How does the concept of a wet nurse work? If continuously given a newborn while nursing a 2YO, does she continue to produce milk until there isn’t another baby?

Question

I also know that a nursing woman’s body can adapt the milk to provide for what the baby needs, but how does that work when the newborn needs a ton of stuff and the 2 year old needs something specific?

(I’ve been reading a lot of historical fiction lately)

In: Biology

Answer 1

The medical knowledge of 200+ years ago didn’t know that newborns and 2 year olds had specific different nutritional needs beyond the understanding that a newborn could only drink milk and a 2 year old is old enough to eat solid food and be weaned. Milk was milk. And nutritional science is mostly a 20th century science.