My baby girl had a slight runny nose recently. Just as she was about to leave for school, she rummaged through my cupboard where I place some first-aid stuff and fished out a cute face mask with Disney cartoon characters which grandma bought from Hong Kong Disneyland. She told me as a matter of factly that she did not want to spread her germs to her friends, thus had to wear the face mask. And she dutifully wore the face mask throughout the time she was in school for a good 4 hours. When I picked her up from school, the face mask was still on her face. Such a sweet and considerate little girl she was!
I am one who hates wearing face mask but had to wear a face mask for 24 hours a day for almost a week in the hospital when I was down with a bad throat infection and fever during Cassandra’s surgery 3 years ago. I will never forget how uncomfortable it was to be sleeping with a face mask on a hospital bed and until rashes broke up on my face!
Do you let your child wear a face mask to school when they are down with a cold?
My 4YO baby girl is definitely taking after her health freak mommy for she can eat raw garlic! Whenever we dine at restaurants, I will surely request for a plate of chopped raw garlic to eat with the dishes. Not that I heart raw garlic. I hate the aftertaste of garlic in my mouth. But I heart reaping the health benefits from eating raw garlic.
After being told that raw garlic can heal her from a flu that she was having, my health freak baby girl began scooping raw garlic and ate them with her rice and dishes, as shown in this picture here. I’ll bet no other 4-year old would eat raw garlic without giving you a disgusted look on his/her face while trying to feign puking. But not my baby girl. It was only when my mil commented that the chopped raw garlic may not be clean that I stopped Cass from putting more chopped raw garlic into her mouth. My mil commented that the cleanliness of the chopping board used by the restaurant worker is highly questionable, which is very true. I wouldn’t be surprised that after chopping raw meat on the board, the restaurant’s foreign worker chopped raw garlic on the wooden chopping board. A damp wooden chopping board, especially one which has contact with raw meat is a very good breeding ground for bacteria. The next time I chop garlic, I’ll be sure to save some for Cass to eat it with her rice and dishes. My 2 older girls are not that adventurous though.
Food For Thought
Below are some main health and medicinal benefits of garlic.
Note: To get the full health benefits of raw garlic, you have to do just that – take it RAW! Commercial garlic pills, tablets, oils and capsules, especially the odorless ones, are often devoid of the active enzymes that provide the benefits. Crushed, raw garlic may be mixed into virtually any meal, or put in gelatin capsules for easy swallowing, or drunk as a tea by simply crushing 1 or 2 cloves and adding hot water.
Health & Medicinal Benefits of Garlic
Powerful immune system enhancer
Antibacterial, antiviral
Antifungal – effective remedy for yeast infections & candida
Clears boils & infected sores
Improves appetite
Digestive aid – especially good if eaten with meat
Increases libido – take several raw cloves a day
Expels intestinal parasites & worms
Reduces high cholesterol
Health Remedies Using Garlic Cloves
Below are some Chinese health remedies using garlic cloves as the main ingredient. These are common, traditional ways that Chinese people make use of the health benefits of raw garlic.
Garlic Tea:
Put 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 1 or 2 grams of loose-leaf green tea in a teapot. Add a teaspoon or two of unrefined brown sugar if you wish. Pour in boiling water that has been left to cool slightly. Stir the mixture and let it steep for several minutes before drinking. After wards, leave the ingredients in the pot, as you can top it up with more water once or twice throughout the day. This is a common folk remedy for killing germs and resolving toxins in the body.
Garlic Nose Drops:
This is a preventative for the common cold and sinus problems. Crush several cloves of garlic to obtain the juice. Mix with warm water at a ratio of two parts water to one part garlic juice. Lie down and use an eye-dropper to place a couple of drops into each nostril as soon as you feel any symptoms coming on. Continue for as long as necessary. If the drops overly irritate your nostrils, stop, or reduce the number of drops.
Garlic Paste:
Crush 2 garlic cloves and mix with several drops of pure sesame oil to make a paste for external application to boils,carbuncles and infected sores. Cover then reapply when the paste becomes dry and falls off. If the skin becomes overly irritated discontinue use or wait for a day or two and try again.
Maximizing the health benefits of raw garlic to get the full health benefits of raw garlic, whether in salads, as tea, or in capsules, it’s importantyou eat less refined, processed and canned foods, and more foods in as close to their natural state as possible. Afterall, what’s the point in taking fresh, raw garlic to improve your health while, for instance, continuing to eat nutritionally-dead, toxin-producing junk foods?
According to Traditional Chinese Dietary Therapy, garlic is warm in nature (i.e. heaty) and a strong stimulant. Therefore, people who have excess heat in their body should first balance their system. Excessive internal heat comes from eating too much heaty food and drinks, e.g. meat, fried foods, coffee and alcohol. This causes symptoms like red eyes, bad breath, constipation, yellow urine, a yellow tongue moss and acne. If you have these kinds of symptoms, eliminate or greatly reduce the above items from your diet for a few weeks before you start eating garlic regularly, or it will just make your body hotter and your symptoms worse.
