Infant Care. In general, newborns and infants were recognized as especially vulnerable and in need of loving care. Writing around 1250, Bartholomew the Englishman said that if it is too hot or too cold when a baby comes from the womb into the air, the baby becomes miserable and cries. Following the advice of medical writers, he suggested that to cleanse the infant's limbs of their stickiness, they should be washed in rose petals pounded with salt and that the midwife should rub the child's gums and the roof of its mouth with honey to cleanse and soothe its mouth and stimulate the baby's appetite. He also advised that the infant should be bathed frequently and anointed all over with the soothing oil of myrtle or roses, and he warned that the newborn should lie in a...