AHC Maternal Uncertainty in England

The challenge is to get some person (servant, doctor, Earl, visitor...) from 1100-1700 to pass a 3 month old infant girl to an English countess and get her to think it's hers and continue breastfeeding it. She can't be mentally disabled, in other words she needs to be as smart as a noble would be in those days.

This is harder than modern "hospital switched the babies" thing. The reason is that a lot of newborns with the same natural hair color look similar (and a lot of them are born covered in hair for extra visual obstruction of features). The Lanugo of newborns is obviously gone by 3 months.

Now where can one find an infant that looks like the recently born girl? And wouldn't the replacement behave incorrectly compared to the child it's replacing? Man, this is hard
 
The challenge is to get some person (servant, doctor, Earl, visitor...) from 1100-1700 to pass a 3 month old infant girl to an English countess and get her to think it's hers and continue breastfeeding it. She can't be mentally disabled, in other words she needs to be as smart as a noble would be in those days.

This is harder than modern "hospital switched the babies" thing. The reason is that a lot of newborns with the same natural hair color look similar (and a lot of them are born covered in hair for extra visual obstruction of features). The Lanugo of newborns is obviously gone by 3 months.

Now where can one find an infant that looks like the recently born girl? And wouldn't the replacement behave incorrectly compared to the child it's replacing? Man, this is hard

Does it have to be a girl?

As to finding someone who looks like the recently born girl - foundling hospitals, poorhouses, etc.

And how does a 3-month old behave incorrectly? I'm just wondering. Cause if someone swa[s out - say Elizabeth Tudor, since there are several stories about her being a changeling: Anne actually gave birth to a boy. The baby was a stillborn girl. Elizabeth was really the child of Henry and a maid that was passed off as Anne's - one baby for another, Elizabeth Tudor for Bess Smith, if Bess is brought up in exactly the same manner as Liz, they'll just write off any "incorrect" behaviour as either childish wilfullness or the fact that Liz's daddy isn't her daddy (theoretically, Norris, Smeaton, Brereton, Wyatt and Weston would all be equal contenders to Henry for paternity) or any number of factors. People tend to see what they want to see. Particularly when it comes to children.
 
Does it have to be a girl?

Technically no, but I got my inspiration from a fanfic of The Tudors (the series, not the family) where the subject was a girl.

say Elizabeth Tudor, since there are several stories about her being a changeling: Anne actually gave birth to a boy. The baby was a stillborn girl.

Doesn't the changeling story require the mother's cooperation on this? I'm not trying to fool just the outside world, but everyone including the mother.

And how does a 3-month old behave incorrectly?

Infants are known to react to wet nurses during feeding, lying on the lap, or being carried differently than to their mothers and a few people reported them preferring their mothers when presented both sets of breasts in the baby's face (must be really close since their motor skills are pretty lousy at this time). The latter could be written off as anecdotes but the former is a well-documented if somewhat obscure fact. Further testing to see if the latter is an actual phenomenon (unlike the former which we know exists) is going to be difficult since wet nurses stopped being a thing long before vacuum tubes stopped being the gold standard for computers
 
Doesn't the changeling story require the mother's cooperation on this? I'm not trying to fool just the outside world, but everyone including the mother.

Theoretically, yes. But if the mother doesn't know any differently - one newborn baby looks much like another and a royal/aristocratic woman in an age where such women didn't do anything but act as an incubation unit, might not necessarily know the difference. Besides, if the mother doesn't know the baby isn't hers, she has no reason to question it - barring the baby being Chinese to both parernts being English. Of course, if Baby later doesn't look like either her or the father, then Momma might start questioning it, but what do I know - my experience with babies comes from my best friends' three kids.

Infants are known to react to wet nurses during feeding, lying on the lap, or being carried differently than to their mothers and a few people reported them preferring their mothers when presented both sets of breasts in the baby's face (must be really close since their motor skills are pretty lousy at this time). The latter could be written off as anecdotes but the former is a well-documented if somewhat obscure fact. Further testing to see if the latter is an actual phenomenon (unlike the former which we know exists) is going to be difficult since wet nurses stopped being a thing long before vacuum tubes stopped being the gold standard for computers

Didn't know that, thanks for the interesting info.
 
