baby-slings-msg - 2/2/01 Making and using a period baby sling to carry your baby. NOTE: See also the files: babies-msg, baby-gifts-msg, child-wagons-msg, teething-toys-msg, toys-msg, Toys-in-th-MA-art, clothing-MN-msg, children-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ From: mugjf at uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Gwyndlyn J Ferguson) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Babies at War...info on care?? Date: 29 Apr 1995 18:30:48 GMT Organization: Educational Computing Network : : plan on having some type of "period" stroller--a wooden wagon, : : maybe--with a canope. Will that do? : I used a sling and carried Amber, when Dady didn't have her. Those slings, if in a non-"pastel baby nightmare" design look mighty like the picture I have here in front of me. First half thirteenth century, by Mathew Paris, St Christopher carryining the infant Christ (actually looks more like the toddler christ) in a shoulder sling. I danced for joy when I saw that, because it's period to the persona of my friend who will also be bringing a small baby to War this year. BTW, she plans on using a "pack-n-play" playpen for a camping crib, with plenty of blankets in the bottom. It's hidden in the tent, so who cares how it looks, there's no fear of rolling over on the baby, and no worry about him falling out of bed either. -- *Gwyn Ferguson***Western Illinois University *SCA: Lady Gwyndlyn Caer Vyrddin***Lochmorrow-Midrealm *Internet: mugjf at bgu.edu Date: Wed, 20 Mar 96 19:46:22 GMT From: SPIS & NZ Science Monthly Newgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Baby slings -- construction For those of you who would like to construct a baby sling for transportation of newborns-3-yr-olds, here are the instructions. I'm posting this following various requests from a comment on useful things for new parents: Baby slings are not the same as medical slings! Baby slings are readily available here from chemists (er..drugstores in your vocab I think) and craft outlets -- you could check out your variant of Plunket (do you guys have a national agency responsible for helping out new parents, antenatal and postnatal? hmm, maybe not). Try baby sewing books at the library (you do still have libraries??) Lessee, the slings are made out of any closely woven fabric. Cotton is fine (period style colours and patterns make it useful for SCA events -- fluoro pink looks OK but won't go down well in enchanted ground!). Something that's strong enough to bear weight without ripping, but soft enough to drape reasonably well. The slings are basically a rectangle: about one metre wide and 2 metres long. Cut two and sew together for extra strength, hem. One end is pleated and sewn flat (pleats about 5cm wide; sew it down in a square shape at the end so it's sturdy). The other end is looped through two rings (the ones I have are large wooden curtain rings (internal diameter 5cm) and pulled about 30 cm. It's then laid out flat on the main piece and sewn across. To make things more comfortable and to help keep the rings at the end, you can put a rectangle/ellipse of light foam inside the space between the two layers of fabric (the fabric will bunch up around the rings, but there's usually room to manoeuvre). That's it! To use the sling, the pleated end is passed through, under and over the rings. That should be enough to hold it. You then sling it across your shoulder. Adjusting the tightness affects how much cavity you have in front of you to fit your baby in. I've found that it's most comfortable when you fan the material across your back so that your whole back and shoulder are sharing the load -- letting the material bunch up into a slide piece is a bit hard on the collarbone after a while. Experiment. You can carry a newborn or even a three-year-old in this. The newborn will lie tucked right up inside, keeps them warm and makes it easy to breastfeed with no-one the wiser; a 12-month-old will enjoy sitting up facing away from you with their feet tucked in; a 3-year-old can have his/her bottom supported by the sling with their legs outside it. People really do a double-take when they see a sling, but they can see how comfy the baby is and how convenient it is to have both hands free. katherine kerr from the far-off southern reaches of Caid ============================================================================== Vicki Hyde, South Pacific Information Services Ltd, Christchurch, NZ From: Margaret Griffith Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Baby slings -- construction Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 10:40:49 -0800 Organization: University of Washington On Wed, 20 Mar 1996, SPIS & NZ Science Monthly wrote: > For those of you who would like to construct a baby sling for transportation > of newborns-3-yr-olds, here are the instructions. I'm posting this following > various requests from a comment on useful things for new parents: Just one word of warning on an otherwise excellent post - don't wait until you get to an SCA event to try out the sling for the first time. Also, if you intend to use a sling for your toddler, start when he/she is a baby - otherwise the child may very well rebel against this unfamiliar form of transportation. Meg From: Wayne Anderson Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Period Toys (Re: babies and smalls at events) Date: 15 May 1996 02:31:01 GMT For parents of small babies, the best piece of equipment is a sling type carrier. You can buy one at a baby store for about $40, or, as I did, go to the store, try one on, see how it's made and go home and make one in SCA appropriate fabric. A sling has a more period feel to it than a back pack, and is more comfortable for parents and babies. It's also very easy to nurse discreetly in the sling, at least with a very small baby. One baby book claims that a sling is useful till the child is three, but they haven't met my 40 pound two-year-old. Maudelyn of Bryn Aur From: savaskan Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Garb suggestions for nursing mother (long response) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 21:57:23 -0800 Organization: Savaskan Anatolians koala at bright.net wrote: > A Very Highly Recommended item which I found immensely useful, whether I was > breastfeeding at the moment or not, is a sling. Find one in a not-too-modern > fabric and it serves very nicely as baby carrier and breastfeeding cover-up. I made one out of a sheer cotton gauze. I just knotted the ends of the fabric to size and it worked great on hot days. Most of the commercial slings are too many layers of material for hot summer days, IMHO. Juliana Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 07:59:07 +0100 From: "Melanie Wilson" To: Subject: Re: baby sling/holder I used a large piece of cloth which when the babies were small I put one end over my shoulder , the other round my waist tied at the back, this held them until they could hold their heads up. Then I changed it so they sat on my bum tied the cloth under their bum & round my waist then either over or under my bust, used up to 4 years old so far Mel Edited by Mark S. Harris baby-slings-msg 4