The Debriziner Rav was asked is there a source for the custom to tie a red thread on a child and the child's carriage to ward off the evil eye.
The Debriziner Rav responded: "This has been the custom, and everyone engaged in it. Likewise, they were careful to tie a red thread on the carriage or on the crib of the infant for protection against the evil eye. All these three customs are included in the 'customs of the elderly women', which upon them the Rashbah (one of the greatest of the early Halachic authorities) wrote: One must not denigrate their words and customs because their (words and customs) are certainly founded upon the 'hills of sanctity'. Even if the reason is concealed from us."
Yesod Likra Ohel Rachel Imenu authored by the Apter Rava (Abraham Yehoshua Heschel, known as the Ohav Yisroel ... page 220:
"In the Rabbinical journal "Otzros Yerusalayim Vol 36, a letter is published which was written by the son of the Alexander Rebbe z'l to the great and reknowned kabbalist R Yeshaya Asher Zelig Margolis of Yerusalayim. It states:
"And now I request of you in as much as we know from our uncle the holy author of the 'Yismach Yisrael', that it is a segula for a pregnant woman to ensure that she will carry her pregnancy to term that you should 'measure round' the Tomb of Rachel our Matriarch - that you should please 'measure round' Rachel's tomb and send me the string in order that it should be a 'segula', that she should complete her pregnancy to term."
"And so have we heard from residents of the holy city of Yerushalyim, that they have a tradition regarding this segula, and they wrap the string around the hand and it is effective for all sorts of salvations."
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