Does anyone know where or from whom I could purchase a new Indian cradle board?

-- TIFFANI (CAPPELLO@ALLTEL.NET), December 03, 2001

Answers

Tiffani, are you near any of the indian reservations?

Here's what's on eBay.com

Indian Cradle Board

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001.

EBay item #1039537585 plus there are several others, just search 'cradle board'. You could probably make a decent version if you study the pic's.

-- Kathy (catfish201@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

There's an indian museum in NH, called Kearsa(r)ge Indian Museum, I saw them for sale there about 2 years ago.

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), December 03, 2001.

Tiffani, you didn't say why you want this. If it's for a baby, I'd like to pointout that using a cradle board caused the childe to have a flattened head in the back. Perhaps nowdays there is some way to pad it sufficiently to prevent this. If you just want it for display, never mind! :-)

-- Joy F (S.Central Wisc) (CatFlunky@excite.com), December 03, 2001.

=== If it's for a baby, I'd like to pointout that using a cradle board caused the childe to have a flattened head in the back. ===

That's what's happening to all the babies heads that are put to sleep on their backs. Then they put those weird helmets on their heads in an attempt to re-shape them.

I would never put an infant to sleep on its back. They can drown if they spit up. Each time I put them down, on their belly, I alternate putting their head at each end of the bed. The purpose? When they lay on their belly, one eye is visible, and the eyes don't develop properly if the same eye is always out.

I just don't feel there's a great enough chance of the babies getting s.i.d.s to take the chance of putting them on their backs.

If the Indian cradle is used like our plastic carriers, the babies aren't spending all their time in it, just to carry when they leave home. The Indians padded the cradle, so it's really not much different than what we use. Altho, I've seen folks leave the babies in those plastic carriers most of the day; could also be flattening the kid's head!

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), December 04, 2001.

Yes, I did want the cradleboard for my baby. I do want a new one though - as I cannot be assured that an old one would be sturdy enough. Maybe someone knows where I could get plans to build one. I think I would need actual plans or instructions.

I have a South American Indian baby sling but they are not practicle for the kind of work I do around this place - plus they are terribly uncomfortable on the shoulders. I live in a rural area where you cannot walk safely on the side of the road (55 mph). Having a cradle board would enable me to walk on more rugged terrain where a stroller would be impracticle. However, the collectors ones I have seen can be 3 or 4 hundred dollars. I was hoping to find a Native American woman who makes them for practical use and would be willing to make me one. I have tried e-mailing some reservations but have gotton no response as of yet.

I am often fascinated with the practical things that were invented in days gone by to make the "simple life" a little simpler -- contrasted with so many of the modern inventions that appear to simplify our lives but only end up complicating them in the end.

-- TIFFANI (CAPPELLO@ALLTEL.NET), December 04, 2001.

ARRRGH! "I just don't feel there's a great enough chance of the babies getting s.i.d.s to take the chance of putting them on their backs. " YOU ARE KIDDING RIGHT! ,ooops, i'll calm down now...

Whaddaya mean "you feel"? Please go read again about the 40% & up drop in sudden infant death syndrom[sids]. Or do you belive this drop in infant deaths is due to Barney being on TV!?!

Babies do not choke on 'spit up' If you spend any time around newborns you will be amazed at what they can spit up & out, even after the doc has cleared the airways by suction!

The flat spots on babies heads comes from an individuals bone softness, neck strength & interest in turning their heads. Not to mention the variables of how much time is spent AWAKE on the belly, upright or held in each day.

Most babies do not develop a flat spot on their head, but most do get a bald spot for a short period of time. It is a rare case that the bone does not return to a normal shape by schoolage. Remember the the 'soft spot',fontenel lines do not close until the child is at least 15!

The latest info on sids is about the child getting to warm or drugged by cigaret smoke so that they fall into too deep sleep & the heart stops beating. Sids is not suffication, that is a seperate cause of death that the coronor will list.

Ms. cappello, studies have shown that infants kept swaddled, as is the custom of many cultures, will indeed catch up to free moving babies in motor control quickly, but have you tried any of the 'gerry' or other back packs?

The slings are only for people w/ no neck problems! Or do not have a homestead w/ animals & such on it to take care of!

The backpacks might be more mentaly stimulating for your child & help provide the skin to skin contact that infants need to thrive. wal mart sells them for under 45.$ and ebay always has a few on from 5- 150.$s.

Enjoy your tiny tot they grow so fast!

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), December 04, 2001.

Tiffani, my daughter and son-in-law just made a cradle board from a "nesting" program they were in. I'm sure I could get some instructions for you.

-- Jean in No. WI (jat@ncis.net), December 04, 2001.

I had enough kids to know they do spit up whether on their backs or bellies. And I'm not convinced about this s.i.d.s thing, as I know of no one who was ever associated with it. In fact, I don't know anyone personally who bought into the idea of putting the infants to bed on their backs. The kids are growing up just fine.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), December 05, 2001.

