Hearth and Home: Infants, Birth Through 1.5 Years of Age

Abstract

This chapter examines the skeletal and historical evidence for the childhood experiences of infants. The focus in this chapter is on the structures of home and caregivers. A key topic for this age cohort is nutrition. Thus, access to food resources, weaning, and nutritional deficiencies are explored. Rates of rickets, scurvy, cranial lesions, and other pathologies are discussed. This chapter draws evidence for parenting trends from parenting manuals from the early nineteenth century. Causes of death from death records are examined in light of the historical literature as well. There are brief biographies from the historical records and osteobiographies from the skeletons that highlight the specific conditions and experiences detailed here.