Baby gets bored with a type of food pretty easily, so I have to think of new food for her all the time, loooooong sigh….. She no longer wants her baby biscuits now – she would turn her head when offered a biscuit or she would hammer the biscuit on the table till it becomes squishy *slap forehead*. Now, she wants adult food, sei moh… food that is tasty and has a little sugar and salt, o_O! Lately, she has started to reject her porridge but when I added a tiny pinch of salt into her porridge, this fler with a sharp taste bud whacked down her bowl of porridge without much fuss.
Baby loving her Yoplait Lite yoghurt. But if she eats the same item a few days straight in a row, she would get fed-up of it again and can even puke when fed with it. Is your toddler like this too?
Since infant, Sherilyn has been a very constipated child. When she was a newborn, she would only poo poo once in 8-10 days, which got me worried sick. But when she finally poo pooed, it was explosive and she normally spent a good 15-30 minutes pooping lots. All these years up until now, Sherilyn needs to drink lots of water, prune juice, eat papaya and dragon fruit to assist her with an easy bowel movement. Every now and then, she even needed enema to induce her to move her bowels.
Lately, Sherilyn’s appetite has been really bad. She used to love drinking milk but for the past 1 month, she avoided milk and when she drank her milk, she would take forever to finish a cup of 6 ounces milk. This fler just doesn’t seem to get hungry at all lately. When she didn’t want to eat her dinner one night, we punished her and didn’t give her any milk before she went to bed. I thought she would be famished the next morning but I was wrong. The next morning, she sat at the dining table daydreaming, with the cup of milk untouched for almost an hour (and she was already late for school) until I flashed the cane at her. When it comes to meal times, she would need 2-3 hours every day to painfully swallow her food. I suspected that something wasn’t quite right with her.
Lately, she has also been complaining of having tummy aches. Last week, the hubs and I were shocked when we saw blood in the toilet bowl during one of her poopie sessions. There was quite an amount of blood and when asked if she felt pain at her bottom or in her tummy, she said no. This got the hubs and I to be concerned. A few days later, we brought her to see the paed. Our paed touched her tummy and commented that it was bloated and hard. You see, Sherilyn has a habit of holding back her poop… even when she keeps farting, she would resist going to the toilet. This happens when she’s either too lazy to sit at the throne or when she’s overly engrossed playing or watching TV. According to our paed, the poop have accummulated in her intestines, thus the bloatedness, tummy ache, frequent flatulance and the lack of appetite.
She was given Duphalac syrup (Lactul Solution) by our paed. She has to drink the solution thrice a day, until she gets a diarrhea, after which the solution can be reduced to once a day. Once she has a regular pattern of bowel movement, the medication can be stopped. Frankly, I am not really keen in feeding her with laxatives. I may try feeding her with psyllium husk (natural fibre) one of these days because this has helped me tremendously in my bowel movement.
I recently came across a new range of bread and buns for the health conscious called Baker Brown produced by Wholewheat Choice Sdn Bhd. Most of the Baker Brown bread and buns are made from wholewheat.
I got a loaf of multi-seed wholewheat bread the other day. A loaf costs RM5.50. According to what is written on the packaging, the bread is 92% fat-free, has 38% seeds, has 0% cholesterol, is sugar-free, oil-free and salt-free. So how does it taste? A tad dry (coz no oil and no sugar) but it’s perfectly fine by me coz with all the yummy bread spreads that I slather on the bread, my sandwich always taste good! I find that this bread tastes much better than the Adventist flour-free sprouted wheat bread.
The buns on the left are filled with pandan kaya and green beans. I love them and so do my gals. Each time I buy these buns, they would be walloped immediately.
The slice of multi-seed wholewheat Baker Brown bread.
I got my Baker Brown breads and buns from Desa Herbs mini mart at Taman Desa. They are also available at Sri Kota mini mart.
After 3 days of torture, the Mastitis on my left boop cleared up completely yesterday, yipee!! Here’s what I did :
1) Let Baby suckle on the left boop longer and also the whole night *looooooong sigh*.
2) Massaged my left boop with ice-cubes 3 times a day.
3) Popped Garlic pills with added Lecithin. I read from the kellymom.com breastfeeding site that Lecithin will help unblock the plugged duct.
4) Popped Vitamin C.
5) Popped Echinacea tab.
6) Don’t wear bra, especially tight ones. I find that wearing bra induces the Mastitis in my case. But don’t get me wrong… I still wear bra whenever I jog hehe. For outings, I have special outfits with built-in bra pads, so I don’t have to wear bra 😀
I also discovered that my recent frequent Mastitis attack was caused by delayed emptying of my boops. This is because I’ve been feeding Baby formula milk, so she no longer suckles so frequently. I just have a hunch that I will get another attack of Mastitis but I think I am more prepared to handle it the next time. At the onset of a slight pain in my boop, I will practise the above measures, especially no. #1 above. I wonder how I am ever going to wean Baby off my boops, how you tell me?
