In his Adults and Children in the Roman Empire (1989), Thomas Wiedemann remarks on the difference between pagan and Christian conceptions of infant death: “For the pagan, premature death was a disaster because the child’s life was wasted; for Augustine, a child who died prematurely might have had as complete a life as a centenarian.  He compares life-spans with musical intervals, or the hairs on one’s head.  Some are short, some are long, both may be perfect and complete . . . . The very vocabulary used by Augustine to talk about children shows that his contemporaries no longer saw them as a separate age grade, but as persons who happened to be younger than adults.”

He also notes the recognition of children in the sacramental life of the church:

“By the fourth century AD, many churches, both Latin and Greek, incorporated children into the religious community as soon after birth as was practicable.  This was at odds with the very obvious fact that babies and toddlers could not be thought to have accepted divine salvation in the same way as adults.  Baptism could not serve a Christian society as a ritual symbolizing the progression from child to adult, leading to full participation in in the community of adults.  For the Christian, every baptised infant already belonged as completely as an adult.”

And this from Robert Jenson: “The separation of baptism and first communion lacks all justification, and can only be regarded as a catastrophic deprivation, both of the baptized children and of the communing congregation.  Whatever arguments could disqualify persons of such-and-such an age or attainments from the Supper would disqualify them also from baptism.  Moreover, there can be no such arguments; for while there are indeed considerations that tell directly against infant baptism, i the nature of the case there can be nothing against infant communion.  The one thing we do well at any age is to participate in fellowship by accepting nourishment.”