The dentist told me that Caitlin's tooth enamel were badly formed, that is why she gets cavities easily. Badly formed enamel already has lots of pits that trap food. Sigh.
What we can do now is to brush her teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and at night, we let the toothpaste with fluoride remain on her teeth, and dap a bit of fluoride toothpaste on the cavities. And also, we have to wean her off the night feeds (she can't have fluoride on her teeth and then drink milk right?) which I have already done when I found out that she has so many cavities. Fluoride therapy, the dentist said, would delay the progression of decay until she is old enough to go through the procedure for filling. The brown spots will not go away but will not get deeper, and some beginning decay may remineralise.
Badly formed enamel... that never happened to Kieran. He has nice teeth although two of his molars had decay which were filled. Being experienced with dealing with tooth decay with my older child, I was very diligent with brushing and cleaning of teeth for Caitlin, my second born, so why does the decay still happen? Why was her enamel so weak and badly formed? I'm agonising over these questions. So I did some research.
Breastfeeding mothers does not need to rush to wean their babies off night feeds to prevent decay. In fact research has shown that breast milk can protect baby's teeth from decay. Unfortunately, research has also shown that night nursing exacerbates decay if baby already has cavities. A lot of factors goes into baby tooth decay. It could be genetics, medications mother took while pregnant and affected the formation of baby teeth, mother's health while pregnant with baby, presence of bacteria that caused the decay (the sugar bugs) and of course parents' diligence in brushing and taking care of babies' teeth. I've read that antibiotics caused weak tooth enamel. I'm avoiding antibiotics for my kids unless absolutely necessary. I had a very serious episode of stomach flu that required hospitalisation and strong medication while I was 8 weeks pregnant with Caitlin and I thought that might be the reason for her badly formed enamel. Every time I brush her teeth, or see her smile, and see those cavities, I say sorry to her. I'll take extra good care of her teeth now. I hope she won't have to go through too extreme restorative dentistry work that requires GA, and I certainly pray this won't affect her permanent adult teeth.
Read more about weak tooth enamel here.
Showing posts with label breast milk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breast milk. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2015
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Baby Caitlin
People say that when one child is a high demand baby, the next one would be an easy one. How true is that!
Kieran drove us mad the moment we brought us back from the hospital. First, the sleepiness and refusal to wake up for milk milk, then his incessant crying from 6pm to midnight during fussy evenings.
Now, I was surprised how much easier it is to take care of Caitlin. No wonder some people said taking care of newborn is easy. When I had Kieran, I found this saying ridiculous. How could it be easy. There could actually be easy to care for newborn in this world. Haha. Caitlin is a darling. She sleeps most of the time and yet wakes up every 2-3 hour for milk milk. Sometimes she sleeps more and wakes up 4 hours later. Sometimes she wakes up every hour for milk. But every time, she will guai guai finish her milky and then go back to sleep. She burps whenever I burp her and she regurgitate milk but not as much as Kieran does last time. Kieran "merlioned" his milk out. But I must say its partly my fault too coz I pumped too much and created an oversupply problem. My poor Kieran had to bear with the fast milk flow, hard breasts and had to cough when the flow comes as its too fast, and regurgitate more due to the oversupply. Its all my fault. This time, I am smart enough to treat the engorgement issue by not pumping, and using cabbage leaves once a day, and cold compression and massage in between feeds. By 2nd week, my breasts are no longer engorged, and I still have lots of milk for Caitlin and she's drinking happily. But I still have fast milk flow and she coughs at times but its not too serious. How do I know I have lots of milk? I tried hand expressing a bit of milk when my breasts feels too full, especially when Caitlin didn't drink from that side for the feeding session, and the milk sprayed out like last time when I pumped for Kieran. I tried not to pump until next week. Don't want to start stimulating too much.
Caitlin's poo also turn mustard colour by the second day after discharging from hospital and its just like what the book says. She also has a little bit of jaundice and tested 10.2 at Dr Ong's clinic, but Dr Ong said its not high, and the level will eventually come down as long as she feeds well, and output is good. Her output is not worrying at all. She wets 6-8 diapers a day, as stated in the book for a healthy baby and she poo a lot of mustard poo poo everyday too.
She's our text book baby. And we hope she remains so easy to care for!
By the way, she slept through the night for two nights and then last night, she woke up at 2.40am for milk and diaper change. Not sure if she'll sleep through the night again. But that's not important. Most importantly, dear Caitlin must grow up happy and healthy, and smart, just like her gor gor. But of course she'll be smart, with all the nutrients from mummy's milk! I'm determined to give her 100% total breast milk until she's 6 months and for as long as she wants thereafter! Just like with Kieran. Hmm... maybe I should ask Kieran if he wants to try sucking milk milk today... I noticed that its no longer colostrum but full milk already. Will he still accept milk milk?