I am attacked by a third nasty Mastitis and this time, I am down with fever. The pain and swell this time round is at the top of my left boop. The previous 2 times, it was on the lower left boop. It’s so painful this time that I could barely jog yesterday morning. Being a determined fitness freak, I went ahead to jog but had to cut short my jogging session. Throughout my jogging session, I had to cup my right hand on the top left boop to reduce the pain… coz when the boop moved, it hurt like hell. When I returned from jogging, I had chills, bodyache, headache and felt feverish. I felt so cold that I had to bathe in warm water, something which I will only do whenever I have fever and also during my confinement. I checked my temperature and it was 38.3 degrees Celsius. I was feeling really lethargic, achy all over, felt like weeping and only wanted to sleep.
After getting my maid to feed Baby C breakfast, I put her in the playpen and pushed the playpen next to my bed and I just lay there to rest with a blanket over my shoulders. I also put ice-cubes on the swollen boop but that did not reduce the swelling. I continued to put ice-cubes over my left boob this morning. I also popped 4 Panadol Actifast yesterday and thank God the fever subsided this morning. However, the pain hasn’t quite yet subsided and I could only do brisk walking instead of running. I even went to do marketing (by foot) and carried home 2 heavy bags of veggie, fish, bread and take-away noodles!
I did a google search this morning to see how I can treat my Mastitis naturally. I found out that popping Echinacea, raw garlic and high doses of Vitamin C can help fight the infection. I have popped an Echinacea tab and some vitamins this morning. According to the kellymom.com breastfeeding website, taking a Lecithin supplement can also help combat recurrent plugged milk ducts. I may get my maid to prepare some raw garlic for me to eat them together with my noodles later. I’ll also get some Lecithin tabs from the pharmacy tomorrow. I used to take a brand of garlic pills that has added Lecithin, so I’ll get a bottle of that. I hope I don’t need antibiotics to treat the Mastitis, knowing very well that antibiotics will cause more harm than good to me.
I told ya Baby C is a health freak baby. I gave her a small slice of stir-fried celery the other day and she loved it more than any of her baby biscuits, unbelievable! I was really surprised that she likes celery as this veggie tend to have a rather unappealing smell and taste but my health freak baby didn’t think so, lol!
During Baby C’s 3-week stay in the hospital recently, she had gone through many types of scans from countless x-rays to a Fluoroscopy, ultrasound scans, a CT Scan and even an Echo Heart Scan! That explains how our bill amounted to over RM50k! During that period of time, I cannot tell you how terribly worried I was of the amount of radiation my little baby’s body was exposed to everyday. But it’s between the devil and the deep blue sea. X-ray or you won’t know what’s going on inside her abdomen and guts. It’s a case of do or die. During the fluoroscopy procedure, my heart pounded each time I saw the Radiologist taking pictures of Baby’s abdomen… all in, there were easily 20-30 pictures! That procedure only completed about 4 hours later. Not to mention the 3 days straight in a row of x-rays taken (including one done on one night towards midnight) to rule out obstruction of the guts when she puked non-stop. Anyway, sigh…. all is over now, I hope.
During the 3-week nightmarish hospital stay, when all the x-rays and scans did not give a conclusive and definite answer, a group of paeds came to see Baby. The chief paed did not want to leave any stones unturned and sent her for an Echo Heart Scan to rule out Kawasaki…. though she did not have other Kawasaki symptoms. The cardiologist from another hospital was called to perform the Echo Heart Scan on Baby. The scan showed a slight dilation of the heart vessel but that did not warrant any serious attention. The report showed that all was normal but to monitor Baby’s condition.
Days later after all those scans and x-rays, when Baby’s belly ballooned up like an inflated balloon, our surgeon ordered Baby to be operated on immediately and I was given a notice of like less than an hour to be mentally prepared! That day – 22 May 2009 will forever be etched in my memory. Not a day goes by without me reminiscing of what Baby and I had gone through during her 3-week nightmarish stay in the hospital. It was like living hell for Baby and I pray that Baby never ever have to re-live those days again, ever.
2 slices of toasted multi-grain bread with light Philadelphia cheese spread, avocado and Steffi’s sugar-free peanut butter. This light Philadelphia cheese spread is supposedly 80% less fat than butter or margerine, but it tastes good!
And this President garlic cheese spread tastes even better. I love it and it goes very well with crackers, bread, toasts or even on its own. It’s not too salty and my 2 older gals love it as well.
I am not a fan of aubergines (or eggplant or brinjal) and I only like them when they are stuffed with fish paste and lightly pan-fried. Grilling / roasting them or BBQing them with a drizzle of olive oil are also acceptable but I hardly ever buy them from the market or the supermarket. But my mil loves aubergines and she cooks them every week. My 2 older gals don’t like aubergines either but I try to coax them to eat them.
This is how my mil normally cooks aubergines :
She cooks it the healthy way, i.e. steamed. After the aubergines are steamed, she sprinkles some toasted sesame seeds and fried garlic + oil along with some chopped Chinese parsley and a drizzle of soy sauce. It’s rather tasty this way. It is also tasty when cooked with tau cheong (fermented soy bean paste) and minced chicken/pork meat and some cut red chillies.
