I feel like any time I read a wikipedia page about some historical figure born around then they always are described as "sickly" in their childhood. Like fuck, weren't there any health kids back then running around with those hoops and the stick or singing creepy songs in fields and... idk whatever the fuck else kids did back then, commune with black goats who send them on wicked errands to corrupt their soul to the dark prince?
my guess is that most historical figures that we have records of were complete nerds and grew up in relative privilege
sickly kids were probably everywhere since that could mean anything, but a lot of kids died, but the ones who survived and weren't subject to field labor got to end up historical figures
Marx was a sickly child and sickly adult who had horrifying boils all over his skin