Kieran drove us mad the moment we brought us back from the hospital. First, the sleepiness and refusal to wake up for milk milk, then his incessant crying from 6pm to midnight during fussy evenings.
Now, I was surprised how much easier it is to take care of Caitlin. No wonder some people said taking care of newborn is easy. When I had Kieran, I found this saying ridiculous. How could it be easy. There could actually be easy to care for newborn in this world. Haha. Caitlin is a darling. She sleeps most of the time and yet wakes up every 2-3 hour for milk milk. Sometimes she sleeps more and wakes up 4 hours later. Sometimes she wakes up every hour for milk. But every time, she will guai guai finish her milky and then go back to sleep. She burps whenever I burp her and she regurgitate milk but not as much as Kieran does last time. Kieran "merlioned" his milk out. But I must say its partly my fault too coz I pumped too much and created an oversupply problem. My poor Kieran had to bear with the fast milk flow, hard breasts and had to cough when the flow comes as its too fast, and regurgitate more due to the oversupply. Its all my fault. This time, I am smart enough to treat the engorgement issue by not pumping, and using cabbage leaves once a day, and cold compression and massage in between feeds. By 2nd week, my breasts are no longer engorged, and I still have lots of milk for Caitlin and she's drinking happily. But I still have fast milk flow and she coughs at times but its not too serious. How do I know I have lots of milk? I tried hand expressing a bit of milk when my breasts feels too full, especially when Caitlin didn't drink from that side for the feeding session, and the milk sprayed out like last time when I pumped for Kieran. I tried not to pump until next week. Don't want to start stimulating too much.
Caitlin's poo also turn mustard colour by the second day after discharging from hospital and its just like what the book says. She also has a little bit of jaundice and tested 10.2 at Dr Ong's clinic, but Dr Ong said its not high, and the level will eventually come down as long as she feeds well, and output is good. Her output is not worrying at all. She wets 6-8 diapers a day, as stated in the book for a healthy baby and she poo a lot of mustard poo poo everyday too.
She's our text book baby. And we hope she remains so easy to care for!
By the way, she slept through the night for two nights and then last night, she woke up at 2.40am for milk and diaper change. Not sure if she'll sleep through the night again. But that's not important. Most importantly, dear Caitlin must grow up happy and healthy, and smart, just like her gor gor. But of course she'll be smart, with all the nutrients from mummy's milk! I'm determined to give her 100% total breast milk until she's 6 months and for as long as she wants thereafter! Just like with Kieran. Hmm... maybe I should ask Kieran if he wants to try sucking milk milk today... I noticed that its no longer colostrum but full milk already. Will he still accept milk milk?
Monday, June 17, 2013
Made in school
It was Zhong Yuan Jie which is the time when Chinese remembered the great Poet Xu Yuan who gave his life for his country. When I brought Kieran to school, they were telling stories about Zhong Yuan jie and the let the children make dumplings. Kieran brought a small dumpling home and I later let him open it and eat it on his own. I hope he had fun that day :)
Father's Day just passed. We had a great time with dearest daddy. Yun Xuan love daddy so much. He made a nice handicraft for daddy at school! Teacher Lina said he used his fingers to dot the paints onto the tie of the "shirt" and use cotton bud to put glitters on it. I asked Yun xuan whether he did that himself and he said yes. This is daddy's first Father's Day gift from our boy. I told Yilin he's very fortunate. A dad is a son's first hero and a daughter's first love. He is now both a hero and a first love.
By the way, Kieran is officially weaned off mummy's milk milk since 6 June 2013. He breastfed for 20 months. I have the urge to continue to latch him on every time! I love the feeling of latching him and watching his chubby little cheeks as he suck hungrily. It is a way of telling me my baby is still a baby and has not grown into a boy yet. But oh well... I've got to stay firm. Maybe I will reintroduce it to him after Caitlin is born and see if he still accepts it... hehe.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
weaning off milk milk
I'm in my 29th week now, and its really time to get Kieran used to sleep without milk milk (latching on to me for breastmilk).
As my breastmilk supply decreases, Kieran does not really ask for milk milk anytime in the day. He drinks formula milk with a bit of milo for added taste. We added milo so that we can coax him to take it as milo and not a replacement for his milk milk, and indeed he takes to it and requests for milo about 3 times a day, and each time 160ml in the morning and 120ml at other times.
