18th Century Childcare and William Cadogan

History Today (Dec 2006) had an interesting article on childcare in the 18th Century. Link to it here

William Cadogan wrote 'An Essay upon Nursing and the Management of Children' in 1748. It was in advance of Rousseau's modern theories. He suggested babies should be breast fed from birth preferably by the mother and he denied that this might damage the shape of the breast. He believed that children should not be feed on demand and should be fed simple food, dressed in light clothing and played with in a robust way with lots of tumbles and tossing. He was against swaddling and believed the baby's arms should be left free.

He was in favour of a scientific approach and therefore decried traditional female approaches to childbirth. Otherwise his ideas were modern and progressive.

keyword= medical history

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