visit regularly and sometimes even employed nurses to look after the ill.
Of course, medicine and the way which ill people were looked after was very different in the past to what it is today, and one of the biggest differences was in what ill people ate. It was believed that nourishing, filling foods would not only build the patients strength, but also the strength of the illness. Of course, today we know this isn't true, but at the time doctors recommended runny, thin foods which were easily digested. An invalid feeder was perfect for these sorts of foods and it was less messy than using a spoon. One of the most popular invalid foods was beef tea, where beef strips were boiled in water and then the water was given to the patient. The actual beef pieces were removed before the food was given to anyone who was ill. They would have been seen as much too filling and dangerous! Even the amounts fed to ill people were very small - the invalid feeder only holds about 125mls (1/4 of a cup). If you didn't die of disease, you could literally waste away from lack of food! If you would like to learn more about invalids in Victorian times, click here.