Every parent wants to keep their baby away from harmful chemicals and materials, which is why these wood cribs are so great. Your newborn will be able to snooze in style and comfort in one of these aesthetically attractive models. Coming in a variety of designs to suit any decor, some can also convert into toddler and teen beds, so you won't have to replace them for years.

Cribs are so strongly associated with raising babies that you'd think that they had been around since the dawn of time. However, cribs actually date back to only the 19th century C.E.

Before that, babies usually slept with their mothers. Bedrooms as we know them didn't really exist; most beds resembled the four-poster models we have today, with drapes around them to keep the heat in. The infant would usually sleep with her mother, while the lucky father slept in a completely different bed entirely.

The closest thing babies had to cribs were cradles and bassinets. Usually made to rock, their primary purpose was to keep the baby in one place and entertained while the mother performed her daily duties.

Adults began sleeping in iron beds in the 17th century C.E., mainly as a response to concerns about bug infestations. As you might expect, that concern extended to infant beds as well, leading to iron bassinets and bed with chain running along the sides. These beds were then painted white...using lead paint that babies loved to gnaw and nibble on. Listen, our ancestors weren't the brightest (probably because they ate lead paint as babies).

Lead paint poisoning would go a long way towards explaining another fad that came along just before cribs were widely adopted: baby cages. Don't worry, these aren't what you think they are, unless you think they're cages for babies.

Cages. For babies.

A doctor named Luther Emmett Holt wrote a book about the importance of "airing out" children in 1894. He believed that subjecting babies to the elements would toughen up their immune systems.

After WWII, a focus on baby safety led to the demise of baby cages, because apparently hanging a baby out a tall building and letting it soak up smog was undesirable. This led to an explosion in popularity for modern cribs — modern, that is, except for the safety features.

Up to 200 babies a year died as a result of unsafe crib features until the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission passed regulations concerning their build. Since then, deaths caused by faulty cribs have plummeted, with most of them caused by antique cribs still in use.

Today, cribs are found in just about every house with a newborn in them, and many homes have several, including pack-and-plays and other portable models. They're safer than they've ever been, and presumably more comfortable as well.

You have to add your own lead paint, though (don't do this).