A few weeks ago, I bought some parenting magazines from the 1950s. In a previous installment, I shared some baby-rearing advice found in those magazines. Today, I’ll share some baby products, including car seats, ’50s style!
A good portion of the magazine ads were for food. Carnation and Pet vied to be mothers’ choice for the evaporated milk used in making baby formula. Companies like Heinz, Libby’s, Gerber, Swift, and Beech-Nut advertised their delectable boxed and jarred baby food. (Liver and Bacon, anyone?)
There were lots of ads for diapers and detergent, too, of course. You know gDiapers, the cloth-disposable hybrid system available today? Yeah, that’s not a modern idea. In the ’50s, Playtex offered a system of flushable liners with reusable cloth covers:
Evenflo advertised artificial nipples that offered an even flow of milk, and long before they produced Sceneras, Cosco made really cool high chairs
(I want one so bad! Preferably in aqua.)
As promised, here are some car seats. They’re horrifying by today’s standards, of course, but keep in mind the point was just to keep the baby contained in the car, not to protect it in crashes. A lot of these served as multi-use chairs/beds for use outside the car as well:
Here’s an old-timey travel system!
Here’s a…thing…intended to keep your kid in bed, but great in the car, too!
Here are a couple “dedicated” car seats:
I hope you enjoyed the stroll down questionable-products lane! Stay tuned to CarseatBlog for my third and final “Lesson from the 1950s,” coming soon!
Car seats!? Of course, We stood up in the front seat in the 1950s! 1950s Baby Diary: http://www.amazon.com/1950s-Baby-Girl-Diary-ebook/dp/B00ATM3QZ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356747297&sr=1-1
You know what I find interesting, is that they viewed carseats as important for the purpose of containing baby even if they didn’t understand the safety perspective yet. How many people who don’t use carseats use the reason “he doesn’t like to be contained” and how often do you see toddlers just bouncing around the vehicle. Seems like the 50’s had more sense in that way at least than what some people have now…
I love it, too, but I want it just for decoration. Be VERY cautious using 60-year-old products for actual babies. They’re not likely to meet today’s safety standards. They could contain lead, be a fall hazard, tip hazard, laceration hazard, etc.
I so like this Cosco high chair. This will be great for my almost 2-year old baby….
Irishmama: Get pics!
I had a high chair very much like that one, in aqua! It was used for my older siblings in the 60’s, and my mom still had it when I was born. That thing was solid! I think my mom still has it.
why did they stop making drypers? seriously… this is such a cool idea and it should be more widely available and being from playtex, I bet it would be more affordable than the current ones.
Huh. Carseats with support feet. Wish that idea could come back (in this country, I know it’s not uncommon in some European countries, and its’ awesome).
That Cosco high chair looks very similar to the one my brother and I had (mid-late 1960’s) except ours was white with a turquoise blue snowflake like pattern on it.
That baby straight jacket for the bed just looks awful!
I have to laugh at the parenting advice given back then. I once found the little baby book my mom had for all my well baby visits and I remember there was something in there when I was two months old about starting me on orange juice (yikes!) and jarred baby meats!