But he kind of already associated milk milk with sleep time, and my nipple becomes his pacifier. They can't supply him much food anymore but it works great as a soother for him before he goes to sleep. That is good for him but not good for me! Imagine after giving birth to Caitlin, I still have to nurse Kieran to sleep! I'll be doubly exhausted! So, its weaning off milk milk for the afternoon naps and for night feeds for now.
Kieran couldn't get used to it and started to say "No no no!" and cried when I told him, "Come. Sleepy time, but you must sleep on your own, no milk milk."
I tried to sleep beside him and pat him to sleep but he couldn't get to sleep despite being super tired, so he tossed and turned and cried angrily, even attempting to pinch and bite me if I tried to comfort him. So we have to try another method. Hubby carried him and calmed him down by telling him he will show him the stars (glow in the dark stickers in our room) and then pat him to him as he carried him in his arms. This is not an ideal case as our intention is to train him to go to sleep on his own on his bed. But since he couldn't yet, we just had to settle with this for now. At least we wean him off breastmilk now, and then try to go to the next step which is to get him to sleep on his own.
Kieran's Childcare centre has 4 cases of HFMD since opening. Its a new centre. I'm glad the principal is very open with us regarding this. I checked Kieran's hands today and was worried to find a blister on his palm. Hubby and I discussed a lot about HFMD, I did a lot of research and reading on it, and we thought about how we should deal with it if it really happens to Kieran. The complication is that I'm pregnant now and we know in 3rd trimester, although HFMD will not cause miscarriage, and will not easily pass on to adults anyway, there may have a chance that the newborn baby will get it. And we are also worried that in future, Kieran may pass the virus to his sister while she's still young. After observing for awhile, we decided that it shouldn't be a blister but a mosquito bite because his usual bites look like that, and if its HFMD, he should be having more than one blister. I checked his feet. They are fine. He's having dry and peeling skin on his palms and feet though. I think maybe the antiseptic hand sanitiser the centre uses is too drying for his skin. I've stopped using Kirei Kirei hand wash for him at home too, and uses his body wash to clean his hands. Hopefully the peeling will stop. I also applied some moisturiser on his feet before he sleeps today.
Poor Kieran had to cry so much these few days. Cry during the morning at the school gate coz he wants mummy, cry during the afternoon when he can't get milk milk for his afternoon nap, and cry at night when he can't get milk milk before he sleeps. Oh yes, he also has a old time habit of waking at about 3-4am at night to suckle on the nipple for a few seconds before he goes back to sleep. So now, he still wakes up at 3am to toss and turn. For the past few nights, he can toss and turn for a while and then goes back to sleep on his own but yesterday he was banging on the door and wanting to find mummy for milk milk! Hubby who now sleeps with Kieran instead of me, carried him until he sleeps and then put him back onto his bed. Let's hope tonight will be better, and he won't wake up in the middle of the night but sleeps through!
Kieran is eating a lot lately and has grown quite chubby at his cheeks. Teacher reflected that he could eat a lot at school, and when he returns home, its non stop eating again!
My heart aches whenever I send Kieran to school. I hope for one day when he will tell me he enjoys school and then my heart will not ache so much. Today he did painting with his hands, and music lessons, and he told me he played with cars (he usual favourite). Teacher showed me pictures she took of him doing the activities. She said he's getting better. I do hope so! This week, he started to accept showering at school which is great. I'm glad to know he's improving much. Just hope to see him tearless when I bring him to school and when I bring him home. Now, I'm keeping him to half day schedule. I don't really want him to stay too long in school as I know sleeping on the mattress which will only be washed once a week, will increase chances of him getting viruses which may threaten my unborn baby, and he hasn't really learnt to sleep on his own yet, so it will be lots of unnecessary tears for him if he has to sleep on his own at the child care centre.
That's all for now... Back to sleep time. Super tired! Tomorrow is another trying day...
As my breastmilk supply decreases, Kieran does not really ask for milk milk anytime in the day. He drinks formula milk with a bit of milo for added taste. We added milo so that we can coax him to take it as milo and not a replacement for his milk milk, and indeed he takes to it and requests for milo about 3 times a day, and each time 160ml in the morning and 120ml at other times.
But he kind of already associated milk milk with sleep time, and my nipple becomes his pacifier. They can't supply him much food anymore but it works great as a soother for him before he goes to sleep. That is good for him but not good for me! Imagine after giving birth to Caitlin, I still have to nurse Kieran to sleep! I'll be doubly exhausted! So, its weaning off milk milk for the afternoon naps and for night feeds for now.
Kieran couldn't get used to it and started to say "No no no!" and cried when I told him, "Come. Sleepy time, but you must sleep on your own, no milk milk."
