Childhood in History

  • 2000 BCE

    2000 B.C

    2000 B.C
    Cow's and goat's milk was used to feed babies when was available. Sometimes the baby was even placed directly on the teat of the animal to suckle.
  • 1700 BCE

    Babylonian

    Babylonian
    The sale of children was legal in Babylonian times. Another practice was the use of children as collateral for debts.
  • 400 BCE

    Physical prohibitions

    After being freed from the diaper, physical prohibitions began (depended on the culture and the time). Sometimes children were tied to chairs to prevent them from crawling and try to walk.
  • Period: 400 BCE to

    Diaper Use

    The Romans began the use of diapers,and they were removed between 40 and 60 days. This practice prevailed until the Middle Ages.
  • Period: 400 BCE to

    Children as Sevants

    Children have always been a kind of servants and always in the care of adults in many ways. Since Roman times, children served their parents at the table, and in the Middle Ages all children (except royalty) were taken as servants.
  • 350

    Infanticide

    Infanticide
    infanticide of legitimate and illegitimate children was a common practice in the past.
    Until the IV neither the law nor public opinion found infanticide wrong in Greece or Rome.
  • 374

    Infanticide is law in Greece and Rome

    the IV was a real change in the law, the infanticide became evident. The law began to consider the murder of an infant only in 374 AD.
  • 787

    First asylum for children

    First asylum for children
    Dateo of Milan founded the first asylum solely for abandoned children.
  • 1200

    Middle Ages

    Middle Ages
    People thought the babies were about to become in something totally evil. That was one of the reasons they were tied or swaddled for so long and so tightly.
  • 1200

    Middle Ages

    Due to the projections created in society, it was thought that if a child cried or demanded a lot, it was because he was a spawn of the devil. Also, if a baby cried, it was a synonym of sin.
  • XVII

    XVII
    Society creates various methods of control and they were used by parents throughout the centuries. Like ghost stories that were meant to scare children to stop doing what they were doing. It was a type of control to keep them still and quiet.
  • XVII

    XVII
    A very common practice at this time was for babies to be sent to another family to be raised until they were 17 years old and then returned to the parents.
  • XVIII

    XVIII
    The struggle between parents and children for control of urine and stool in childhood. Typically, children were given suppositories, enemas and oral purges in both health and sickness. Because their feces were thought to be proof of the evil within them.
  • Period: to

    XVIII

    The average child of wealthy parents spent his early years in the home of a wet nurse, returned home to the care of other servants, and was sent to school at age seven, so the amount of time parents spent raising their children was minimal.
  • Jean Paul Richter.

    Jean Paul Richter.
    One of the first advocates for children in 19th century Germany was Jean Paul Richter.
    In his book Levanna, he exposed that those parents who kept children in order with images of terror eventually became victims of insanity.
  • Period: to

    XIX Physical prohibitions

    19th century, ropes were tied to children's clothing to control and balance them. Corsets and girdles of bone, wood or iron were often used for both sexes
  • Freud

    Freud
    He was one of the authors who explained the role and importance of childhood, and how there are psychological factors that influence the growth and development of the child.
  • XX

    XX
    Today many of the practices have changed. The infant is seen and treated as a human being. Their rights are asserted, providing them with all the necessary resources to develop optimally and live their childhood in a healthy way.