I just want to mention, after reading some of the postings on this topic, that
the idea of having a place to put the baby where you don't have to pick her up
and touch her all the time is *not* new.  Look at all the centuries' old
woodcuts, etc. of cottages with baby cradles.  You could rock those with your
foot while you were spinning with a non-treadle spinning wheel, or doing other
domestic chores.

I have even seen a reproduction of a cradle with a feeding horn (animal horn)
attached -- the original propped bottle.

I have just reread Lois Lenski's 'Indian Captive', a fictionalised account of
Mary Jemison, who was captured on the frontier as a girl in the 18th century by
the Seneca.  The drawings show, and text refers to, how Seneca babies were put
in the cradleboard and hung up while their mothers worked.  (Lenski's story is
felt to be closer to authentic Seneca practice than many of the Jemison
re-tellings).

Wouldn't it be great if baby buckets were a totally new thing?  Then we might
hope to wait long enough to see them flop.  Unfortuately, I think they, or the
other things which have filled their niche, have been around for some time.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN , UK

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