Monthly Archives: January 2009

January 12th, 2009
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Updates On Baby C’s Kidney Reflux

We were at our pediatric nephrologist’s clinic today.  The urine culture report for the urine culture done on Friday last week was out today.  The bacteria this time is Klabsiella, which our doctor said comes from stools most of the time.  Both our doctor and I were stumped that the bacteria has changed from E.Coli to Klabsiella in just 4 days.  Just last Monday, the urine culture test showed that there’s E.Coli bacteria in Baby C’s urine.  Now, it has changed to Klabsiella. 

The readings in Baby C’s urine, (urine culture done on Monday last week) showed that the WBC is less than 10 but the colony count reading of the E.Coli bacteria is >100,000, which is significant.  The reading is quite conflicting coz if the WBC is low, the colony count shouldn’t be significant.

The readings in the urine, (urine culture done on Friday last week) showed that the WBC is 16 but the colony count reading of the Klabsiella bacteria is only <10,000, which is insignificant.  The results are quite conflicting and we have some doubts on the accuracy of the test done by the lab at the hospital near where we stay.  Our doctor does not want to over treat Baby C nor treat her wrongly looking at the 2 urine culture reports that do not seem to jive.  So she has asked that I stop feeding antibiotics (Bactrim) to Baby C for 5 days starting from tonight.  On Saturday, we will collect her urine again for another urine culture to see what bacteria is in her urine this time…. haiz….!

We were supposed to bring Baby C for an ultrasound scan today but the queue was horrendously long, so we will postpone it to Saturday.  I am praying that the scan this time confirms that there is NO duplex system in Baby C’s urinary tract system.  If indeed there is a duplex system, then surgery is the most likely option.

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Cassandra, Kidney Reflux, Urinary Tract Infection
January 11th, 2009
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Another Ultrasound Scan Tomorrow

When we brought Baby C for an ultrasound scan 2 months ago, the radiologist saw something that looked like a Duplex system on Baby C’s right urinary tract system.  From what I understand, a Duplex system means a double ureter.  On Friday when we were at our pediatric nephrologist’s clinic, our doctor suggested another ultrasound scan to reconfirm the previous ultrasound scan.  If it’s true that she has a Duplex or Duplicated collecting system, Baby C will require a surgery to fix her urinary tract system.  I am mentally and physically prepared for Baby C to go for a surgery to safe her kidneys from being scarred.  What I fear the most now is that Baby C will suffer from bladder spasms after the surgery.  I read that bladder spasms cause excruciating pain and I am hoping that Baby C doesn’t have to go through much pain after the surgery.

BTW, if you have a child who has VUR or Kidney Reflux, you may want to check out this wonderful blog written by a wonderful mum whose daughter has Kidney Reflux.

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Cassandra, Kidney Reflux
January 11th, 2009
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Baby C Loves Strawberries

Strawberries is one of the fruits that Baby C loves the most.  It must be the strong fragrance and the sweetness.  So I’ve now used strawberries as treats for her to eat with her daily antibiotics. 

I know strawberries should best be introduced to babies after 12 months to prevent allergies. What I did was first I let Baby C lick and suck on the strawberry. After the first day and seeing that there were no allergies like swelling of the tongue, lips, and face; skin rash; wheezing; abdominal cramping; vomiting; or diarrhea, the second day, I cut 1/4 of a medium size strawberry into small pieces and fed them to her. The following day, I gave her 1/2 a strawberry. She just loves the strawberries to bits. Apart from strawberries, Baby C’s also eating red dragon fruits, apples, grapes, papaya and orange juice.


Alycia snapped this pic of me feeding Baby C her meds with a syringe and holding on to the strawberry as ‘bait’. My maid was carrying baby.

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Cassandra
January 9th, 2009
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Sherilyn Is Still Having High Fever

Despite being on antibiotics (Augmentin) twice a day since yesterday, Sherilyn’s fever is still not going down.  Her temperature has been hovering between 38 – 39.7 degrees Celsius since yesterday.   Today, I have given her 2 Volren suppositories.   Whenever the temp shoots up, Sher would tell me that she’s cold and she would shiver.   She is having the same symptoms as me, i.e. a stuffy nose and throat infection.  I hope the temperature would go down by tomorrow, failing which hubby said he will bring Sher to the paed’s clinic again.

