Roseola

This is the first time I came upon this condition.

Kang was down with high fever over the weekends that lasted around 4 days. Prior to this, he had very mild diarrhoea since mid-week. He kept waking up in the night (<1hr between each session) and paracetamol, regular sponging and bathing didn't seem to do much to bring down the temperature. So we brought him to the doctor after 2 nights (Meanwhile, En also caught a mild runny nose and cough). He was prescribed Ibufen, which proved much more effective. However, as his fever was recovering, his diarrhoea took a turn for the worse (although not as bad as when hit by the rotavirus). The day his fever fully subsided, his body broke out in red spotty rashes, even on the side of his face and neck (the sister spotted them first in the morning :)).

We decided to bring him to the doc again if condition failed to improve by the evening. Meanwhile, I ran a check on the internet to see what could have caused the spotting. One particular condition seemed to fit the description of his symptoms most - Roseola. Sudden high fever spanning 3-5 days, may have vomitting or diarrhoea, red spotty rashes (non-itchy) after fever subsides, poor appetite.......

Apparently, this is caused by a type of herpes virus (albeit non-sexually transmitted). It usually hits tots between 6 mths - 2 yrs (adults carrying the virus usually show no symptoms at all). Since condition is usually suspected only upon appearance of rashes (by then, it has already past the most contagious period), it is almost impossible to curb it's transmission (like most virus, it is transmitted by saliva or respiratory droplets — when an infected person sneezes or coughs, for example — or by fecal-oral contact).

Treatment is symptomatic so we'll have to let the virus run it's course (we got some lacteolfort for his diarrheoa). The good news: Once your child has had roseola, he'll probably have lifelong immunity to it.

For now, although he is almost recovered (with diarrheoa improving and the rashes), he is grumpier than ever. Owwwwwwww.... sleepless nights and hair-raising days.....

Finally...Home

As usual, I woke up and gave the Nursery a call to check when is Baby's next feed at ard 6.30am. Was told that he just had his milk, and that I'd just need to go at about 10am. That's kinda a long stretch from his current feed so I thought I'd just go earlier. After checking with the nurse, I was told that I'd probably only know if he can be discharged at 10+am after the doc checks him. So I have to lug his EBM supply with me. Since he may be going home later on, I decided to pack his clothing, mittens and wrap.

Left the house with all the barang barang at 8.35am and reached KKH at 9.10am. Decided to get a magazine first least I may need to wait for Baby to be certified for discharge later. By the time I reached the Nursery, I was told that the doc will be giving him his check and that I can feed him after.

Yeah! He can come home today. So I got about to feeding him, before changing him. The nurse briefed me about feeding him more frequently today so he excretes more, as I'll need to bring him down to the polyclinic again tmr for SB check. Also got a surprise - his umbilical cord had fallen off.

So I got about packing the EBM (which was left in the Nursery's fridge just after I arrived), Pampers, wet n dry tissues, then lugged 2 big bags on each shoulder, scooped my darling and headed for our drive home. Not bad huh, doing everything alone. Haha... the senior nurse commented I was an efficient mum. Great to hear that hehe....

Ahhh... Home Sweet Home....

The Naked Batman

Called the Nursery this morning ard 6.30am to enquire when is Baby's next feeding. They told me he was just fed at 6am so the next feed will be ard 9am. Thus, I canceled my postnatal massage appointment, and started getting ready to visit him at 7.45am. Of cos I brought with him my 3 bottles of frozen EBM, packed in a tuppleware of ice and drove myself there.

It was close to 9am when I arrived as there was heavy morning traffic. However, the nurse told me that he was sleeping. I told her it's his feeding time and I was informed to come down at this timing. Thus, they allowed me in and when I got to see him, what greeted me was a little naked Batman (dressed only in his diapers and sleeping on his tummy as if he was kneeling). Ya, he had this white mask ard his eyes... Poor thing.