I tried to sleep beside him and pat him to sleep but he couldn't get to sleep despite being super tired, so he tossed and turned and cried angrily, even attempting to pinch and bite me if I tried to comfort him. So we have to try another method. Hubby carried him and calmed him down by telling him he will show him the stars (glow in the dark stickers in our room) and then pat him to him as he carried him in his arms. This is not an ideal case as our intention is to train him to go to sleep on his own on his bed. But since he couldn't yet, we just had to settle with this for now. At least we wean him off breastmilk now, and then try to go to the next step which is to get him to sleep on his own.
Kieran's Childcare centre has 4 cases of HFMD since opening. Its a new centre. I'm glad the principal is very open with us regarding this. I checked Kieran's hands today and was worried to find a blister on his palm. Hubby and I discussed a lot about HFMD, I did a lot of research and reading on it, and we thought about how we should deal with it if it really happens to Kieran. The complication is that I'm pregnant now and we know in 3rd trimester, although HFMD will not cause miscarriage, and will not easily pass on to adults anyway, there may have a chance that the newborn baby will get it. And we are also worried that in future, Kieran may pass the virus to his sister while she's still young. After observing for awhile, we decided that it shouldn't be a blister but a mosquito bite because his usual bites look like that, and if its HFMD, he should be having more than one blister. I checked his feet. They are fine. He's having dry and peeling skin on his palms and feet though. I think maybe the antiseptic hand sanitiser the centre uses is too drying for his skin. I've stopped using Kirei Kirei hand wash for him at home too, and uses his body wash to clean his hands. Hopefully the peeling will stop. I also applied some moisturiser on his feet before he sleeps today.
Poor Kieran had to cry so much these few days. Cry during the morning at the school gate coz he wants mummy, cry during the afternoon when he can't get milk milk for his afternoon nap, and cry at night when he can't get milk milk before he sleeps. Oh yes, he also has a old time habit of waking at about 3-4am at night to suckle on the nipple for a few seconds before he goes back to sleep. So now, he still wakes up at 3am to toss and turn. For the past few nights, he can toss and turn for a while and then goes back to sleep on his own but yesterday he was banging on the door and wanting to find mummy for milk milk! Hubby who now sleeps with Kieran instead of me, carried him until he sleeps and then put him back onto his bed. Let's hope tonight will be better, and he won't wake up in the middle of the night but sleeps through!
Kieran is eating a lot lately and has grown quite chubby at his cheeks. Teacher reflected that he could eat a lot at school, and when he returns home, its non stop eating again!
My heart aches whenever I send Kieran to school. I hope for one day when he will tell me he enjoys school and then my heart will not ache so much. Today he did painting with his hands, and music lessons, and he told me he played with cars (he usual favourite). Teacher showed me pictures she took of him doing the activities. She said he's getting better. I do hope so! This week, he started to accept showering at school which is great. I'm glad to know he's improving much. Just hope to see him tearless when I bring him to school and when I bring him home. Now, I'm keeping him to half day schedule. I don't really want him to stay too long in school as I know sleeping on the mattress which will only be washed once a week, will increase chances of him getting viruses which may threaten my unborn baby, and he hasn't really learnt to sleep on his own yet, so it will be lots of unnecessary tears for him if he has to sleep on his own at the child care centre.
That's all for now... Back to sleep time. Super tired! Tomorrow is another trying day...
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Baby Kieran Sia Yun Xuan is born on 10 Oct 2010!
My dearest baby Sia Yun Xuan Kieran is born on 10 Oct 2011. A wonderful date, isn't it?!
Haha.
The whole delivery process goes like this:
Early morning, hubby and I woke up for breakfast as usual. Rainy day and Hubby said rainy days are usually lucky days for him. He has a feeling something good will be happening today!
Hubby received call from the company he went for interview at and he was informed that he is offered a placement. He called me to talk about handing in his resignation and asked if there's any sign of labour yet. I said no. No bloody show, no nothing. I'm still at 38 weeks 4 days pregnant.
I went to take a short nap.
10.30am, while lying down on bed, resting, I heard, or rather felt a "pop" sound below, somewhere at my lower tummy. A few minutes later, I felt warm gush of fluid there, much like period coming.
Heart pounding, I rushed to the bathroom and saw my pantyliner stained with pinkish liquid. Washed and saw clear liquid with some blood stains flowing up continuously.
Called hubby and asked him whether he has tendered. He said yes. I told him water bag burst. He was shocked. I told him I was very frightened and nervous. He asked me not to be afraid and asked me to call my doctor and my dad immediately. Dad will come to drive me to hospital.