I agree with you rogo. Sids is not a proven disease and I know lots of babies with misshappen heads. They are as flat as a pancake on the back with no hair. Personally I feel that if your childs hair is rubbing off it might be time to pick them up some more. Saying a baby died from Sudden infant death is like saying abouta grown man "oh he died from sudden adult death" Kinda vague, I believe. I mean something causes it but the scientists havent convinced me that they know what it is yet.

-- renabeth (renabeth@yahoo.com), December 05, 2001.

Uh, sids is not and has not ever been classified as a disease.

" Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the "sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including performance of a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history"(Willinger, et al., 1991).

What Are the Most Common Characteristics of SIDS?

Most researchers now believe that babies who die of SIDS are born with one or more conditions that make them especially vulnerable to stresses that occur in the normal life of an infant, including both internal and external influences.

SIDS occurs in all types of families and is largely indifferent to race or socioeconomic level. SIDS is unexpected, usually occurring in otherwise apparently healthy infants from 1 month to 1 year of age. Most deaths from SIDS occur by the end of the sixth month, with the greatest number taking place between 2 and 4 months of age. A SIDS death occurs quickly and is often associated with sleep, with no signs of suffering, .

More deaths are reported in the fall and winter (in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) and there is a 60- to 40-percent male-to-female ratio.

A death is diagnosed as SIDS only after all other alternatives have been eliminated: SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion.

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), December 06, 2001.

Tiffani, cradle boards used on the New Mexico Navajo Reservation was thought to cause bi-lateral dislocation of hips in babies. I worked in a childrens hospital and there were always children in there having hip surgery. Strangely enough, it was little girls, not little boys, and I always wondered if the boys were held and taken out of the cradle board more than girls. I do know they were thought to be safer on the board, from fire, insects, getting lost etc. So, if you find one and use it, also use moderation. Maureen at Ravens Roost in Alaska

-- Maureen Stevenson (maureen@mtaonline.net), December 08, 2001.

Thanks Maureen, I have heard that this phenomenom only occurs in recent times because the Indians are no longer consuming the extremely high levels of fat soluble Vit A and D that thier ancestors did (Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price). I guess the paleopathological record shows no evidence that this was a problem in the centuries preceeding our modern one. Most people have replaced animal fats (rich in A & D) with vegetable oils and hydrogenated fats, thereby eliminating the most important source of these nutrients from their diets. Also, wild game is very high in these nutrients but the meat from out modern factory farms is very low in them because these animals are seldom allowed pasture. I believe these nutrients protect against the heart disease and cancer that is so often associated with high fat diets.

-- Tiffani (cappello@alltel.net), December 09, 2001.

SIDS is real enough - I know. Happened to a young nephew of mine - while my sons were staying overnight, as it happened. To make the situation even worse, the baby had impetigo (school sores) which his brothers had brought home from school, and his mother had used a tincture called gentian violet on them, and they stood out, and the idiot police officers who attended managed to assume they'd been torturing him with cigarette burns (they didn't even smoke), and made no secret of their suspicions, and in the middle of the whole nightmare (with a dead child and after over half an hour attempting mouth-to-mouth resucitation) they had this to put up with for almost a day, with the police treating their house like a murder scene and not allowing anything proper to be done, before the police got around to talking to their doctor.

Anyway, at that stage mothers were being advised to place their babies on their stomachs, for the reasons Rogo gave, and he had been. Doctors learnt better - they realised, among other things, that that put tension on the neck and tended to close the airway; and it compressed the chest and made breathing harder. They observed and monitored babies in hospital, and found that a lot suffered from apnoea (stopping breathing for extended periods), and some of them just wouldn't start again (although at least in hospital they could be ventilated and given oxgen - these things at home would have been SIDS - just dead - no other signs). They also found that placing babies on their backs about halved the rate of this problem. Since they've been advising mothers to place their babies on their backs rather than their stomachs, the rate of SIDS at home has been massively reduced as well.

You may have other opinions, but the numbers tell the story. You can go with your other opinions, but if you do you will be increasing the chance of the child involved dying.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 09, 2001.

Well said mr. armstong. i tend to get carried away when obvious advances are ignored or discounted just because they 'are not how my momma did it'.

Chicken bones are still given as teething aids to children around here,diabetes is often veiwed as 'a touch of sugar'nothing to be done about it[even by many docs!], and i know a few pople that germ theory is still theory to!

So my fuse seems to have shortened as the years go by to people who are unable or unwilling to take in new information, esp. when their misinformation is spread and effects the wellbeing of innocents.

so i apologise if i was offensive to any, i certainly do not mean to imply you are a bad parent in any way, just out of date with current med. findings that's all.

here are a few sites that i should have posted in the first place.

www.sids-network.org www.sids.org www.sidsalliance.org www.sidsaustralia.org http://www.sidsinternational.minerva.com.au/ http://www.sids.org.uk/fsid/ http://www.azsids.org/ ->arizona nonprofit group.

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), December 10, 2001.

Doctors' wrong? Never! Thanks so much for setting me straight.

-- renabeth (renabeth@yahoo.com), December 10, 2001.

I make cradle boards. I make contempary woodland style. I can send you a picture if you are interested in one.

-- char white (cwhite@newnorth.net), March 14, 2002.