January 12th, 2008 | Health, Parenting | No comments
When I found out I was pregnant, I started to avoid second-hand smoke as much as I could. Until now, I would get up and move to another table if someone close by lits up a ciggarette. Call me a health freak, I don’t care. I just don’t want my baby inhaling ciggarette smokes. She’ll have plenty of time to deal with second-hand smoke when she grows up. Until then, I’ll gladly be responsible for the air she breathe now.
My husband and I went out for breakfast this morning. We took our baby Clarisse along. It’s a Saturday morning and the food court was thronged with people out for a morning meal. We sat down and 5 minutes later, two men sitting on tables beside ours lit their ciggarettes. We have not ordered our food, so we left for another table and hoped no one around us would smoke.
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January 11th, 2008 | Babies, Children, Diet, Health, Parenting | 35 Comments
G6PD deficiency and jaundice
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, one of the most common metabolic disorders afflicting newborns, requires special dietary care for both babies and their nursing mothers. Babies born with G6PD deficiency means their body lacks a specific enzyme, G6PD. Without G6PD enzyme, red blood cells have a shorter life spans when exposed to certain chemicals, usually found in food and drugs. Hence when red blood cells are destroyed (anaemic hemolysis) it will cause anaemia, resulting in dizziness, pale-skin, persistent tiredness, headache, tea-colored urine, abdominal or back pain.
Newborns are by nature born with excess amount of red blood cells. Their bodies will break down excess red blood cells and this process creates bilirubin, a waste product which their liver needs to dispose of. Often, their immature liver are taxed when excess bilirubin are required to be disposed from the body. This causes jaundice which is very normal in newborns. However, newborns with G6PD deficiency, with more than normal excess of bilirubin needed to be extracted from the body, taxes the already overloaded liver even more. As a result, they often experience higher and prolonged levels of jaundice than normal newborns.
How do you care for babies with G6PD deficiency?
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January 7th, 2008 | Children, Health, Parenting | 4 Comments
Respiratory infections such as flu or a common cold are known to affect toddlers younger than five years old an average of 10 times per year. Those who are sent to day care, nursery or pre-school have a much higher chance of developing colds. On the bright side though, the common cold or flu is their body’s way to ward off viruses and they recover, your toddler’s immune system would’ve developed antibodies againsts these familiar viruses.
Barring complications like severe sore throats, ear infections, high fever or pneumonia, toddler’s common cold or flu usually doesn’t require a consultation with the paedatrician. Viral infections can’t be cured medically. Parents will have to let their toddler’s cold run it’s course and bear with the symptoms. Your child’s body will heal itself. What you can do is to relieve your kids from the discomfort and here are some home care ideas to provide such relief:
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January 4th, 2008 | Babies, Diet, Health, Personal | No comments
I started my baby on solid food when she was 4 months 3 weeks old. Up until recently, her solid diet is solely pureed rice. Just plain white rice, to be specific.
Consumption of brown rice seems to be on the increase among my friends and family. Yesterday I read an article and some forum discussions that brown rice is highly nutritious as it is not processed and stripped of it’s natural goodness.
I’ve been eager to introduce brown rice to baby Clarisse’s diet so yesterday, I bought a packet of organic brown rice
under the brand of Radiant Whole Food for her. According to the label, this organic brown rice is not polished and most nutrients are intact. It also very digestable and good source of protein, vitamins and minerals. I don’t know how true is it, but I will try it out for a week.
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December 19th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting | 2 Comments
As much as I stand by not introducing pacifiers to my baby, I have absolutely no qualms about parents who do so as long as parents are aware of hygiene and safety practices that goes along with pacifier use.
First of all, before you buy pacifiers, head over to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (http://www.cpsc.gov) website and make sure it is not a recalled product. Go with a major brand with an established product safety record.
Ensure the pacifier is clean:
- Soak pacifiers in boiling water or sterilizers regularly.
- When a pacifier meets the floor, give it a good proper washing. I’ve seen mothers who pick pacifiers up from the floor, put it their mouth, clean it with their saliva and tougue and putting it back into their baby’s mouth. Gross ;P
- Bring extra pacifiers along if your baby tends to drop it everywhere.
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December 18th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
Despite my in-laws keep telling me to give my baby Clarisse a pacifier, to keep her quiet at times, I have never resort to pacifiers. I do not plan to introduce pacifiers to my baby in the future either.
And personally, I’m kinda pleased my baby Clarisse doesn’t seem to enjoy a pacifier. Granted, I’ve never put in the effort and time to properly introduce pacifiers to her but I did bought a pair of NUK pacifiers a few months ago. My baby has a habit of sleeping while breastfeeding, latching on to my nipple until she falls asleep. If she is not in a deep sleep, whenever I pull out my nipple, she will become alert and demands to latch on again. So I tried to replace my nipple with a pacifier immediately whenever I pull out. Baby Clarisse would eventually wake up after a few seconds sucking on the pacifier. Realising it’s not my nipple and starts to cry.
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December 15th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting, Toys | 2 Comments
Let’s be realistic. Parents have to accept the fact that we’ll never be able to guarantee safe toys for our children. It’s good to know that politicians are starting to campaign for safe toys as a political agenda. As for now, we can do our best to safeguard our children from unsafe toys through knowledge and common sense.
Sign up for emailing lists to get yourself informed of the latest toy recalls at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Another good site for such information is U.S. PIRG.
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December 14th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
Tummy time is important for babies. I confess, I didn’t realise it until I read about the importance of tummy time from a parenting magazine. A baby’s basic skills such as sitting up, crawling, lifting head and turning over is influenced by tummy time. The more time, and the earlier you encourage tummy time for your baby, the faster your baby will learn to master the skills above.
When I first saw my baby Clarisse struggling to roll over unsuccessfully, I helped push her buttocks a bit to help her to roll over. However, my father-in-law told me not to help baby Clarisse and should just let her do it on her own. It took baby Clarisse a few more weeks to successfully roll over on her own effort. I regret listening to his advice now that I realise flipping my baby over on her tummy helps in so many motor skills. I should have just helped baby Clarisse roll over so that she could have spent more tummy time instead.
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December 13th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Household, Parenting, Toys | 1 Comment
With the amount of Made-in-China toys recalled in the pass several months, I am concerned about the safety of toys I buy for my baby. The anxiety is heightened when baby Clarisse receives toy presents from friends and families. Baby Clarisse puts everything she can grab hold of into her mouth in a split second. Naturally, most of the toys in her crib are teethers. So it is important to make sure the toys she plays with is safe from toxicity.
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November 16th, 2007 | Babies, Breast Feeding, Diet, Health, Personal | 3 Comments
After spending 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital, I went back to my mother’s house for my confinement period. Previously, she took care of my eldest sister’s newborns so Clarisse is the third grandchild she’ll be taking care of. I’m so grateful she agreed to take care of us because the first month is an extremely busy and taxing time for families with a newborn. She has to cook for the family, household chores and apart from breastfeeding, she took care of everything else for the baby - bathing, changing diapers etc. It was a learning experience for me. I learnt the ABC’s of baby care by watching my mother.
We had worries about me lacking in breast milk production. My intention from the start was to fully breast feed Clarisse but she would cry after every breastfeeding session. My mother and I worried that I might not produce enough breast milk to satisfy her hunger so we supplemented formula after breastfeeding her. She would sleep soundly after a bottle of formula.
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