Parenting advice is constantly changing in line with current medical advice and society's views on raising children.
?Thank goodness.
Looking back at advice from the past can make you realise just how ridiculous, and even dangerous, some of it was.
Click through to read some of the most bizarre tips given to new parents over the years.
Disclaimer: The following slides are NOT parenting advice, they are fragments of the past and should absolutely not be followed or taken seriously.
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A?s the popularity of apartment living swept through society in the 1930s, baby cages made their debut.
Yes, baby cages.
No bigger than an air conditioning unit, ?babies would literally be hung out the window "to air" in the sun allowing them to get much-needed air and vitamin D.
The bizarre trend was first mentioned in the 1890s by Dr Luther Emmett, in his book, The Care and Feeding of Children.
"Fresh air is required to renew and purify the blood, and this is just as necessary for health and growth as proper food," he wrote. "The appetite is improved, the digestion is better, the cheeks become red, and all signs of health are seen."
"That's crazy," said one mortified person when an image of the cage was shared to Twitter. ?
In a 1959 article from Best Wishes magazine, mothers were advised to "bathe the baby every day but in hot weather two or three times a day."
Fruit is an essential part of any diet, particularly for children.
However, a textbook of hygiene from the 1890s actually discouraged its consumption.
Parents were advised to keep apricots, peaches, plums, raisins, and cherries out of their children's diets at all costs. ?
Parental affection nourishes the bond between you and your child. It makes a child feel safe and valued.
However, a 1928 'parenting manual' ?advised that the best way to avoid raising "a little tyrant" was to "never hug or kiss your children."
The manual said if you must, kiss them once before bed and shake their hand in the morning.
Contrary to the previous advice of washing your baby three times a day, in the 1800s mothers were encouraged to bathe their newborns in lard.
The lard was supposedly able to rid a newborn of the 'cheesy-like' substance on their skin.
This substance has become to be known as vernix caseosa? or just vernix in the modern age.
At one point in time, it was recommended that a baby's head should point towards the North Pole when sleeping.
It was thought that it would help them align with the earth's magnetic energy.?
In the 1920s, some doctors recommended red wine as a tonic to placate restless children.
"I have used red wine as a tonic for weak children with amazing results. However, I instructed the parents not to let the children know that I was giving them wine, but call it red tonic," said one Dr. Lambert Ott in 1919 according to the New York Times.
Yes, really.?
A US government pamphlet from the 1930s stated that toilet training should begin at two months and that it was a key part of an infant's "character-building".
How was this achieved? By holding the baby over the toilet at the same time every day.?
In fact, some parents ?still follow this method today - known as elimination communication.
One enlightening parenting book from 1916, The Mother and Her Child, recommends that mothers undergo "a thorough cleansing of the nipple with soap and water", followed by "swabbing with boracic acid."
Following on from the stress of cleaning your nipples with acid, the same parenting book says that mothers who worry too much while lactating could make breast milk poisonous.
"If the mother worries greatly, or thoughtlessly gets very angry just before the nursing hour, it raises the blood pressure of the mother and often produces not only colic in the babe, but many times throws him into severe convulsions," the book states.
W?hen to start a baby on solid food has always been a contentious issue for parents.
However, one doctor cleared this up.
Walter Sackett, M.D., recommended in the 1960s? that babies could begin solids as quickly as two-days-old.
The doctor recommended starting newborns on cereals and then working their way up to vegetables.?