Elgarmummy.com

Category: health

  • Nursing Gar- A Closed Chapter

    I had breastfed Gar for 20 months, and finally weaned him off. As a second time mother, I was more experienced this time. I did not pump milk in the beginning, and simply latched Gar all the time. My milk supply was adequate and so he was fully breastfed.

    It is quite sad to know how some mothers could not continue to breastfeed their babies, due to various reasons. However, a happy mother is more important than a breastfed baby, so it is really up to the mothers.

    I guess I have been lucky to have a good confinement nanny who helped solved my problem of engorgement in the first days when she used a hot stone to get the blocked ducts cleared. I had learnt that to breastfeed successfully, you need to have enough liquid, and calories, so that you have sufficient output. I had lots of milo, red date drinks, big bowls of soups during meals, Bulur Hitam (black glutinous rice), in the first month. Demand creates supply, so keep latching.

    The Gina Ford books had hindered my attempts in the past. I had tried to follow scheduled feeding instead of on demand feeding, and it was quite a miserable time. I was also expressing my milk then, and not getting enough latching.

    With Gar, I was much more successful. I had also learnt how to massage and clear the blocked ducts. I had access to a group of mothers who were very pro-breastfeeding too, so we encouraged each other and entertained each other with our funny tales.

    My Medela double breastpumps – PISA were great too. I don’t know how some people could hand express successfully into a bottle without getting the milk everywhere, or use manual pump that were so taxing on wrists and arms.

    However, there were problems. Gar was extremely sensitive to the food I had. If I had milo at night, tea, brownie, coke or curry, he would be wide awake. He had very regular sleeping hours, but those nights when he was awake, no amount of latching would suffice. With lots of trial and error, I had finally realised those food were bad for him.
    We had an improved nursing room in my office, and I was very glad that we had proper places to express. Some friends had to make do with undesirable places.

    I would never latch in public, even if many mothers are doing that. I just feel self-conscious, especially with a son that would lift up my shirt and look around. Since I seldom went out, the places I had chosen usually had good nursing rooms. In the past, I had to hide in the car. Some places were really disgusting. I had fed them in toilets before. There was one time I had to squat, and I ended up aching everywhere.

    I thought that if I could latch Gar, he would go back to sleep if he wakes up at night. Hence, I delayed nursing. I had a colleague who told me she had nursed for 18 months, so I used that as a guide. Starting from 17 months, I stopped expressing, and slowly cut down. Over a period of 3 months, I had finally stopped.

    At first, I thought that Gar would miss it. After all, he would sometimes hold my finger and walk me to the bedroom, get me to carry him up to the bed, and then ask to nurse. However, I gave him bottled milk and he was fine with it. In the first few days, he slept well, and would roll around and make himself sleep. However, there was one occasion when he woke up at 3 and refused to go back to sleep. Then the next day, he kept asking to be nursed, but I ignored him.

    It is a little sad, but this chapter has closed, and I can finally drink bubble tea. Unfortunately, I guess I have become caffeine intolerant, and is still wide awake at 1am.

  • Water and African Children Conversation

    Water and African Children Conversation

    El was brushing his teeth when I filled up his cup with water. Immediately, he poured the water away, saying it was too little and wanted to fill up the cup himself. He rinsed one time, and wanted to pour the water away again. I told him off for wasting water. I told him how precious water is and we should save water.

    cup and toothbrushHe did not seem to get the message. I said that he should be thankful we have clean water. I told him how we get water in our tap. We need the rain that goes to the reservoir, and the water gets filtered before coming to our taps through water pipes.

    He still tried to pour the water away, so I told him that millions of African children did not have clean drinking water. Some of them have to walk a few kilometres to get water, and sometimes the water is muddy and they fall sick drinking them. Sometimes they might get diarrhoea, and sometimes they might get other diseases.

    “Why do they have to drink muddy water?” he asked.

    “There are no taps and clean drinking water,” I said.

    It was time for another serious talk, just like the riots in Little India. We went in circles for a while, and I brought in weak governments, corrupt leaders, natural disasters and the works. They are poor because there are no jobs. There are no jobs because they are too poor to have factories, shops and offices. Why? Why? Why?

