In addition, new mothers were told that they couldn’t have any negative or distressing thoughts so their milk didn’t dry up. They also thought that the mother having bad thoughts could give the child colic.

Quite simply, we were lacking in understanding and sometimes, that put our children in harm’s way.

There was also something else that was rather strange, and it got its start thanks to a book from 1896, Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. That book said that children should spend time outdoors because the fresh air would ‘renew and purify the blood.’

I think that all of us would agree that fresh air is good for children but parents begin taking this to the extreme. Children would be off on their own running around all day long without anyone to watch them.