Baby checklist.
Binky.
Bottle.
Banana toothbrush.
Bib.
What is a baby cage?
Why did these baby cages exist?
And were they a good idea?
Emma Read’s 1922 patent for her version of a baby cage hints at its twin motives:
crowded cities and fresh air.
In both England and the United States, where baby cages were a fad, urbanization had accelerated.
In the United States, 20% of people lived in an urban area in 1860.
100 years later, it was more than 70%.
This was coupled with declining, but still high rates of tuberculosis.
TB, aka consumption, is best thought of as a lung disease.
On this 1901 map of Washington DC, every colored dot represents a death from tuberculosis.
By 1920, 100 of every 100,000 Americans were still dying from it.
Crowded cities and a disease of the lungs shared a possible treatment:
fresh air.
These schoolchildren are huddled in blankets because the windows are open.
It was for the fresh air.
A fresh air movement gained popularity in schools in the early 20th century,
Inspired by TB sanatoriums, where light and outdoor air were the best available treatment
for children and adults.
Fresh air soon became a recommendation for both TB and the cramped city quarters that
exacerbated the contagious disease.
It had become a panacea, with influential books that had whole chapters about “airing”
your child.
In the early 1900s, adults could air out at night with sleeping porches and indoor “bed tents"
that hung out of the windows.
It spread to babies - like the wealthy Bostonians who put babies on the roof.
And soon people used baby cages.
“Put your baby in a bird cage,” papers proclaimed, for the “open air and sunshine”
- in a world where “lawns and meadows” were scarce.
They stuck around until the middle of the century, when, fortunately, TB fatalities
fell further thanks to vaccines, new treatment, and better ventilation.
But those baby cages, they’re an understandable minor fad.
Parents wanted the best for their children, just like today.
Look at these toes.
Why should these beautiful toes only be allowed to wiggle in a stroller or a high chair?
Why not another place, in the fresh air, in a hanging cage, without supervision, while
cars rumble many stories below, supported by some thin wires and love, love, a love
every generation shares-- Yeah, just kidding, baby cages are — they’re bad.
It’s a bad idea.
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