Here is a more detail description of a Changeling
A changeling was a mother's worst nightmare
and was considered a real danger until the baby was christened
The slightest slip in vigilance of the mother or the howdie (midwife) could be disastrous. Fairies would take any oppotunity they where given to steal the new born baby away and replace it with a changeling Reasons for these thefts by the fairies varied across Scotland. In most places it is believed that human children were coveted because they were stronger and they were taken away to improve the fairy gene-pool. At the same time in exchange the fairies left a changeling that would benifit from human mother's milk. A more sinister reason from the north east was, every seven years, fairies had to make sacrifice to the devil, they would steal a human child away rather then lose one of their own. A changeling could take various forms, in the highlands in they were thought to be a peice of wood carved into the shape of a baby and brought to life with fairy magic. The magic would last for a few days, when the "child" seemed to die the grieving parents would bury the wood never knowing it was not their child. A changeling was also thought to be a very old fairy who needed looking after. They were known to be moody and grumpy always crying for food The most common changelings were thought to be poorly fairy children, placed with a human mother to aid its chances of becoming well, human mothers milk which was coveted by fairies. If the parents acted quickly it was possible for them to get back their own child. One way was to take the changeling to a place where fairies gathered and leave it there overnight with gifts of food If the gift were acceptable, the real child would be returned the next morning. Sadly not all babies were so lucky. To find out if the baby was a changeling some horrific methods were used. One was to place the baby on a red hot shovel, (this is one of the least terrible) this was supposed to send the fairy flying up the chimney and the real child would be returned next morning. In reality is was a horrible fate for many normal children who cried a lot or for children that displayed some type of physical or mental disability This belief was not exclusive to scotland, tales of changelings appear in many others countries traditions and folklore
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