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New moms can lose weight faster by adopting a calorie-reduced regimen such as the HCG diet.
May 26th, 2011 | Health | No comments
*Applause* to Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard for passing a legislation that will see all cigarette packs come in uniform design and drab monotone color, irrespective of brands. The name of tobacco companies will be printed small compared to huge health warnings and gory images of smoking related diseases. Brand distinctive colors and pattern will no longer be allowed on cigarette packs. Hence brand recognition will take a dive which in turn, the government hopes will discourage the young from smoking.
Tobacco companies are riled by the legislation and promised to take the government to court. Claiming damages in millions, or even billions of dollars. Make all the noises they want, but these tobacco companies won’t get any sympathy at all from me.
May 19th, 2011 | Health, Personal | No comments
Baby Edward has been suffering from eczema for about 3 months. I started to keep track of food that triggers eczema reaction in him and most obvious is wheat based food. We avoid it as much as we could.
My nephew also has eczema and it started around the same age as Edward. My sister tried many ways to suppress his eczema and finally found several effective solutions. Probiotics and toxic cleansing fruit juices were very effective in controlling his eczema attacks. I have started to introduce probiotics and immune system boosting vitamin supplements to baby Edward’s diet. I will give him fruit juices when he’s older.
From what I heard, taking probiotics supplement for the first time is known to cause an initial outbreak of eczema rashes. Within the first few days, baby Edward experience fairly severe eczema rashes all over
his body – neck, tummy, buttocks, legs and hands. I was expecting it so it didn’t alarm me. A lot of people is unaware probiotics would cause eczema rashes when first taken. Many people assume probiotics is responsible for making their eczema worst and would stop taking it immediately.
The eczema rashes on baby Edward’s body, caused by introducing probiotics to his diet I presume, has yet to disappear. I hope what I heard is right. And pray probiotics would help relieve baby Edward’s eczema as time goes by.
December 18th, 2010 | Babies, Health, Pregnancy | No comments
Most, if not all of us, knows and agree that cigarettes are bad for us. But less number of smokers, or non-smokers, knows what a cigarette contains and what sort of health hazardous chemicals they are consuming when they light it up. If you are pregnant and smoking, you’re not only harming your own health but your baby’s health too.
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December 18th, 2010 | Babies, Breast Feeding, Health, Parenting | No comments
Most hospitals encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies. No matter what breastfeeding policies your hospital adheres to, inform hospital staff, nurse or doctor beforehand if you have decided to, or intend to breast feed your baby. They can then make necessary arrangements like having your newborn sharing the same room (rooming-in) or notify nurses to avoid bottle-feeding your newborn in the nursery ward if you choose to breastfeed exclusively and on demand. Although nursing whenever your baby is hungry, feeding on demand, is best for your baby, some hospitals may be understaffed to provide such attentive round-the-clock service. In that case, you can request and may be allowed to have your baby share your room.
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December 14th, 2010 | Babies, Health | 1 Comment
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare chronic metabolic disorder affecting 1 in 14,000 newborns in the United States. However, if both parents are genetically carriers of PKU, there is a 1 in 4 chance of them passing PKU genes to their newborn.
PKU is a autosomal recessive genetic disorder in which the affected person is unable to produce an enzyme necessary to metabolise protein phenylalanine(phe) into tyrosine. Hence, phenylalanine protein builds up in the body of the person’s blood stream increasing toxicity. If no treatment is given, it can cause brain damage and retardation. Phe buildup can also cause restlessness, irritability and behavioral problems.
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October 15th, 2009 | Health, Personal | No comments
Yesterday was one of those days where it starts out with everything going wrong. My husband woke up with a fever. Clarisse woke up with a slight runny nose. The government nurse who came to check on baby Edward in the morning said his jaundice level is fairly noticeable and suggested I go to the government clinic to have it checked. So I knew I was in for a difficult day. To make things worst, the ol’ window-unit air-conditioner in my bedroom broke down for good this time. I had to schedule for a new unit to be installed.
First thing in the morning, we took baby Edward to have his jaundice checked at the government clinic. Good thing the clinic is barely 5 mins drive from our house. Baby Edward jaundice level was 9.9 and the nurse said he need not be admitted.
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March 5th, 2009 | Health | No comments
In most cases, chicken pox is relatively harmless. It tends to give a deceptive perception where one would often think vaccination or treatment is not necessary. Chickenpox vaccination is available to children from age of one.
How does one get infected with chicken pox?
Chicken pox is caused by a highly contagious virus known as varicella-zoster. It spread easily through droplets from an infected individual when he or she sneezes. You may not realise you have caught the chicken pox virus until two to three weeks later. Chicken pox virus requires 10 to 21 days incubation period after exposure.
Even before the rashes start to appear, an infected individual can spread the virus to surrounding people two days before chicken pox rashes are seen developing.
An infected invidual who appears to have recovered from chickenpox recently may still be infectious until all the scabs resulting from dried up fluid filled vesicles are completely dried.
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February 12th, 2009 | Children, Health, Parenting | 1 Comment
It is crucial to let a child learn how he or she should eat healthy and that usually means staying away from McDonalds, KFC or Burger King.
These days, fast food is a big part of modern life. It might seem to be a losing battle as fast food joints come up with all sorts of gimmicks and marketing ploys to attract our kid’s attention. Even baby Clarisse, now twenty months old, recognises the golden arches and associate McDonalds as a fun place. She’d make a fuss while pointing her finger whenever we drive by a McDonald outlet. If you let your child the alternative between healthy food and junk food, you usually will not like the answer. As parents we have to stick to guns and hopefully our kids adopt a healthy eating lifestyle.
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February 10th, 2009 | Children, Health, Parenting | 3 Comments
A few months ago, Clarisse picked up a very annoying habit. Grinding her teeth. It annoyed us to no end because the more we asked her to stop doing it, the more she’d do it.
It may simply be her sudden discovery of a new physical sensation by grinding her teeth. I have even asked the paeditrician why Clarisse is doing it and would it be advisable to bring her to a dentist. According to her experience, dentists have yet to determine what cause toddlers to grind their teeth. At least the mental and emotional side of it. But I was also told that teeth grinding, as horrible as it can sound, would never be severe enough to cause much worry. Baby teeth are only meant to last for a span of few years so long lasting problems are negligible. Even so, it would take much more severe grinding to wear out their teeth.
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November 15th, 2008 | Health, Personal | No comments
Nothing disgust me more when guests poke their chopsticks or spoon into dishes. It is a very common scene at chinese dinners I attend where everyone doesn’t give a s**t about hygiene and just grab food using their own utensils. Even when a spoon is provided and placed on the dish for everyone to use. I hate to say this but I notice patrons of the older generation are usually guilty of this unhygienic practise. I may be wrong but younger diners seem to be more aware of healthy table manners.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. I have yet to been to a dinner where someone doesn’t poke their utensils into the dish. As a result, I always strive to be the first off the block when the dishes arrive on the table. I would dash forward to grab a portion before everyone else stick their chopsticks into the dish. It’s ugly I know but far less disgusting than eating from a dish where there’s bits of their saliva from everyone at the table.
