edit: oh and congrats btw

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2928554&forum_id=2#28272769)

LMAO tragically accurate.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2928554&forum_id=2#28272861)

Quora User, I've had four, count 'em four

Quora User has 60+ answers in Babies.

Infants were quite probably seen as very precious to the clan as a whole, so the clan as a whole would do everything possible to insure the infant survived.

Likely, the new mother didn't leave the clan's shelter for a month or two; the needs of the infant would come first, and she would've been supported in this by her mate and family members. They would've brought her food and water, taken care of her need for fire and such, watching the infant for her when she took short hygienic trips to the latrine area. The infant would've been swaddled and probably cradle-boarded, or wrapped up in a carrying sling, never more than a squirm or two away from a breast full of milk. It is very likely any lactating woman in the clan would feed any infant- especially her own- but if a new mother was ill or unavailable for some reason, no infant would go hungry for lack of milk if there was a lactating woman available.

Later, when the infant was a few months old and starting to interact with his or her environment, other clan members who stayed in the shelter for whatever reason- age, infirmity, injury or other things to do within the shelter- would've watched the infant, rather than the mother carrying the infant along to gather or hunt. We see this in many other mammals' behaviour, especially wolves, where the "aunts" watch the pups in the litter while the hunters go after food.

It was likely the same with toddlers; such young children would stay behind with other, likely women, of the clan keeping an eye on them. Gathering is far harder work than most people think, and hunting is not only difficult, it is important enough that most primitive societies wove a spiritual ceremony around the age and idea a young person was now capable of hunting. Such a milestone became the ceremony showing passage from childhood to adulthood, and full membership in the clan or tribe. Children would've absorbed the strictures very young on their 'disrupting' a hunt and the loss of needed meat, and such strictures would have had a high price for breaking- a child would probably not even consider doing such a thing.

So, barring the odd pack of hyenas or a bear accidentally wandering into the clan's shelter area, children were likely safe from wild animals. And, because children were so necessary to the survival of the clan as a whole, the whole of the clan was always ready to see to it the child survived.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2928554&forum_id=2#28272891)