On wet-nursing, fosterage and the age at which fosterage began in medieval Ireland

Abstract Fosterage was widely practised in Ireland in the Middle Ages. It even survived in some form in certain parts of the country into the nineteenth century. The institution was highly regulated in the medieval period. It is the purpose of this article to consider the nature of fosterage and the role of the foster mother. Central to a better understanding of childcare arrangements at the time, and to the bonds which developed from them, are the questions of the age at which fosterage began and of whether or not wet-nursing commonly occurred. It will be argued that custody of infants from a very early age was much more common than has often been supposed and that wet nurses were frequently necessary, and well respected, participants in the upbringing of foster children.