The challenge is to get some person (servant, doctor, Earl, visitor...) from 1100-1700 to pass a 3 month old infant girl to an English countess and get her to think it's hers and continue breastfeeding it. She can't be mentally disabled, in other words she needs to be as smart as a noble would be in those days.

This is harder than modern "hospital switched the babies" thing. The reason is that a lot of newborns with the same natural hair color look similar (and a lot of them are born covered in hair for extra visual obstruction of features). The Lanugo of newborns is obviously gone by 3 months.

Now where can one find an infant that looks like the recently born girl? And wouldn't the replacement behave incorrectly compared to the child it's replacing? Man, this is hard

It would be highly unusual for a high-born lady to breastfeed her kids before the last decades of the 18th c.
 
Does it have to be a girl?

As to finding someone who looks like the recently born girl - foundling hospitals, poorhouses, etc.

And how does a 3-month old behave incorrectly? I'm just wondering. Cause if someone swa[s out - say Elizabeth Tudor, since there are several stories about her being a changeling: Anne actually gave birth to a boy. The baby was a stillborn girl. Elizabeth was really the child of Henry and a maid that was passed off as Anne's - one baby for another, Elizabeth Tudor for Bess Smith, if Bess is brought up in exactly the same manner as Liz, they'll just write off any "incorrect" behaviour as either childish wilfullness or the fact that Liz's daddy isn't her daddy (theoretically, Norris, Smeaton, Brereton, Wyatt and Weston would all be equal contenders to Henry for paternity) or any number of factors. People tend to see what they want to see. Particularly when it comes to children.

As someone who has an 8 month old at home right now, a 3 month old has TONS of personality. They have favourite songs, favourite toys, favourite ways to be held etc (i.e what will calm them down most when upset). They also can recognize their parents. It's MUCH easier to switch newborns.
 
As someone who has an 8 month old at home right now, a 3 month old has TONS of personality. They have favourite songs, favourite toys, favourite ways to be held etc (i.e what will calm them down most when upset). They also can recognize their parents. It's MUCH easier to switch newborns.

As I say, my experience with really young kids is limited to when I see my friend's three kids (8yo, 3yo, and 9mo) when they come/I go to visit (they stay on the other end of the country), so I'm flying by the seat of my pants as to what is or isn't normal behaviour for extremely young kids (the 8yo was almost 4 when I became friends with his dad; saw the 3yo for the first time when I held him at his christening (when he was 6mo), and only saw him again in May this year (just after he turned 3; and same for the 9mo - only saw him for the first time in September, he was born in March).
 
But if the mother doesn't know any differently - one newborn baby looks much like another

Yes, one newborn with the same hair color, body weight, and head shape looks very much like another. Every 20th newborn probably looks the same. Also lots of babies have Lanugo, which makes a lot of them look even more the same until they stop being little hairballs.

barring the baby being Chinese to both parernts being English.

Ha ha ha... priceless line.

but what do I know - my experience with babies comes from my best friends' three kids.

Safe to say the 3 month olds are different. For newborns, behavior patterns usually come in easy, active/challenging, slow-to-warm-up, and sick. The first three are temperament generalizations and that last one is a catch-call for all the reasons why one might behave differently when sick on the day of birth (pain, whatever...).

It would be highly unusual for a high-born lady to breastfeed her kids before the last decades of the 18th c.

Ooops. I thought a majority of hgih class women didn't do so, but I thought it would have beens something like 75% not 99%. Ok, drop that requirement.

As someone who has an 8 month old at home right now, a 3 month old has TONS of personality. They have favourite songs, favourite toys, favourite ways to be held etc (i.e what will calm them down most when upset). They also can recognize their parents. It's MUCH easier to switch newborns.

Yeah, that's part of the challenge package. Can you meet with without an imbecile mother? Again, she has to be as reasonable intelligent as a high class middle-ages (or renissnace era if we do it far enough) woman
 
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