hammock and breast/face milk

I made my new baby a new hammock today. The one I made for our first son was a bit too American-huge. I thought that he needed something small like they have at daycare. Both the boys will go to Helio’s family’s house for daycare in a few weeks. The woman who takes care of all the kids is Helio’s second cousin but all the kids call her “tia”. (auntie) When we had our first baby I saw this little contraption all sewed by hand and strung up with coated cable I thought, wow, so simple, yet so smart. I immediately ran home to make one bigger and better. The reality is, they like the little ones better. It makes them feel more enclosed and comforted. This will be the fourth kid to use that hammock at daycare. In our tiny 800+ sq. ft. house, we have hooks strategically placed throughout so that no matter where we are, we can string up a hammock.
When we were in Mexico a couple Christmas’s ago, I saw people use the real deal hammocks. They just put a mat in the bottom and tied up the top to prevent the little ones from falling out. It’s true, you don’t need all that baby equipment to have a baby, but I insist- a hammock is the way to go. Without one, I don’t know how to soothe a crying baby.
This new little sport has developed a bad case of face acne that has spread all over his ears and down onto his chest. Once, I was at a graduation party and saw a young Mexican mother put breast milk into her then pink eye suffering little girl. That image is still burned in my memory. Her eyes were all pussy and her mom was man handling her in a kinda rough way to get her to sit still while she dumped milk in her eyes from a bottle nipple. I still feel queasy when I think of that moment. Little Dante looked like he was in pain from his break out so I finally broke down and squeezed milk from my body onto a washcloth to smear on his face. Amazingly, it is working. His face looks like it is calming down yet he smells.
Helio’s family started sharing their “knowledge” of caring for babies as soon as I announced I was pregnant with our first. Some things insane- like rubbing a wet red string in a circle on the baby’s forehead to cure hiccups, other things helpful- use egg white for a minor burn to soothe the pain. I guess I am blessed to take information from both worlds- the US of A and Mexico. You implement some methods; you bring up others at cocktail parties to shock your friends.