What would you think of a woman who locks a small child in a cage suspended from the wall of an apartment building?
Crazy? An irresponsible mother? Need to revoke parental rights? But the Englishwomen of the XX century would strongly disagree with you!
It all started with Luther Emmett Holt's book Nursing and Feeding Children, published in 1884.
In it, a practicing pediatrician wrote about the importance of “airing” children.
This book was a collection of tips for mothers in caring for children. In addition to the chapters on feeding, bathing, and weaning, Holt included an Air section on the benefits of fresh air on babies.
He also argued that such hardening would make the child hardy and less prone to infections and diseases. And, as studies later confirmed, these conclusions were not unfounded.
So what were the baby cells like? These were real mesh cages suspended from multi-storey buildings, just like, for example, an air conditioner for a window block.
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Cells, invented in 1922 in the United States, have become wildly popular among London mothers. After all, they allowed the child to breathe fresh air without having to go down with a stroller and go to the nearest park!
The cages had a sloping roof that protected the babies from rain and snow. The inside of the cells, as a rule, was lined with soft cloth, or a basket was placed there, in which the baby slept. An older child was handed several toys to play with while the parents were busy with their own business.
Similar cells could be seen at a height of more than 10 stories. Probably, more than one generation of people grew up in London who were not at all afraid of heights!
The popularity of baby cages did not begin to decline until the late 20th century, when societal views on child safety began to change.
But believe it or not, for the entire time this strange invention has been used, there has not been a single report of injury or death associated with these cells.