Did you know that Aubergine is a low fat vegetable, but it absorbs a lot of fat when it is fried? Pan-fried aubergines with sambal belacan and dried shrimps is a very popular dish in Chinese restaurants and ‘tai chau’… and it’s really fattening when cooked this way as the aubergines absorbs a lot of oil. Aubergines are also known as the poor man’s meat.
Food For Thought:
Aubergines/brinjals block the formation of free radicals in the body.
Reduces cholesterol levels.
Source of folic acid and potassium.
It is believed to be a cholesterol regulator.
It is anti diabetic.
In few countries like Africa it is used to treat epilepsy and convulsions.
In South East Asia, it is used to treat stomach cancers and measles.
It reduces swellings from joints and other parts of body.
The aubergine juice is used to prevent perspiration on the palm and sole.
Rich in Vitamin A & B.
It is low in calorie content.
It is rich in calcium, fibre, folic acid, sodium, vitamin C and potassium.
It is high in water content and has almost 92 % of moisture.
Due to its low calorie content it is suitable for people who are suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.
Tip When Preparing Brinjal Dish
Care must be taken while cooking brinjal. To prevent discoloration of the flesh, it should be sliced with a stainless steel knife.
When I was a young girl (before turning into a teenager), I used to have frequent break-outs of very painful and huge pus-filled boils. I had boils on my buttocks, under my eyes, on my cheek and frequently had them inside, outside and on my nose! Back then, I wasn’t a health freak yet and hated to drink water… and loved feasting on junk food and sweets. That explained the frequent eruption of boils. Oh well, most kids hate to drink water but love junkies, don’t they? When I knew how to care for myself and realized the importance of eating healthily and wanted to have a clear complexion, the boils hardly attacked me but once in a while, I would still get them on my nose. However, those boils were usually not pus-filled.
Lately, I have been getting these boils again – inside and outside my nose, aargh! But thankfully they were not pus-filled, but they hurt like hell. I can only point my finger to the germs from Baby C’s soiled diapers. Ever since Baby C had her first UTI attack at 7 weeks, I have been sniffing her soiled diapers every single day, like 20 times a day! Go find a calculator to calculate how many soiled diapers I’ve been sniffing for the past 14 months. But those soiled diaper-sniffing sessions have been life-saving. At the onset of foul-smelling pee in Baby’s diapers, I would bring her to the pediatric nephrologist and make her drink gallons of water to flush those pesky bugs out.
When I had those painful pus-filled boils with big heads decades ago, my mum would ask me to use a cotton and dip it into a cup of hot water mixed with salt water. This would induce the ‘head’ to erupt and the pus to flow out. Once the pus is evacuated out, the pain would also subside and the swelling reduced as well. But this treatment is frigging painful!
I did a google search and found these home remedies to treat boils from www.home-remedies-for-you.com/remedy/Boils.html :
Garlic and Onions have been proved to be among the most effective home remedy for boils treatment among several other remedies. Onion juice or garlic juice may be applied on boils externally to ripen them, break and evacuate the pus. Juices of both these vegetables can be mixed in equal quantities and applied on the boil for beneficial results.
Bitter Gourd is also an effective home remedy for blood filled boils. To treat boils, a cupful of fresh bitter gourd juice can be mixed with 1 teaspoon of lime juice, sipped on slowly on an empty stomach everyday for a few days.
Milk cream remedy is useful in the treatment of boils. An excellent poultice for boils cure is, to apply a mixture of a teaspoon each of milk cream and vinegar with a pinch of turmeric powder. This helps to ripen the blood boils and heal them without letting them become septic.
Betel Leaves treatment for boils is a valuable home remedy. A betel leaf is gently warmed till it softens. Coat it with a layer of castor oil. Spread the oiled leaf over the inflamed part. Replace this every few hours. After applying a few times, boil ruptures and drains out all the purulent matter.
Cumin seeds are beneficial in the treatment of boils. Cumin seeds are ground to a paste in water. This cumin seed paste is applied to boils for beneficial results.
Margosa leaves have proven effective in treating boils. They can be either used as a poultice, liniment or decoction with positive results. To make the decoction, boil 15 gm of margosa leaves in 500 ml water till it is reduced by one-third.
For boils treatment, steep parsley in boiled water till it becomes soft and juicy. When it is comfortably hot, wrap it in a clean muslin or linen cloth and apply it on the boils as a poultice.
Applying turmeric powder on boils speeds healing process. In case of fresh boils, roast a few dry roots of turmeric, dissolve the ashes in a cupful of water and then apply over the affected areas. This solution aids boils to ripen and burst.
I am a WFHM with 3 beautiful girls - Alycia, Sherilyn and Cassandra. I quit the job that I love to stay home with my 3 angels as that's what I've always wanted to do. I am a health freak, fitness freak and a clean freak too. I love to eat and live the clean and healthy way; I want my kids and hubby to do the same too.
I always believe that your health is your wealth and if you have good health, that's the best gift you can ever ask for from God.
I have been writing product reviews, food reviews / restaurant reviews and product advertorials since 2007. Please email Shireen at shireenyong@gmail.com to inquire if you are interested to place an advertorial or review in this blog.
