Infant Swapping is when a fairy is assigned to a newborn or infant in the womb and swap the changeling fey for a human baby. Changeling are fairy children who have low levels of fairy magic not suitable to serve in the fairy community who are instead left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies.
Whatever magic they do possess wears off usually after one dream in their slumber in the human world. The theme of swapping children in the human mothers womb is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities. The act of abducted human child are used to strengthen fairy stock which helps keeps people in believing in them to keep their services at bay. If people stop believing, their purpose will be nonexistent, and they will go extinct. The Seelie Court Fairies will collect to raise the human child, making it laugh and live a fruitful childhood until the age of 13 they will return it to Earth from their realm. (The Unseelie Court Fairies will typically do the opposite.) In rare cases, the very elderly of the fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby, so that the old fairy could live in comfort, being coddled by its human parents. Once a child is baptized, fairies cannot take the child until the human reach 13 years old when they are able to perform a crossroad contracted deal. Due to pervasive and powerful Feywild magic, it is the Summer Queen that decides if the non-fay are subject to immediate memory loss, and may not remember any of their time spent in the Feywild otherwise, they can be granted to at least have vivid dreams that will display memories often recollecting the scenery of their stay, emotional memories, and a vision of their assigned fairy. In cases where a human spent up to the age of 13 in Abeir-Torli, their memories may be more vivid than those who were more short-term.