    We then moved to the topic of starving children with bloated bellies. He put his green Ikea plastic cup down, wiped away the foam and ran off to get the iPad from the living room. He put it on my bed and typed in ‘african starving children’ into the search function, and clicked on images.

    Taken aback by the pictures, he asked why they looked so scrawny. Their ribcages were showing, and they had sunken eyes. I explained the poor running of the countries, dictators who stole money from the country and continued living in the countries, and how the people were suffering.

    He spotted a picture where a picture of a starving African child was superimposed over the African continent, and pointed out the connection. He was pretty used to identifying countries in this manner, as some of the iPad apps would combine the flags and the shape of the countries together.

    Since he knew the African countries very well, he asked me which countries were poor. I tried to rattle off a few countries that I barely knew, and then remembered Ethiopia. Next, I searched for poorest countries, and out popped a list of 20 poorest countries in the world, with most of them in Africa, especially in the sub-Saharan areas. Zimbabwe, Liberia, Eritrea and Madagascar were some of the listed countries.

    african child carrying water Photo by MarcLouwes

    I wondered what he was thinking. He was probably making some lists in his head.  I hoped he had understood how lucky he was, and that he would not waste water. After that, he started drawing up a list again, of some African nations.

    When I went to bathroom, I spotted a cup that was almost full. Guess it will take some time before the message sinks in.

  • Trip To The Dentist and Lunch

    I seldom spend much time with El, so we had a great time out together on Saturday. I took him to the dentist for his check-up. When he got into the car, I asked him whether he wanted to listen to the radio, which had bossa nova or some jazz genre on, or the Three Little Pigs and other children’s songs which I got after watching The Frog Prince the other day. He chose the former, which delighted me as he has good taste.

    One day before his visit, I informed him that we were going to the dentist the next day, and he just said, “Oh, ok.” He also asked whether it was at Novena, and I said yes. In the car, he asked me the route to the place. We chatted about the traffic, and soon reached the place.

    We went to the old unit, and the receptionist at the clinic for adults brought us to the dental clinic for children. There was a room filled with toys and kitchen sets. He loved the place and kept cooking. An older girl was inside, and he was asked by her mother how old he was in Mandarin. He understood it, but probably did not feel confident enough to answer, so he just showed four fingers and smiled.

    playing at the dentist
    playing at the dentist

    After they left, he asked me to go in to sit on the couch. Immediately, he tried to serve me tea and brought food to me. He saw the xylophone, and started hitting C, and singing Doe, a deer, and all the way up to the top. Unfortunately, I did not manage to film this part. I got him to sing other songs. Sometimes he can be on pitch, but sometimes he goes flat.

    Suddenly, I observed that he needed to go to the toilet, so I brought him out. I wanted to bring him to the ladies, but there were two people waiting for the two cubicles, and I doubted that he could wait that long. Hence, I brought him to a handicapped washroom. We went in, locked the door, and I carried him to pee. The last time I did that at Vivocity, my entire shoes were wet and his pants were wet too. This time round, everything went smoothly until I put him down.

    He spotted a red button that was about 40 cm above the ground, which was just prominent enough to him. It must have screamed, “Push me!”, which he did, and immediately, a loud shrill wail of siren sounded, and we both were shocked. Immediately, I looked around for a cancel button which was non-existent, pulled up his pants, opened the door, and bolted without washing our hands. It was even louder outside, and we both covered our ears. Other people walked past and stared at us. We ran back to the safe sanctuary at the dental clinic, and he tried to explain to me that he had no idea that the button would lead to the alarm being sounded. The receptionist tried to tell him not to do that anymore, but I guess he had learnt his lesson for the time being.

    Fortunately I was armed with Dettol wet wipes, so I cleaned both our hands. He went back in to play. Finally we were called in, and the dentist, Dr Ng, remembered us. I wondered whether she had a mega memory, or she took down notes of our conversations. She remembered Gar, and also that El was in N2. She also remembered that I had complained about El’s poor eating habits when we were done.

