Who Was Dicky Domecon?

~ Laura

O. M. G. 

Beginning in the early 1900s, collegiate home economics programs across the nation included “practice house” programs designed to help female students learn “mothercraft,” the scientific art of childrearing. At Cornell each semester, eight women students lived with a resident advisor in the “practice apartment,” where they took turns performing a full range of homemaking activities in a scientific and cost-efficient manner.

In 1919, the first practice baby, named Dicky Domecon for “domestic economy,” came to Cornell. Cornell secured infants through area orphanages and child welfare associations. Babies were nurtured by the students according to strict schedules and guidelines, and after a year, they were available for adoption. Prospective adoptive parents in this era desired Domecon babies because they had been raised according to the most up-to-date scientific principles.

Published by Laura

6 thoughts on “Who Was Dicky Domecon?”

  1. Wow, this is fascinating. I wonder if follow-up studies were done with the “Domecon” kids. As awful as it sounds, I think this was a period where almost nothing was known about what was good for children – when were those studies where they checked to see if baby monkeys raised with a doll instead of a mother thrived as much? Maybe in the 40s or 50s? So I’m sure they thought it would actually work to care for a child this way. So sad.

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  2. There’s the comparison point — my guess is “scientifically” raised babies were probably being cared for more thoroughly than the orphanages of the time (which probably engaged in significant neglect).

    I think we don’t really know a lot about how to raise children even now, other than having parents who love them do the best they can. Substitutes for that basic human relationship seem to be fairly impossible to find.

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  3. Speaking of infant care practices, there’s a Texas case of a daycare owner who was doping babies with Benadryl. She got found out when one of the babies died of an overdose. The daycare had been open for a long time, too.

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