How now, how does the child...Unswaddle him, undoe his swaddling bands...wash him before me...Pull off his shirt, thou art pretty and fat my little darling...flea-bitten, for the black spots are there yet, is there any Fleas in your Chamber (Nurse)?...Now swaddle him again, but first put on his biggin (bonnet) and his little band with an edge, where is his little petticoat? Give him his coat of changeable taffeta and his satin sleeves. Where is his bib? Let him have his gathered apron with strings, and hand a Muckinder (handkerchief) to it. You need not yet give him his coral with the small gold chain (for teething) for I believe it is better to let him sleep until the afternoon.'
Peter Erondell In the Nursery, dialogue 5, quoted from M. St. Clare Byrne ed. The Elizabethan House discovered..., revised ed. 1930
When the child was born it was washed and generally oiled as a protection against the cold and rashes. Roesslin advised annointing with oil or acorns, Guillemeau with fresh butter, oil of roses or oil of nuts (Eucharius Roesslin, The Byrth of Mankynd, newly translated out of Latin by R. Jonas, 1540; Guillemeau, Childbirth or the happy delivery of women...2nd ed. 1635)
Rubbing with salt was also recommended. Oils and wine, which is antiseptic, were used on the baby's skin rather than water for the first few months, that is, if the child was in a well off family. Guillemeau advised bathing regularly in lukewarm water and wine.
Infants were then swaddled; wrapped from head to toe in bands of cloth. These, it was advised, should be changed often 'for the Piss and Dung'. Guillemeau says children were generally changed at 7am, noon and 7pm but advises doing it more often if necessary. It must have been tempting to leave the child as long as possible as swaddling was very time-consuming. Pictures of swaddled babies show them looking like little chrysalids. In the 16th century, under the influence of adult fashions, a small ruff was sometimes added.
There are very few descriptions of swaddling, probably because it was such a universal practise that it was assumed everyone knew how it was done. After the first few weeks the hands were freed and swaddling could be combined with other clothes.
At about four weeks according to Guillemeau 'He cannot well keep his hands swathed in, and hid any longer...Then must he have little sleeves...and then the Nurse shall begin to carry him abroad to sport and exercise him.'
Swaddling was probably primarily intended to keep the child warm, not easy when windows were still the 'wind's eye', being, mostly, closed with ill-fitting wooden shutters when they were closed at all. The peasant hovel might enjoy a primitive form of central heating when the cows were stabled at one end, but castles, Tudor stately homes and the homes of merchants and artisans must have been cold, draughty places in which to rear a young baby. Doctors also frequently warned of the danger of binding a child's limbs crooked:
'Furthermore when the infant is swaddled and laid in cradle, the nurse must give all diligence and heed that she bind every part right and in his due place and order, and that with all tenderness and gentle entreating and not crookedly and confusedly, the which must also be done oftentimes in the day: for in this it is as it is in young and tender imps, plants, and twigs, the which even as you bow them in their youth so will they evermore remain unto age. And even so the infant if it be bound and swaddled, the members lying right and straight, then shall it grow straight and upright, if it be crookedly handled it will grow likewise, and to the ill negligence of many nurses may be imputed the crookedness and deformity of many a man and woman...' (Roesslin The Byrth of Mankynde, 1540)
Roesslin's treatise, Rosengarten, was translated into English at The Byrth of Mankynde in 1540 and dedicated to Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. Maybe interest in child care was stimulated by Henry VIII's attempts to rear a son and heir.
Giraldus Cambrensis made some revealing remarks on the practises of the Irish in the 12th century which are worth quoting for the light they shed by implication on English practises:
'For appart from the nourishment with which they are sustained by their hard parents from dying altogether they are for the rest abandoned to ruthless nature. They are not put into cradles and swathed; nor are their tender limbs helped by frequent baths or formed by any useful art. The midwives do not use hot water to raise the nose or pres down the face or lengthen the legs...'
(Giraldus Cambrensis, The Topography of Ireland, Character and habits of the Irish, Chapter 10, quoted Lloyd deMause History of Childhood, 1974)
Another reason for swaddling may have been to keep the child quiet and immobile. Swaddled babies are more passive, sleep more and cry less. By the 16th century doctors were becoming concerned about this. Guillemeau recommended that until the child was two he should be allowed to sleep whenever he wished and till he was three or four should spend more time asleep than awake. But he should not sleep more than half the day or he would become dull.
At about one year the child was usually unswaddled completely.
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