    I really like the clinic, as it is geared towards young children. There were many toys inside the treatment room. This time round, they had added a TV screen for the children to watch, just like what a hair salon for children had been doing. The nurse asked him whether he wanted blue or pink shades, and he requested for the blue shades. He proceeded to put it upside down, and they had to put it on for him. However, he found it too dark, so he lifted it half the time to watch the TV screen.

    She checked his teeth, and cleaned it. When he was younger, he could not gargle. He would usually swallow the water, but this time round, he managed to gargle properly, and spat the water out. Dr Ng then started removing the tartar, which she said was due to the calcium in his saliva. There were no cavities, so everything was fine.
    She let him choose stickers, and he selected Ultraman. We had watched Ultraman a few times on Hello! Japan, a free channel on Starhub cable. There were Ben 10 stickers, but I think he did not like them much.

    playing with cooking set
    playing with cooking set

    After the visit, we waited outside, and he went back in to play. He had actually messed up the whole place, and I wanted to rush back, but I decided to make him clean up. He kept all the kettles and cups in an oven, and then kept the vegetables in the stove cupboard.

    We then took the lift and went to the car. However, he suddenly declared he was hungry and wanted to eat. I thought he had eaten at his grandparents’ place, but he was quite insistent about eating. I brought him down and immediately he queued up at Old Town. We had gone there a few times before. I was not hungry, so I took him away. I thought I could get away with buying pancakes, but he was pouting, and stating he wanted to eat Nasi Padang, whatever that was.
    mee siam
    In the end, we went back to Old Town. I took the menu and asked him what he wanted to eat. I thought he wanted Nasi Lemak, but he chose Mee Siam from the set lunch menu. That was the cheapest. I asked the waitress to remove the chili seeds, but she said the dish was spicy. He was ok with that, and so we ordered it any way.

    When it arrived, he started eating, and said it was nice. I was pleasantly surprised, and he ate quite a fair bit, except for the sambal. He loved the cucumbers too, but did not like the seeds. He ate and his face was all red and oily. He saw the pepper, and wanted that. I was afraid it would be too hot for him, and just shook a little bit on the side. He tried that and said it was delicious. Then, he took the soy sauce, but ended up pouring a lot. Thank goodness he had already eaten most of the fried vermicelli. I suspect he likes food with strong flavours.

    I had actually planned to rush back to pick up Gar, but we were delayed, so we decided to meet elsewhere. Despite the other shopping mall was just a 5-minute walk away, it took me more than 20 minutes to drive over due to the heavy traffic.

    Lunch at Old Town
    Lunch at Old Town

    He then went to walk around with his father, and apparently he ate again at McDonalds. He had fries and some nuggets and half a bun. I really hope that his increase in appetite was due to the alleviation of blocked nose, after being diagnosed by a doctor he used to go to when he was young. The doctor mentioned that he was more than 2kg lighter than the lowest acceptable range for his age group, and it was due to his laboured breathing. He was actually breathing with his stomach moving, rather than using the full capacity of his lungs.

    I went to buy a cheese cake for my snack, and the kids managed to get free rides on the kiddy rides. We never put money in because we did not want to encourage them to play that. They enjoyed the ride, and Gar managed to stay on without trying to climb down. I saw the girl and her mother from the dental clinic at this shopping mall too.

    After that, I wanted to go to the restroom, but the entire level three was filled with tonnes of parents with the children waiting for enrichment classes to start or end. I did not want to use the toilets there, so I told them to go down to the second floor. El had just managed to navigate the escalators properly, so I was surprised when he did not go down, and I had already moved down. When we reached the bottom, he told me he had just seen his friend, Ash. He went on and on, saying his friend was wearing a blue top, and he wanted to meet him. I had no choice but to bring him up again. I carried him around, but could not see his friend. I wondered whether he had really seen him. Finally, just as I wanted to go down to the second floor again, I spotted him being carried by his mother. He refused to turn and say hi to El, and the mother said he was throwing a tantrum. El was very disappointed, but we went off after a while. When we finally left, he was really tired.

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