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Fever in toddlers, Sherilyn
January 9th, 2009
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I’m Down With A Stuffy Nose And Sore Throat

It just came all of a sudden yesterday. Either I got bitten by the same bug that bit Sherilyn or Sherilyn got bitten by my flu bug.  My nose is now blocked, I can’t smell no nothing and my throat is painful.   At the onset of the stuffy nose, I quickly popped some Esberitox N tabs. 

Esberitox N is traditionally known to work based on unique combination of herbs which is known for its safety. The tablet contains the herb Radix Echinacea Purpureae (purple cone flower root), Radix Echinacea Pallidae (pale cone flower root), Radix Baptisiae Tinctoriae (wild indigo root) and Herba Thujae Occidentalis (white cedar leaf herb). According to the box, Esberitox is safe for children from as young as 2 years old.

Since yesterday, I have been popping 3 tablets 3 times a day. It’s not as effective as Clarinase but still, it manages to control the bug into accelerating into a full blown flu, minus all the side effects I get when I pop Clarinase.  I tend to get heart palpitations and insomnia whenever I pop Clarinase. At least I am not sneezing profusely and my nose is not runny, just stuffy.

As for my sore throat, it’s now under control.  I have been gargling salt water the whole of yesterday (day and night).  I have also been sucking on  some Ernest Jackson MAC dual action lozenges.

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Cold and sore throat
January 7th, 2009
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Rosken Dry Skin Cream For Eczema

I discovered by chance that the Rosken Dry Skin Cream worked on Baby C’s eczema.  Baby C has been having patches of red, sore and peeling skin on her cheeks and chin on and off. She also had eczema on her legs, which caused her itchiness.  It was exacerbated by cow’s milk (in her cereal), which I had since stopped a few months ago.  The eczema went away a few months ago but when she started to eat porridge and Nutrifresh recently, the eczema re-appeared.  I think her skin must have been allergic to some ingredients in the porridge or the soya protein in the Nutrifresh. 

When I brought her back to Ipoh recently, I had forgotten to bring along my tub of Aqua Cream.  Since I only had a tub of Rosken Dry Skin Cream which I use for my dry skin, I applied some on her eczema affected areas on her face and legs.  After just a few days, the red and sore skin became better and now, the skin on her face is flawless again, thanks to Rosken.

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Eczema in babies
January 6th, 2009
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Update On Baby C’s Urine

I sent Baby C’s pee to the hospital for another urine FEME and C&S test today.  It’s the second urine test done in a week.  The urine test has to be carried out this time to see if the bacteria is still in her urine, after being treated with a new oral antibiotics (Bactrim) for twice a day for 6 days.   It took me almost 45 minutes to collect her pee today.  I managed to stop her from struggling with an empty vitamin bottle.   Baby C found the empty vitamin bottle amusing and thought it was her new teething ring!

For more than half an hour, her pee just dribbled out drop by drop.  According to our nephrologist, babies with kidney reflux tend to have this dribbling issue.  When my maid walked away to answer the telephone, she gave me a pee fountain instantly!  Luckily I managed to quickly place the specimen bottle at the right position and collected quite an amount of pee, though my hands and the floor were all wet with her pee.  Boy was I glad to see soooo much pee in the bottle!

Anyway, the WBCs in her pee this time dropped from above 20 to only 3-6.  RBCs and protein showed a negative reading.   The sensitivity report last week showed that the E. Coli bacteria is resistant to Bactrim (which is the new antibiotics that she’s taking orally now) but I am glad that though it’s resistant, her body managed to fight off the bacteria. I hope Baby C’s immune system will grow stronger each day to fight off all the bacteria, without getting another UTI attack.

Next up….. Rosken Dry Skin Relief For Baby C’s eczema

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Cassandra, Kidney Reflux, Urinary Tract Infection
January 2nd, 2009
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My Wholesome Toasts

The other day, I bought a tub of Arla soft cheese with yoghurt.  It’s the first time I’d seen a cheese spread that comes with yoghurt.  This cheese spread is very light, has no preservative, low in sodium and tastes great.  I’ve been eating it almost everyday with my toasts.

