Baby Matters: CRADLE CAP (Dentinox Cradle Cap Shampoo)

Eva was born pretty clean and with quite an amount of hair (much to my pleasure)! However, somehow as time pass, I noticed that she started to have cradle cap. (Aww... sad) 

Other than not looking good, I was more worried if it would be itchy and I see that they start to build up and thicken on her head! It was difficult to remove especially in between that pile of hair. And she started having them on her eye brows! 

So like most people / webbies advised, to use olive oil to apply and lightly scrub it off. My MIL bought Ginvera one and we tried. Maybe we soak it for too long? I apply it before her bath and after washing it off, the areas applied became reddish! I do not know if she was just being really sensitive or yeah, soak for too long. 

And I decided that it wasnt a good method and I wanted to let her outgrow it while I pick on them everyday. It was so tempting to peel them off. Haha BUT PLS NOTE! you need to be really really careful lest you peel off not the super dried falling off ones and that will mean you are pulling on her skin and that can cause her pain and possible rash / infection.  

Then one day, I found her with infection in her outer ear, brought her to polyclinic and I asked doctor about the cradle cap too. 

Doc recommended us to get cradle cap shampoo from pharmacy and it should come off easily. And so I went to search for it at pharmacy and found Dentinox Cradle Cap Shampoo (S$9.84). 




This is a cradle cap treatment shampoo that is effective yet gentle enough to be used as normal care shampoo after the cradle cap clear. I started to use and I found it indeed effective. I just lather on her head and massage a little more at the areas with thicken scabs, and I even put some lathered foam onto her eye brows before I clean it off with a bath handkerchief. 

It did help to soften the scabs but it depends on how much rubbing you do in order to really get it off the skin. I didnt want to rub too hard on her head and Eva actually prefer to go into the water asap and kick than to let me clean her head. So I dont have much time to slowly massage it away. 

What I did was more gross and dangerously unhygienic and not quite advisable YET perhaps often done by mummies / aunts?? 

As the shampoo soften the scabs and when it dries a little, the edges of the scab is actually not adhering to the skin, so yes I started peeling off from there. I did not succeed in removing all in this manner because I was careful in testing and checking to see if the part was indeed off the skin and not having any fresh 'wound' beneath. 

Through this method, I managed to help remove much of the scabs before they thicken to a horrible stage!! Subsequently I did pass the shampoo to infant care for her teachers to use to wash her hair. And after couple more months, no more cradle caps. I guess she probably just outgrow that phase. 

I think it was a good move that I shave her when she was 01 month old? Other than for tradition purpose, I thought it was good to remove the hair when she is younger so she has time to grow nice hair by the time she reaches 4 mths ready for infant care. And more so for the cradle cap to be removed! With that pile of hair, it was so difficult to even clean the hair, let alone the scalp!! So yes, with a nice shaven head, it was easier to see the affected areas and cleaning was easier as well. 

Later, Eva shaved again around coming 5 months old as the hair growth was not even. Short and slow in areas where she sleep on so we decided to shave it again. And now Eva has a good head of hair!! (though I still see some sparse areas which are now more covered up by her longer hair).

Baby Matters: CLEARING BABY THROAT MUCUS (Jing Feng San)

Jing feng san (heard my korean sis-in-law refer it as "scared powder")

This is absolute good stuff IF you believe in TCM and dare to try for your baby! I have tested and so far so good. I cannot say about the impact on her little body and organs on long term (since it's external intake) but I can definitely say that it totally improved her condition miraculously fast! 

Okay so the story started with Eva coming down with runny nose which is pretty common for the past few months. Normally it clears off on its own after a few days. However this time it came down hard on her. Within half a day after she started rubbing her nose, she was started to choke on her mucus backflow and phlegm especially when she sleeps. Several times after her milk feed, she would choke on her phlegm and puke some milk. She also couldnt sleep well as she cannot breathe properly and would keep coughing. Normally able to sleep only after she puke some milk together with the phlegm. BUT I have to say she embraced her illness well! She is otherwise active and cheerful, only gets a little irritated at her itchy nose and will rub it agitatedly. 

Anyway as her sleep is affected and green mucus was what really alert me that she needs medical help. And so I brought her to the GP who was concerned and decided to put her on antibiotics to prevent sinus infection / lung infection. 

Needless to say, feeding medicine wasnt a good experience but I insist on NOT force feeding her so that she will not be scared and makes medicine feeding a worse experience when she grows older. Not to say I am hoping that she will need but well, by nature, I guess she will need. 

So after a week of medication fed by myself and infant care teachers, Eva shown significant improvement in her condition but still I can hear the low rumbling sounds of phlegm in her chest and she still had problems during sleep when the mucus start building up. 