My 4-year old has an appetite bigger than her tummy can possibly hold. She eats more than me I kid you not. She can also eat more than her 2 sisters.
Here, she had just finished a bowl of fried vermicelli. But she told me that she still felt hungry!! So I made her a sandwich with granny’s homemade strawberry jam with half a slice of cheese. Then she gulped down a cup of fresh coconut water. During recess in school each day, she will wallop both the food that the pre-school provides as well as snacks that I pack for her. With such a ravenous and insatiable appetite, I hope she will not balloon up in just a few months. I still prefer her to be petite 🙂
Here is Cassandra’s cup of Capuccino and she drinks 1-2 cups a day! It is a decaff Capuccino and suitable for kids. Nah, just kidding. It is only my term of calling her fresh milk with a teaspoon of chocolate flavored formula sprinkled on the milk, just to make it sound and look more flavorful *grins*
My baby girl loves stirring the chocolate powder and watch it dissolve together with the milk. At times she will scoop up the chocolate powder with a spoon and eat it just like that. I guess doing this whets her appetite tee hehe.. If you have a child who is fully breastfed for a few years who refuses other types of milk other than mummy’s boops, you may try this method to entice your child to drink milk from a cup.
Yesterday during dinner, I almost choked from laughter. Since the day we learned of Whitney Houston’s sudden death, we have been talking about it all the time. Yesterday a friend came to our house for dinner and we were talking about Whitney Houston and her daughter. All of a sudden, my baby girl said “mummy, Whitney Houston died because of eating drumstick right?” All of us broke into a loud guffaw on hearing that. Baby had associated ‘drugs’ with ‘drumstick’ because the words sounded similar. LOL! Anyway, what a pity Whitney had to die this way. If she had gone for a non 12 step program, maybe she could have escaped death prematurely.
My 3.9 year old little devil enjoying her breakfast of bread dunked into half boiled free range chicken egg. She made quite a mess on the table, on her face, her hands and clothes. She even dipped her fingers into the egg mixture and tried to scoop out the egg with her hands! Oh well, as long she is willing to eat her eggs without any coercion, I am happy 😀
My baby girl will be 4 years old in April this year. Each time she sees her #2 che che in her ballet costume or practicing ballet movements at home, she will surely badger me to send her for ballet lessons. Sherilyn and Cass are always having such a great time whenever the 2 sisters dance together. Sherilyn will be teaching and Cass will be following the movements obediently. Such a heart warming sight. Cass loves her che che’s old ballet shoes and would always put it on and pretend to dance like her che che. I am very tempted to send her for baby ballet lessons and the only issue that is stopping me is that Cass still has to wear diapers because of her post surgery urine leaking problem. When Cass asked me why I cannot send her for ballet lessons, I told her that she is still on diapers, to which she replied “but I can wear the long stockings and wear a tutu skirt, so no one can see my diaper!” Such a smart reply from my baby girl. I think I am going to talk to the ballet teacher and if she has no problem with the diaper issue, then my Cass will be a ballerina soon! And who knows learning ballet will help to fix her problem too!
The dancing and singing buddies … may they be BFFs forever
2.5 years have passed since Baby was operated on her urinary tract and again cut up to fix her small gut 2 weeks after the 1st op, as a result of complication from the 1st surgery. The post op MCUG scan and post op MAG 3 scan have both shown that Baby has no more kidney reflux. Her right kidney (the one that had 3rd grade kidney reflux and a duplex system) is also growing well. Thank God we did not listen to the first surgeon and have 20% of her upper right kidney removed. All is well with my Baby now. But she is still leaking urine. She needs to wear a pad or diaper all the time. While she knows how to tell me that she wants to pee when her bladder is really full, she cannot control the urine from dribbling out. The surgeon told us that she has a ‘lazy bladder’ now due to the operation. He asked me if I would like Baby to be given meds to relax the bladder but I prefer to wait and see. Our surgeon assured us that the urine leakage problem will grossly improve when Baby is 6YO… which means that there are 2.5 more years to go!! Oh, I cannot wait for the day that Cass is forever off diapers, once and for all.
On my part, I can help Baby by bringing her to the toilet to pee every hour instead of allowing the urine to leak out when the bladder is too full. By bringing her to pee consciously, this will train her bladder to ‘work’. I guess I have to set my mind and be mentally and physically ready for all the hard work – by bringing Baby to pee every hour and have a battle with her each time. This girl is often too engrossed with whatever that she is doing that she will refrain and resist from going to the toilet to pee. I really have to have a serious pep talk with Baby to condition her mind to go to the loo to pee every hour that she is awake.
Cassandra’s 5th post Ureteral Reimplantation surgery ultrasound scan.
When she was down with Infantile Roseola, my very sick Cassandra only ate a few sticks of Rocky biscuits, a few bites of mildly salted Nori sheets, a mouthful or two of organic rice crackers, sips of water and Nutrifresh for the entire day. Each time she ate the Rocky sticks, she could only stomach half of the skinny stick. She kept telling me that she was very full. After 2.5 days of being really sick, she bounced back to her usual chatty self again. That day was one of the happiest for me or for any mother for that matter.
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.
