Better babies: social engineering for ‘a better nation, a better world’

Across the United States in the 1910s thousands of parents entered their children in the widely popular Better Babies contests. During the competitions, physicians and other health professionals examined and scored children for their bodily measurements, and physical and mental development. The baby with the highest score won. These contests not only served as a means of identifying children with previously unknown health conditions, but also taught mothers that through scientific care they could make their children into standardized babies, and therefore productive citizens of the future.