On 1740s Cadogan became an honorary medical attendant of the London Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies. In 1748 Cadogan published his text An Essay upon Nursing and the Management of Children from their Birth to Three Years of Age based on his experiences with the foundlings and his own children comparing human infants to animal young.
Cadogan, in the 1740s, assumed a medical position at the London Foundling Hospital, where he cared for abandoned babies. He then wrote "An Essay upon Nursing and the Care of Young Children" in 1748, combining his knowledge of human infants with that of animal young.