What did parents do at night with crying babies in the 1700s/1800s? (prior to popularity of sleep training)

by sewcrafty9

My husband and I are wondering about this, especially since we have a baby that doesn't sleep well and we have decided to not to sleep train her via cry it out (letting her cry herself to sleep).

With this question, we are thinking of working class/poor families, and thought they might rely on older siblings to soothe the babies at night (given they seemed to have larger families), or might have used alcohol or another folk remedy. We figured they didn't let them cry to sleep since they lived in smaller quarters? Chose the 1700s/1800s for this question because we are Jane Austen fans and that era comes to mind when I think of "olden times" :) Curious about other eras too but wanted to be specific in the question! Thank you!

According to several sources I have read, it was common to dip a rag (inlieu of a pacifier) or a piece of bread in alcohol (vodka) and give it to a fuzzing child, as it had a calming effect on them. However, most sources stating this are connected to temperance organisations that might have an agenda pointing out how horrible alcohol abuse is.

Nils Rosén von Rosenstein, a Swedish doctor, professor and Principal of Uppsala University took great interest in childcare and worked hard to list common child ailments and cures for them, as well as collect well-known wisdoms from midwives and priests and their wives (who often assisted in the parish with childbirth, ill children and childrearing) in a series of almanacks (small leaflets) that he published yewarly from 1753.

Among the advice in Rosén von Rosenstein's collected pamphlets, published as a book 1764 is an advice that the wetnurse (usually the mother) should be calm and patient, Ingen sinnesrörelse hafwer på barn så svår och bedröfwelig påwerkan som Ammans förargelse (No emotion have on a child so severe and deplorable effect as the wet-nurse's anger).

Rosén von Rosenstein also advices that mothers and wet-nurses should have access to proper food and in the latter case preferably be young and healthy, as it improves the health of the child.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find substantial data on what poor families did at home during this era - most literature concerns the upper classes. What I can find is scant and seem to indicate that a crying child that could not be soother immediately was given bread or a rag soaked in alcohol, allowed to cry him or herself to sleep or "walked", in which one of the parents would take the child in his or her arms and walk back and forth until the child was soothed and had fallen asleep.

Among the Swedish self-owning peasant class during this era, more than one room was common. You had a chamber for sleeping in, a kitchen or great room and perhaps a guest room or a vestible (I am not quite certain this is the right translation). A crying child could be brought to another room, and if people slept there they could move to the other room for a while.