January 24th, 2008 | Babies, Diet, Health | 4 Comments
Having gone through difficulties of bringing up a colicky baby, I’m always scouring for information and remedies to ease the symptoms of colic. I understand that doctors have yet to determine what exactly causes colic in babies so I accept the fact that a cure is still far from being discovered.
Recent studies show that giving your colicky infant Probiotics might help relieve colic symptoms as well as several related conditions such as lactose intolerance, necrotizing enterocolitis, and gastric inflammation.
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January 22nd, 2008 | Health, Parenting, Personal | No comments
It was in major newspapers a few days ago, if you missed it.
Read how Beijing’s first smoke-free restaurant chain, Meizhou Dongpo, is losing so many customers, it is close to going out of business. As much as I attest to ban smoking in restaurants, Meizhou Dongpo’s noble decision to go at it alone is indeed suicidal. Goes to show it takes a radical anti-smoking enforcement by the government to make a dent in the number of smokers in any country.
To all you health conscious folks out there, read and weep …
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January 21st, 2008 | Babies, Baby Equipment, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
Have you come across mothers carrying baby in a sling that consists of a piece of cloth and two metal rings? That’s a Maya Wrap, one of severals types of baby slings. As simple as it looks, you’d be surprised how useful Maya slings are.
When my sister started to use a Maya Wrap 4 years ago, I recall saying it looked awful. It didn’t look pleasing to the eye on first impression, I must admit. That’s the first time I saw one and at that time, hardly anyone around the neighbourhood has seen one, let alone used it. When my sister used it in public, people would stare and amused to see a baby inside the sling. With his head peering out. Like a baby kangaroo in a pouch.
Aesthetics aside, my sister explained and showed me how useful it is. It was my first time seeing a Maya Wrap type of baby sling in action. I was impressed!
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January 19th, 2008 | Babies, Health | 1 Comment
When my baby Clarisse was 5 months old, I noticed a tiny patch of whitish substance on the top of her gums. It had me wondering whether or not she’s starting to teeth. Teething at 5 months is considered pretty early for babies. On average, babies start to teeth around 7 months.
I made a note to mention this to baby Clarisse’s paeditrician on her next appointment. Turned out, it was just gum cyst according to him.
Now that I think about it, baby Clarisse didn’t show much teething symptoms at that time. I was wrong to assume she’s teething.
Below are some common symptoms associated with babies who are starting to teeth. Bear in mind though, symptoms of teething varies from infant to infant. And opinions too vary among paeditricians on what symptoms to look for or how painful it is for your teething infant. For some babies, it will be a long and painful experience while others feel only slight discomfort.
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January 18th, 2008 | Babies, Children, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
I get annoyed when sales people come up to me out of no where and start babbling non-stop about products or services I have absolutely no interest in. Majority of them are credit card promoters. These days, my frustration with sales people hit a new high.
It is so annoying to have inconsiderate sales people approach when my baby Clarisse had just dozed off. I don’t know about your baby, but Clarisse is an extremely distractable baby. It’s a chore to get her to nap when my husband and I are out shopping.
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January 17th, 2008 | Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
My uncle has a 5-year-old daughter named Sasha. For some time, little Sasha has a reputation of being a spoilt brat among our relatives. But that’s just hearway. I’ve never seen her antics so I had my reservations. Until one particular evening during a family get-together at a restaurant dinner …
When we reach the restaurant, little Sasha was so adorable sitting quietly with her parents. Behaving nicely until his parents ordered the dishes. While we waited for the food to be served, Sasha started get restless and asked her mother to go buy some toys. My uncle and aunty excused themselves and went out to find toys to please her. They asked us not to wait for them to start the dinner if they come back late. They came back 30 minutes later. Just in time to dig in as the all the dishes were served by then.
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January 16th, 2008 | Children, Computing, Parenting | 2 Comments
My sister called me today. She wanted to know if there’s an easy and effective way to make Internet surfing safer for kids. That means blocking websites with adult content, violence, unsafe chatrooms and virtually any stuff that’s deemed unsuitable for kids. Her children, aged 7 and 4, are very computer savvy. Browsing the web is literally child’s play these days. It’s very important to keep unsafe content out of their reach.
I thought I’d share with you a simple way to prevent your kids, and everyone else in the house, from accessing malicious websites. For adults, weeding out pornography sites is easy but phishing websites are much harder to detect. Phishing refers to dummy websites setup by pranksters to steal your private data like usernames, passwords, credit card details and such.
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January 15th, 2008 | Babies, Pregnancy | No comments
You should have your bags packed 2 weeks before your due date. Here’s an idea on what to take to the hospital. Bear in mind, you don’t have to include everything that is listed. If you’re one to travel light, phone your maternity department beforehand and ask what they provide when upon admission.Do not worry too much about forgetting something. You could always send your husband or ask visiting family members to bring them.
For yourself :
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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