Dr Ho's clinic nurse asked me whether the flow of liquid is a lot. Its trickling but not a big gush. So I was advised to go to the clinic first. We did a fetal heartbeat test and Dr Ho checked the dilation. I was already 3cm dilated! I was like huh, 3cm and I felt no contraction?
He sent me to the labour ward. I didn't have anything except breakfast at 8am in the morning. Dr Ho said it's better not to eat anything in case an emergency surgery is necessary. When I'm in labour, I won't feel like eating anyway. A nurse in his office is so kind to give me a pack of biscuits. My parents, and hubby are with me. My parents in law are on their way. I couldn't believe it. My water bag broke at 10 Oct 2011, exactly the date I wish he will be born. My little angel!
I was so nervous when I went to the delivery ward. I was told to change into the hospital gown but leave the back unbuttoned in case I need epidural which needs to be injected to my spine. The nurses are so friendly and kindly answered my questions. Their calmness made me less nervous and afraid.
I'm so glad hubby is with me throughout the whole process. I am lucky to have such a loving and supportive husband.
The contraction was really painful. It started soon after I lie down on the bed with IVF inserted. I am relieved the anasthesist finally came and injected epidural. One painful insertion of the needle and one rather painful insertion of the catheter and then there's no more pain. I used the laughing gas because I thought it can help me alleviate the pain but the gas doesn't have much use. Gripping hard on the handle of the laughing gas pump helps though.
Then we waited another few more hours. Dr Ho came to check and said its still 3cm. My contraction isn't strong enough to dilate the cervix. He ordered the IVF medicine to be increased and within 1 hour, my cervix was dilated another 4 cm. Soon, the nurses came and said they want to prepare for delivery. Lucky that I used epidural. Hubby said the scale went really high up during peak of the contraction.
Then, I was 10cm dilated. Dr Ho came and told me he is going to deliver the baby now. He will use a vacuum but he still need me to push. I couldn't feel anything there after the epidural but the nurses and dearest hubby encouraged me to push when I should. I pushed not so hard at first. Then with their encouragement, I pushed harder and harder.
We heard baby's cry and there! My darling little angel Yun Xuan is born!
I immediately felt my stomach went "down" and the nurse put a crying little baby on the cloth on my chest. I was amazed and I really am not sure whether I should touch baby or hug him or what... My hubby is so brave! He watched the whole delivery process and see baby's head emerge from my vagina. He said baby came out facing side ways.
Then we watched and took photos of little Yun Xuan while doctor stitched me up. After that, Dr Ho informed me that I will feel pain a few hours later when the epidural wears off. Little did I know that the pain would be so intense that I couldn't sleep at all on day 1! Dr Ho came to check the stitches on the 2nd day and told me that besides the episiotomy, I also suffered a larger tear on the right side because my skin was too delicate. That explained the long time he took to stitch me up.
The lactation consultant came on the day after delivery to teach me breastfeeding but I couldn't do it well because the wound hurts so much! Most of my energy is gone to bearing the pain of the wound. I called hubby early on the day after the delivery to ask him to came to hospital quickly, I need him as I was feeling so extremely painful.
I love my little darling. He had jaundice on day 3 and his bilirubin level went up to level 14. So I stayed one more day to accompany him. I tried to breastfeed him as best as I can and to relieve his agony of taking off all his clothes and going under the phototherapy, I asked the nurses to feed him formula milk if he cried too hard. Then the next day, he level is 11.5 and the doctor said he can go home. Babies can go home if they are below level 10 but the doctor said he can go home but we must feed him well, make sure he passes urine and stool well and he has some sun bathing in the morning between 8-10am.
I really love my darling baby. Now, he is suffering because his bilirubin level is still high, he keeps sleeping and sleeping, not waking up every 2-3 hourly for feeds. My breasts are engoarged and I really really want to feed my little darling like I did in the hospital. I don't know what I should do. I'm at such a lost. I just want my little darling to get well as soon as possible. If he don't get enough breast milk, his bilirubin level will go up, and I can't bear my darling baby doing back to hospital again. If he needs to be admitted, what should I do?
He's not feeding well like other babies. He just kept sleeping. I'm useless at waking him up.
I was miserable that I was crying since this afternoon. Thinking of my little baby suffering makes me cry more and more. Other people around me showing concern made me cry even more! I just hope they would just leave me alone so that I can spend time with just me and my baby and I don't have to feel terrible with people disturbing me when I feed him and I don't have to bother with unwelcomed advices. I just want my hubby to be beside me, talking to me, reassuring me, caring for me and telling me baby and I are just going to be fine.
I hope everything goes well for my beloved and we can be happy again.
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