He refused to wake up no matter how I nudged him but finally decided to suckle and feed with his eyes closed. After feeding for about 15min on one side, he refused to open his mouth when I tried to get him to latch on the other side. No matter how i teased his mouth, he just won't open it. One stubborn fellow. So I had to give up after trying for about 5min and passed him back to the nurse, as I was told that it's better not to carry him away from the light for too long.

Apparently, he was put on 2 lights instead of 1, which was discussed previously and they just switched to 1 light this morning around 8am. This meant that he had to be monitored for another 24hrs before we know if he'll be released. His jaundice level did drop to abt 260, which is still not good enough.

Sigh, guess I'll drop by the hospital again this evening with Daddy to top up his EBM supply and give him one night feed. Hope to see a less "yellowish" n more alert boy....

"Vital Statistics"

Decided to record down some numbers, just so that if there's a "next time", at least I have something to refer back to sooth my worries:-

Baby's First Poo - early morning the next day in hospital. Was informed by the nurse when she passed him to me for first feed in the morning. Then he stopped totally and I had to check with the nurses from KKH's Call-a-Nurse helpline when he was 3 Days old. Was told to monitor one more day, and if he still hasn't poo by end of next day, then we'll have to bring him to the doc. God bless he pooed a little nearing end of his 4th day. From then on, there's no stopping him.

Photo-therapy - admitted after 2nd SB check-up at polyclinic (6th day after birth. SB level had jumped from 147 to 297). Told by doc his weight is fine so he'd only go on one light, which translated to an earlier release. However, he'd need to be under the light for min 24 hrs. So earliest possible timing for discharge will be 5pm this evening. Crossing my fingers.

Mummy's First "Cake Baking" Session - Tried once in hospital, just couldn't make it. All I felt was more pain from the pushing and was advised by the nurse not to do it, so that I don't hurt my wound. Was informed by Doc that patients will usually only start again after discharge from hospital. Guess wat? Even with the liquid paraffin, it just wouldn't work. Finally, my poor contipated xxx got it's relief after 5 whole days! Trust me, the whole area felt so much relaxed n the pain more bearable after the episode.

Itching - Was down with the ITCH for both times. Though the symptoms were different. First time was hives, now rashes. Looks like heat rash to me, but the affected area is huge, spunning almost the entire body. Cause(s) unknown as of now.

Perineal pain - started getting excruciating after effects of epidural wore off. Taking 2 types of pain killer (paracetamol n Mefenamic acid only helped that much). Gotten much better only after the first major loo visit.

It's totally UNBEARABLE

Just when I need more energy and strength, why do I have to break out in rashes???

The intolerable itching is really killing me, especially when nothing I tried works - showering, creams, antihistamine, heat rash powder... what else???!!!! How did the rash come about? The last time I had hives during confinement, and now..... am I fated to itch after birthing??

Ahhhh! And I have to take my milk down to KKH for Baby and breastfeed him. The GP won't be open till 8.30am. Don't care lah, guess I'll go down to the hospital first to feed him before proceeding to clinic. Just gotta bear with it.

Sianz......

Jaundice AGAIN!

The same thing happened to En 4 years ago.

Baby Ying Kang was diagnosed with SB reading of 147 the day after his discharge from hospital. We went for a review today at CCK polyclinic and the numbers shot to 297.

Frankly speaking, I had expected something like this to happen, cos this was exactly the same case for En. He looked really yellow since a few days ago and I had more or less predicted that he might be admitted to KKH for photo-therapy during today's visit. True enough, this was the case.

Even though this has been something which I had anticipated, it pains me to have to send him to hospital and leave him there alone. Everytime I see them pricking his little foot and squeezing blood from him, it just felt so bad. And if it's going to be anything like En's experience, he will have to go through this painful process for the next 1 mth plus....

The only thing that I can do for him now is to express as much milk as I can for him, so that he still gets Mummy's love when I can't be around. I will bring them to him tomorrow morning and pray that he can be discharged by evening.

Mummy loves you.

5 vs 53

What do I mean???

