Baby Wearing

Baby wearing is not a new fad.  For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, the Nahuatl and other indigenous mothers have been wearing their babies.  Here is a 16 year old mother with her one year old:

I got to try my hand, or my back, at this ancient practice.  Katie was checking language with one of our Nahuatl friends.  Her baby was really fussy and I was trying to keep him quiet so Katie and our friend could concentrate on Nahuatl.  It wasn’t working, so I tried to give him back to his mother.  She picked up her shawl and said, “He want´s to be worn.  Here…”

I was scared to put him on because I figure he’d fall out of the shawl.  So, she tied him on me and I went about making lunch and doing other projects and he was as quiet as a mouse!