I thought the duty of adjusting a baby’s nappy was pretty arduous, but recently I have been looking on the babies clothes from 300 years ago and i can solely conclude that kids and their carers these days have by no means had it so easy! Our stoic forebears didn’t have babygros with quick launch snappers or disposable nappies as an alternative they might wrap/swaddle their charge in up to 12 different layers of clothes. A activity made even more spectacular when you consider that it was all held in place with pins, there were no washing machines and soap was taxed as a luxurious!

Swaddling, the act of binding a baby’s physique tightly in a band of cloth has been round for 1000’s of years and has been utilized by people of various nationalities and socio-financial backgrounds. Mother and father and carers swaddled their youngsters for a variety of well being and security reasons. They believed that binding the baby’s limbs with a band of cloth to the physique would ensure that the limbs grew straight:

‘Infants are tender twigs and as you employ them, so they’ll grow straight or crooked’ (Jane Sharp, The Midwives’ Guide, 1671)

There was also much concern that infants have been more susceptible to the chilly and carers would dress the child with a plethora of layers. These layers included a rectangular formed clout or napkin (nappy). The nappy would be folded in two and inside they might put a bed of sphagnum moss or mushy rags to absorb the waste, which could then be rinsed out and reused. There could be a ‘bellyband’ or a binder which was a strip of linen cloth which could be wrapped across the baby’s stomach to assist the abdomen and protect the bellybutton. On high of that could be a front or again opening, linen shirt. On the baby’s head could be a triangular shaped cloth and one to 2 caps. The first cap was normally quite plain with the second being relatively extra decorative. Then a ‘bed’ which was a rectangular formed cloth with pleats at the highest, would be wrapped around the baby and folded over its feet. This could successfully make a tidy bundle of the child and hold down its limbs. Over this a three metre lengthy swaddleband (a band of linen) would be wrapped or swaddled around the little one in a variety of diagonal or herringbone patterns. A bib might then be added on top. The final layer was a ‘stayband’ whose operate was to maintain the top stable. This band was positioned below the cap and pinned to the clothes at shoulder degree. London physician, William Cadogan commented on the common concern about conserving infants heat in his groundbreaking ‘Essay upon nursing: and the management of children from their birth to three years of age’, revealed in 1748:

‘The firſt great Miſtake is, that they suppose a brand new-born Infant can’t be saved too warm; from this Prejudice they load and bind it with Flannels, Wrappers, Swaths, Stays, &c. generally called Cloaths; which all together are almoſt equal to its personal Weight.’ William Cadogan.

A swaddled youngster was rendered immobile, stopping it from roaming and presumably injuring itself. At this time, carers concern over children’s well being was substantiated with demise lists recording half of those who died were children beneath 5 years previous. Nonetheless Cadogan recognized that carers were really contributing to the excessive infant mortality charge by swaddling. There have been many advocates against swaddling together with John Locke who wrote in 1693 in ‘Some Ideas Regarding Education’ that children’s clothes should not be too heavy, tight or warm. Nevertheless it was the London-based mostly physician William Cadogan who supplied proof by his research with orphans at the London Foundling Hospital that kids who had been tightly swaddled had been a lot weaker than those who weren’t.

‘The Mother who has just a few Rags to cowl her Baby looſely, and little greater than her own Breaſt to feed it, ſees it healthy and ſtrong, and very ſoon able to ſhift for itſelf; while the puny Infect, the Heir and Hope of a wealthy Family lies languſhing below a Load of Finery, that overpowers his Limbs, abhorring and rejecting the Dainties he’s crammed with, until he dies a Sufferer to the miſtaken Care and Tenderneſs of his fond Mother.’ William Cadogan.

Cadogan used scientific gear akin to thermometers to show that babies have been hotter than their grownup counterparts and required much less layers:

‘It needs leſs Cloathing than a grown Perſon, in proportion; becauſe it is of course hotter, as seems by the Thermometer.’ William Cadogan.

He also advocated for children to be breastfed fairly than fed gruel, that they be modified recurrently and liberated from the confined of swaddling for the wholesome improvement of their bones, muscles and bowels:

‘Weight and Heat of theſe Swaddling-cloaths, they are placed on ſo tight, and the Little one is ſo cramp’d by them, that its Bowels have not Room, nor the Limbs any Liberty, to act and exert themſelves within the free eaſy manner they ought.’ William Cadogan.

Beneath the influence of Locke, Cadogan and later Jean-Jacque Rousseau the attitudes and practices of children’s clothes and care changed immeasurably. And by the end of 18th century in Britain the observe of swaddling had been abandoned for unfastened-fitting, lighter, wrapping gowns and frocks for all infants.

An essay upon nursing: and the administration of children, おくるみ from their delivery to a few years of age. By a physician. In a letter to one of many governors of the Foundling Hospital. Printed by order of the overall Committee … by Cadogan, William, 1711-1797. at http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/5515 by way of http://writersinspire.org/content material/essay-upon-nursing-management-youngsters-their-birth-three-years-age-physician-letter-one. Accessed on Saturday, March 12, 2016.