Though I'd been ranting about the high cost of health care in the States, this is one case whereby I regretted not bringing En for it earlier.....

Sometime in June, I decided to let En have her Pneumococcal n Hep-A vaccination at Parkway Pediatrics as I had heard from other mummies that the vaccination is very, very cheap (Hep-A is mandatory for admission into certain kindergartens in US). Yes! I paid US$5/ea for the injections. Everyone knows how ex it is to have Pneumococcal jab here in Singapore.

Today, I decided to bring En to CCK Polyclinic for her 2nd Hep-A jab. Apparently not many GPs offer Hep-A for toddlers. The wait was long as we didn't make an appointment. To make matters worse, this was by far the most traumatic vaccination experience for her over the past year. She struggled while the nurse was injecting the needle and had a needle scratch of 1.5cm on her left arm, besides being injected twice. She cried for the next 20+ mins or so and voiced her fear of future injections. The bill - S$53!

It was only with a Dark Choc Gelato that she finally calmed down....

The Apple Test

Ever wonder what your cells look like after a meal?

So what do we do? Supplement our bodies (Hold on! Don't just go running into pharmacies n grab anything u can lay ur hands on - Not ALL supplements r made EQUAL)!

Well, I managed to get some samples of supplements and decided to do an apple test.

1. Fill 5 glasses with water.

2. Add slices of apples (from same source) into each glass.

3. Drop 1 sample of supplement into each glass.

4. Wait n see for 5 days.

Supplements used (L to R): GNC Men's Ultra, USANA Essentials, GNC Women's Ultra, Usanimals, Vitamin World Animal Chew

The first 3 are for adults and the last 2 for children. The samples are chosen as they r meant to provide all-over protection.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Frontal View

Top View

Do your own test and see the difference. It's FUN (Keep them away from ur little ones though)!

Fishoil

Why do I write an article about Fishoil?

First of all, I started seriously taking fishoil when I conceived En. Like all parents out there, I wanted my baby to be smart(with all the hype about DHA, EFA etc) n healthy. So I picked one off the counter and brought it to the gynae. When he gave the green light, I went ahead.

True enough, she was rather early on many of her developmentally stages, especially potty training haha (she dropped the diaper both DAY n NIGHT when she turned 2). But I stopped taking fishoil sometime after childbirth cos I figured my breastmilk is good enough for her (besides it's quite costly, u get what I mean??).

However, as she got older, I decided to give fishoil a try again, by feeding it to En directly (ya, I'm talking about the capsule type, not the syrupy sweet stuff). Trouble! Cos En has a very sensitive sense of smell (she would feel nausea smelling her own poo, even the smell of SNOW was too much for her when she 1st came to Utah). Of cos it didn't work, not even with mixing into her food. Luckily, Mummy was still breastfeeding her, so she could still get it if I took them (kills 2 birds with 1 stone :)). Ha! Soon after, we decided to force weaned her (she was 21 mth already leh), so.......

Now, thank God! I'd managed to re-introduce to her fishoil, re-formulated with lemony taste. Now she's enjoying her rainbow fresh milk, Milo(occasionally) etc. She knows it's her super drink and it'll make her STRONG like Inuyasha (a manga charactor "p). Now she gets the DHA, EFA she needs and I do not have to lug tins n tins of milk powder (guess many believe formula milk is better all bcos of the big D n E). Besides BREAST, FRESH is certainly best haha!

BUT, don't make the mistake I made, i.e. simply picking any fishoil u find off the shelf. If u had been following news reports, u would know that many of the commercial brands carried high level of heavy metals, if u r not careful, u may essentially be poisoning your precious ones. I was LUCKY I picked one of the safe ones initially.

The link below provides more info on fishoil n recommends u to a reliable source:-

http://www.simplygoodhealth.org/fishoil/z.php?id=3571880&eid=blog

(If anyone is keen to introduce ur children to a safe and reliable source of fishoil, feel free to let me know. I can help u get a good price :))