That’s my breakfast yesterday :

Multi-grain and seed toasts with Arla cheese-yoghurt spread, organic ABC (almond, brazil nuts and cashew nuts) bread spread and sugar-free marmalade jam.


What a wholesome and satisfying breakfast that was for me. I for one, find it hard to eat heavy stuff like nasi lemak, noodles or other oily stuff for breakfast. When it comes to breakfast, I can never get bored with toasts and a wide variety of jams and bread spreads.

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Food Review, Healthy Food
January 1st, 2009
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Always Double Check Your Kids’ Meds Dosage With The Doctor

After given wrong dosage of antibiotics twice by the pharmacists from 2 private hospitals recently, my advise to everyone is that it’s best to double check with your paed after you have received the meds from the pharmacy in the hospital.

First incident – a very well-known private hospital in Ipoh
My paed told me that my baby has to be given 1.2ml of antibiotics once a day.  I was supposed to be given antibiotics enough for 1 month. After receiving the antibiotics from the pharmacist, I double checked the print-out info on the sticker on the bottle of meds. The instruction on the bottle of antibiotics said that the bottle of meds is to be discarded 7 days after reconstitution. However, I was only given 1 bottle and was told to finish the entire bottle, enough to last my baby for 1 month!  The print out stated that the dosage is 1.5ml.  There were 2 gross errors here.  First, the bottle of meds has to be discarded after 7 days and I wasn’t informed.  I was told to feed my baby with the antibiotics for 1 month!  Second, instead of stating a dosage of1.2ml on the print-out sticker for the bottle, it was printed as 1.5ml.  Good thing I am so hands on in handling my baby’s meds, if I were inexperienced, I would have fed her the wrong dosage and fed her the antibiotics which would have gone bad after 7 days.  My baby could have been seriously ill resulting from the hospital’s negligence.

Second incident – a private hospital in KL
That happened yesterday. Over the phone, my paed told me that my baby has to take 2ml of antibiotics. My hubby then went to the hospital pharmacy to collect the meds. When I checked the bottle of meds later, I was shocked to see that the dosage was printed as 3.75ml on the sticker stuck to the bottle of antibiotics. I then called my paed to reconfirm the dosage, which he told me was only 2ml. Good grief, that’s a real gross negligence and if I were a blur sotong mummy who trusts the hospital 100%, my baby would have been given almost double dosage of medication!

After these 2 incidences, I no longer trust any hospital.  I thought my baby would be in safer hands in an expensive private hospital, but I was so wrong.  I think I will call my paed to reconfirm the dosage of the medication and to double check the shelf-life of the medication from now onwards, just to be doubly sure.  When it comes to medication for my baby, I just can’t afford to go wrong. 

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Baby Care
January 1st, 2009
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No More Foul Smelling Pee

After feeding Baby C with a new antibiotics yesterday, her pee doesn’t smell foul anymore today.  She has also stopped purging and her labia is not red and sore anymore. Well, it’s actually not a new antibiotics for baby coz she had taken this antibiotics previously.  For Baby C’s case, since she gets bacteria in her pee so often (and different bacteria most of the time), our pediatric nephrologist has to keep changing her antibiotics every month, or whenever she’s attacked by a new bacteria. She has been on 4-5 types of antibiotics and our doctors have to keep changing them almost every month, depending on the situation.  I really hope and pray that the bacteria will all be flushed out from her body this time without the need for antibiotics drips or jabs.  It’s going to be super traumatic for baby and me if she has to be on drips or jabs every month. 

Since yesterday, Baby C has to eat antibiotics twice a day, 2ml each feeding.  Thank God the new antibiotics taste good, in fact it tastes very much like strawberry yoghurt drink and Baby C did not reject it.  Switching a new antibiotics for Baby C is another nightmare for me coz most times, she will reject the antibiotics and feeding her the meds is a long battle for me everyday.

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Cassandra, Kidney Reflux, Urinary Tract Infection
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