Caring for Baby, Then and Now

You didn't have much choice (if you were not breastfeeding) of the type of baby bottle to use. I only remember two and that was just a difference in the size. Only one nipple choice. If the hole wasn't large enough then you heated a needle and opened it up until it worked properly. If you opened it up too much, you threw the nipple away. There was also not much of a choice for formula either. I can only remember one, but I could be wrong. You did have a choice of either powder or liquid. And as for sterilizing the bottles , caps and nipples you had a large pot with a basket inside which held the bottles upside down and a center chamber that held the caps and nipples. You just filled the pot to a level half way up the bottles and boiled it for XX number of minutes (sorry couldn't remember the number of minutes, been fifty plus years). You let it cool and then filled the clean bottles with formula. Certainly didn't have the choices that are available now.

Your only choice in diapers were cloth, which were washed and reused. If you could afford it there were diaper services available which picked up the dirty diapers and provided clean ones on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I could not afford such a service so I used a bucket filled with water and Clorox to hold the dirty diapers (and you made sure the bucket had a tight sealing cover to help with the smell). You then washed the dirty diapers, dried, and folded them for another use. And you used pins (large ones) to hold the diapers in place. You learned quickly how to protect your baby from getting stuck by one of the pins. Also, since the diapers were cloth, if you were concerned about getting clothing or other items wet, then you used plastic pants to cover the diapers to prevent that from happening. You also then had to wash these plastic pants before using again. And being plastic, they tended to get brittle fairly quickly. Disposable diapers were not available yet. But then too, you only had to buy the cloth diapers once and reused them over and over. You also used a diaper as a spit up cloth which you placed over your shoulder. And once they became too thin to use as a diaper, they made great dusting and polishing cloths.

I really don't know if there was much of a choice in the style of cribs available as we used the crib that my husband had used as an infant. It did have a drop-down side. Of course we needed to purchase a new mattress. We also used a crib bumper, which they now claim is not a safe item to use as it can strangle the baby if the baby should get caught between it and the crib slates. But it worked for us, none of my children had that problem. And we used that same crib for all three of my children.

Again, since we did not have a lot of money at the time, we did not have items such as a changing table or playpen. We did have a stroller which converted into a highchair, and a baby seat. There were not any laws at that time requiring that an infant or toddler had to be buckled into a child seat when in a vehicle. In fact, there were not even seat belts in our vehicles yet. We did have a baby carrier which was bulky and not easy to handle. It was long with two handles, one on each end that met in the middle and that is how you carried it. That is what we used when we took the baby in the car and as a portable crib. Which at that time there were no such things as a portable crib. Also, there were none of the many types of carriers that are available now. No one used a sling baby carrier either. Which is making a comeback now.

We did not have the jump seat swings that you can get now, nor any of the other self-entertaining type of play apparatuses available now. We had a wooden rocker in the shape of a swan, which the toddler could sit in and rock. We had a little 3 wheeled seat that the toddler could sit on and walk themselves around. We had one of those rocking, bouncing horses on springs, which I believe are still around today.

There were the usual baby rattles and teething rings that you could put into the freezer to provide a cooled teething ring for baby. I didn't have the multitude of mobiles available for the crib or carrier that are available now. Nor were there the educational toys that are now available, even for infants, let alone for a toddler.

You have to wonder, how did this generation and older generations ever turn out to be as intelligent and sufficient without all of these fancy new products that are currently available to help the child of today develop a higher IQ.

Now as far as diaper bags go, there was maybe two or three styles with a fair number of fabrics but again definitely not as many styles that are available now. Surely didn't have any that had a built-in changing pad. But we survived.

I'm sure I have not covered everything that is different between then and now, but hopefully I've covered enough to give an idea of the big difference and how it has changed to make it easier for parents now then it was back when my children were born.
There will be more articles on infants, breast or bottle feeding and other related topics to follow. So please keep an eye out for more of my articles.