And since she has completion her course of antibiotics, I decided to put her on Jing Feng San which is traditionally used to calm children who have been scared / shocked. There is actually indications for Young children suffering from fever, stomach wind, sputum (mucus that is coughed up from the lower airways), coughing, restlessness and loss of appetite; if you check the ingredient list, you will find Pearl powder which is also traditionally used to remove the sputum / phlegm. I remember my mum-in-law bought pearl powder for Eva when she was born, supposed to take it during the 1st few days after birth to remove / prevent phlegm development. 

Of course, I did not follow the real dosage - 1/3 bottle for Eva who is currently 9 month old (which was indicated on the box but not on the bottle. the bottle only indicates for 1 year and above but on the box actually they did advise on smaller dosage for younger children). 

All I did was to wet my index finger, turn the bottle to dab the powder on the finger and rub it into her mouth. Eva likes it! And yes again miraculously, only after 2 days of 2 dosage (day and night), Eva's coughing and rumbling chest sounds stopped! And she slept well throughout the night without coughing / puking any milk!! 

I am happy that I tried and impressed that with such little dosage, it actually able to work! 

I wont know how long it will take if I continued her with her western medicine which improve her condition but did not managed to clear out the phlegm. 

So mummies & daddies, do give it a try if your precious little one is going through similar situation. Dosage should remain no more than a fingertip full of it. Or maybe spatula full will do. I dont think we need or even should follow the full dosage as indicated. 

Here are some of the images of the bottle. It costs $13.50 and should be available at all TCM Hall. If there are variations, do check on either the box / bottle to see if there is any indications for kids younger than 1 year old; and/or ask the shop keeper, they would know better since customers normally return and share with them if it does work. 

 

Baby Matters: DAY OR NIGHT? SLEEP OR NAP?

I read about mummies sharing abt their babies being like the most active in the nights and only start to sleep at daybreak. Omg! I am blessed that such a thing didnt and still hadnt happen to me and Eva!!

So you see, baby sleep patterns are also one of the main issues highlighted by many websites and qn posted in forums.

One of the key thing that has been repeatedly mentioned is how newborns cannot differentiate day and night yet and they tend to hav activities level similar to in the womb i.e when mummy is active in the day, baby inside would tend to sleep due to the rocking motion ; when mummy is resting and sleeping, baby inside starts to wake and kick!

Noting this point as one of my top priority newborn issue, right from the 2nd day of birth we started the following...

During day naps, we will not dim the room and instead allow her to sleep in natural lighting. We also will continue our normal activities without silencing everyone. We wanted her to be able to sleep regardless any kind of background noise. We talk as usual with sometimes TV on and phones were left on normal ringing volume as well. We only take note not to have sudden over loud sounds that could startle even adults.

Maybe because she was a jaundice baby hence she kind of sleep pretty well. She had her fussy times of course and even had a couple nights carrying her to sleep as she wont stop fussing and crying. I couldnt quite make out what she wanted.

She also had her Twilight hours between 11pm to 1am where she wont stop fussing as well. I also couldnt make out what exactly she wanted.

BUT.. all the significant ordeals pass by without me noticing and i think it went pass within days when I havent even quite figure out what to do..

Despite her fussing, it was still apparent that she knows very well when is day and when is night. By 2nd month, she was waking up only like at ard odd 3am? Before was last feed around 11pm or so and 1st feed after 3am normally around 5 to 6am. Basically I was thankful and impressed that she start sleeping through the night this young! (Note! Sleep through night is not as defined like as adult sleep. For babies a straight 5hrs would be considered so!)

So I attribute that quick progress to the daylight and nighttime accustomization. Of course in the night, not only will we ensure that she gets her deserved dimness in the room, she also gets her deserved silence which she doesnt get in the day.

I have come across babies who have to sleep in total dark room with air con and silence. Well, I seriously am not a supporter of that as it will make it so difficult for baby to nap naturally if on-the-go. Eva was doing well. Dozing off well even while waiting in polyclinic with hot weather and brightness with crying babies and kids around. At least she is getting the sleep that she needs.

We establish that so well that on her 1st few days in sch (aka infant care centre) she wouldnt sleep in the nap area as they have it dimmed down. Haha. Oops. So they put her in the play area instead.

Babies are very adaptive. So soon she was alright with the semi dimmed room and so is she alright with our normal.

So new mummies and daddies, do try to do this too for your babies if you wanna gain back your better rested nights sooner!!

Shall share more about Eva sleep patterns next round!

Baby Matters: PACIFIER OR THUMB?

As a new mummy, naturally all sorts of ideal scenarios go through my mind during pregnancy; and actually way before that, like say since 16 years old, I have been thinking about how I want to raise my child! 

So one of the key issues that always pop up will be to give or not to give.. The Sacred Pacifier!! 

