Raising children in Europe in the Middle Ages?

Question

This question might be a little broad, but I would like to know about child rearing practices in Mediaeval Europe. To narrow this down, the time and place that I am *particularly* interested in are those regions that today comprise France and Germany, and specifically from the 11th century onwards. The sorts of questions that I am interested in concern: 1. How involved were men in the raising of children? 2. Did people co-sleep, or place babies in separate cribs? 3. Did babies wear some kind of napkin to catch their excrement? 4. How frequently were babies washed? (I know that people in general didn't wash frequently, but adults are better adept at keeping themselves reasonably clean) 5. Were babies carried throughout the day or were they left to play? What sorts of toys did they play with? And probably a dozen other questions of that nature. General information about this would be interesting, even if it doesn't address the five questions above.

Answer 1

This is an excellent article on Childhood in the Middle Ages, though not specific to the care of babies.

https://www.medievalists.net/2018/11/childhood-middle-ages/

There are also a number of good books on childhood in the Middle Ages, aside from the regular descriptions of the so-called "Child's Crusade" of 1212, which unfortunately resulted in many of the children being sold into slavery in North Africa rather than taken by ship to the Holy Land.

The best source I have found for specifics on children in the Middle Ages, (which you'll want to get from your library) is Childhood in the Middle Ages, by Shulamith Shahar, which goes into great detail on each social class's care and treatment of children from birth to adulthood.

I'm sorry I can't go into more detail to answer your specific questions as it is not my specialty (that is working women in the same time period), but Ms. Shahar's book covers everything you asked.