I’m involved in a local Native American community and one of the medicine elders I know often makes a sort of device for families with infant children, especially ones with colic or other sleep-disrupting conditions. It’s kind of a cradle-sling type thing you hang securely above your own bed; if kiddo’s crying but otherwise okay you can just reach up and rock them, and they’re otherwise within reach. I’ve seen replicas of the pre-contact version, and even made of birchbark and hung from the rafters of a lodge with sinew it’s evidently still quite sturdy and safe; like, you’d have to knock over the house for it to be an issue. These days, using modern materials, they’re even safer. So this goes back quite a long way.
I’m involved in a local Native American community and one of the medicine elders I know often makes a sort of device for families with infant children, especially ones with colic or other sleep-disrupting conditions. It’s kind of a cradle-sling type thing you hang securely above your own bed; if kiddo’s crying but otherwise okay you can just reach up and rock them, and they’re otherwise within reach. I’ve seen replicas of the pre-contact version, and even made of birchbark and hung from the rafters of a lodge with sinew it’s evidently still quite sturdy and safe; like, you’d have to knock over the house for it to be an issue. These days, using modern materials, they’re even safer. So this goes back quite a long way.