In pursuit of a few consecutive hours of sleep, modern parents have been criticised for drugging their lively offspring with melatonin, antihistamines, cough medicine and a full range of ‘natural’ remedies. This is nothing new. More than 100 years ago, the most popular sleep drug was Godfrey’s Cordial. Young children who won’t sleep are not a new phenomenon; […]
History of parenting
Weird and wonderful gems of parenting advice from the 1860s
We like to think we’ve improved on our collective knowledge of all things parenting over the past few centuries. In the past 150 years some parenting advice has improved vastly. Other vintage parenting advice is still thoroughly sound. Take a trip back through time – this is the kind of unhelpful parenting advice your great-great-great-great-great-grandmother would […]
When did parenting become a science?
I don’t remember much about my first few mothers’ group meetings. I juggled a baby who fed every two hours, protested loudly when tired but refused to sleep, the painful healing wounds of a 24-hour labour and emergency caesarean and an overwhelming anxiety that I was doing it all wrong. The main message I remember […]
Baby Incubators: Coney Island’s Longest Running Sideshow
It’s 17 July 1901. You’ve given birth to tiny triplets. Together your three baby daughters weigh as much as one healthy baby. The doctors tell you there’s a 97 per cent chance they’ll die. Unless you take them to the local Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. I’m sorry, WHAT? Take ’em down to the Expo, pop them […]
‘Parents these days’ are judged too harshly
By John Pickering, The University of Queensland I need to start with a confession: I’m not a parent. I am someone who investigates how science can help parents deal with the sleepless nights, the fussy eaters, the sibling rivalry, the intrusive in-laws, and a career that favours fulltime hours. I certainly don’t know what […]
Breast may be best but at least bottles won’t kill your baby these days
There is evidence that fifty-four per cent of babies who are bottle fed die. Oh wait, no, that was seventeenth century Britain. Research indicates that out of 132 orphans who were bottle fed, only five survived. Um, no, that was eighteenth century France. Oh, that’s right, this is the year 2013. Feeding babies properly manufactured and prepared […]