My stand was.. If I could.. I wont and I was thinking babies are like white paper, if you dont introduce something like that, why would they know??!!! So pacifier went straight out of the "to buy" list.

And the big day came and you know newborns - sleep wakes feed and the cycle goes. Well done! Days pass and I was thinking hey I am getting a hang of this manz! 2 weeks pass and then suddenly... ... The Twilight hour came!! (more of those in other upcoming posts) where Eva starts crying and fussing every night from 11pm to 1am. No idea what was wrong and I always thought perhaps cluster feeding?? Comfort nursing maybe?? 

Well, with all that unanswered and she dont seem to be hungry, I thought perhaps and maybe and probably she simply needed to suck (google tells me that babies soothe themselves by sucking! its nature!) and ta-dah came the pacifier from the Avent set which hubby bought (review on that in later posts). 

It is orthodontic, symmetrical collapsible teat so being symmetrical, you do not need to worry about it being upside down hence you can just pop it into your little one's mouth anyhow. But I changed to "Advanced Orthodontic" one later which she is using till now! (Scroll to bottom) 

BUT my attempts to let Eva take the pacifier (we call it du-du) failed!! She wont take it! I was like OMG!! This is the sign!! We dont need to start her on du-du! Haha.. but eventually we still did. I cannot remember exactly when and how I started her on the du-du but I needed to do so in order for everyone's ease of taking care of her on my behalf. Well, I needed to be considerate and make things a little easier for everyone ya? 

So it did make life simpler especially during naptimes / bedtimes but at the back of mind, I keep picturing her running around as toddler with the du-du in her mouth!  *faints* That is like the last thing I ever want it to happen!! But even more fearful to imagine her sucking thumb!! Oh.. kill me!! What a big dilemma!! 

My extensive reading on forums and all tells me that pacifier is something which you can wean off and there are like so many examples around me saying how they actually remove the pacifier from the toddlers and even more amazing, some say the kid just decided not to take it anymore on his/her own! But thumb is something that you cannot remove from the kid. So the choice is clear!!! (By the way, Eva's classmate has been sucking thumb and the teachers at infant care also shared that thumb is really not the way to go because it's sooo difficult to wean them off!!)

And so I started trying something which I thought might work.. months down the road.. I think it does work!! 

Pacifier is only given to Eva when she shows signs of sleeping as it helps to soothe her to sleep. And whenever she falls into deep sleep, she will spit out the pacifier on her own. So it was a sign to us that she is well asleep. Heeding the advice which I read online, we never attempted to put the pacifier back into her mouth. Only when she wakes up in middle of sleep then will we give her the pacifier again. Very often, she spits it out after only several sucking. 

So say if pacifier is given to her when she display signs of sleepiness YET did not actually sleep, I will tell her "Eva, if you are not sleeping, do not eat the du-du." and I will remove it from her. Amazingly! Later on, whenever I say that, she will spit it out if she decides that she is not intending to sleep! And we came to this advance stage where she will scream at you if you come near her with the pacifier and she apparently doesnt want to sleep!! 

So the pacifier has become not only a soothing tool for her, it also become a communication tool! After saying it all, Pacifier or thumb? All for Pacifier!! No regrets!! 

As I mentioned, I changed her pacifier to the Advanced Orthodontic. With all the sayings that du-du is going to affect their teeth development and making them buckteeth etc, I decided to invest in this. Well I was thinking if you dare say you are advanced then you have got to be good?? 



This pacifier actually has no pointers that will attract any mummies and daddies other than it's ADVANCED orthodontic. HAHAHA.

What you probably wont like (but they are precisely also the reason why you should buy it):

1. It does not come with any ring that can allow you to easy remove the pacifier from baby's mouth or from its own cap not attach it to those hanging tags to prevent pacifier from dropping to ground. 

BUT 

Yes it may be more inconvenient but I have no intentions of attaching it anywhere on Eva because she is NEVER going to be moving around with her du-du on! Only for sleeptime. Period. 

2. It comes in a special shape and not symmetical hence you will need to specifically check the direction before you insert it into baby's mouth! If in wrong direction, baby is gonna spit it out!  

BUT

Precisely it is specially designed in this way for a reason which is why I buy it. =P

Unique "wings"

Advanced orthodontic teat with unique wings that minimizes pressure on gums and developing teeth. The wings make the teat wider so that the pressure that is caused by baby's suckling is distributed more evenly resulting in less pressure per tooth.

Shaped nipple

The nipple is shaped to let baby's tongue remain in natural position. 

And yes Eva is having the pink one! One in school (aka infant care centre) and one at home. It costs $9.90 each which I thought was fine especially so that Eva is using the same 0-6mths one even till now (she is 9mths now). I tried to change her to a 6-12mths soother (under the classic range) but she wont take it and is happy with her same old one. 

Happy Baby = Happy Mummy = Happy Daddy