A National Day Dessert

We had family and friends over for National Day dinner and parade-watching on the goggle box. (Wasn’t this year’s just splendid?)

Anyway, earlier in the afternoon, Athos, Porthos and I created this patriotic and healthy dessert using grapes and canned lychees. Simple fun, and I must say the end result looked pretty decent too.

Happy 44th birthday Singapore!

Red Sports – Daily PE? One primary school shows the way.

Just a quick post to link everyone over to Red Sports’ feature story on Seng Kang Primary School, the only school in Singapore that offers daily PE lessons for all its students, rain or shine.

Earlier this year, Porthos came home from school saying that he didn’t have PE that day, even though it was on the schedule. Why, I asked. “Because we were behaving badly. So the teacher punished us and didn’t let us go for PE.”

I thought that was one of the more absurd things I’d ever heard. I’ve also heard anecdotes of schools cancelling PE for PSLE revisions or make-up classes. Is it any wonder that the ruggedness of our nation is in question?

According to Singapore’s Health Promotion Board, “Singapore has one of the highest rates of myopia in the world. In Singapore about 30% of the children become myopic by the age of 7 and by age 12 about half of them are myopic. There is a grave need to prevent myopia in children at a younger age because the younger the age of onset of myopia, the higher the risk of developing eye related diseases later in life.” HPB also supports daily outdoor time because “emerging evidence suggests that spending more time outdoors may help delay the onset or progression of myopia.” (Source: HPB website)

Add in our obesity rates, and the range of learning disabilities and sensory problems present in our chidren, and Seng Kang’s example truly stands out.

Red Sports – Daily PE? One primary school shows the way.

IHT: Eating dirt can be good for you

Happy Chinese New Year!

I’ve always wondered about the saying – lak sup jia, lak sup tua – and now it seems there is science to support what the wise Hokkiens have known all along.

IHT: Eating dirt can be good for you

Which also makes Wells’ War of the Worlds extraordinarily prescient….

Want to prevent myopia? Head outdoors.

I’ve done a couple of posts on the apparent health benefits of exposure to nature

• Overcoming the Nature Deficit Disorder
• More on the Nature Deficit Disorder

In case you missed it, Australian researchers have just completed a study that concludes that exposure to sunlight is a major factor in the incidence of myopia.

Comparing six and seven-year-old Chinese children in Singapore and Australia, they found that 30 percent of the Singaporeans were myopic, against just 1.3 percent of the Australians. The differentiating factor was the amount of time spent outdoors – 30 minutes for the Singaporeans versus two hours for the Australians.

“What we would suggest,” said the researchers, “is that what’s happened in east Asia is that they have got the balance totally out of kilter.”

What an indictment.

You can read more here:
Red Sports – Spending time outdoors in the sun stops myopia
AFP via Yahoo News – Sunlight can help children avoid myopia

Quarantined!

There’s no way to say it except straight – Athos, Porthos and Aramis have been diagnosed with HFMD and are quarantined for TEN days.

For those who may not be from around these parts, HFMD is usually mild, but because it’s highly infectious, and has been known to cause fatalities, the Singapore government has designated it as legally notifiable, and doctors typically recommend a generous quarantine period in an attempt to break the infection cycle. Already, there have been a handful of fatalities, and a number of preschools and kindergartens have been shut temporarily to break the transmission.

We think Athos picked it up first. But he (and Porthos) had such a mild case that we didn’t even realise there was a problem until Aramis was hit. His case was the most severe – fever, ulcers, rash, no appetite and 24-hour whining. When the doctor diagnosed it as HFMD, we got the older boys checked as well, and lo and behold, it was a Pilgrim family pandemic…..

To sum up our current situation:
3 kids x 10-day quarantine = ∞ insanity

The first few days were the worst, because poor little Aramis just wanted to be carried all the time, fussed endlessly and didn’t sleep well. Things have settled down now but the boys are still house-bound. Let’s just say that all the usual rules in the Pilgrim household regarding TV, videos and computer games went out the window….

New Paper: The Most Boring Household in Singapore

This interview with up-and-coming Singapore politician Grace Fu focuses on her role as a parent. It struck me as containing many nuggets of parenting wisdom. I submit it for your consideration.

The Electric New Paper: The Most Boring Household in Singapore

I have to do a quick linkback to an earlier post concerning the Wii, and another on the modern-day malaise called the Nature Deficit Disorder.

Frankenfood

A friend sent this to me. It freaked me out enough to circulate to family and friends.

Dear friends, this is true. A friend of mine also saw a similar occurrence in the Tanjung Aru (Malaysia) famous goreng pisang. What they do is they cut the (drinking) straw into small pieces and throw them into the boiling oil and when the straw melts they start frying the pisang. Unthinkable!!!!

BEWARE OF FRIED FOOD
This is a REAL TRUE STORY…and also SL told me it happened at her place in Kedah…Tunjang…(Malaysia) I think…. It happended to us too, in Perlis(Malaysia) (titi chai kangar…the pasar malam (night market) area where they always selling goreng pisang (fried banana) at noon .. Mom said my uncle saw that when they fried the goreng pisang they added the straw (which we use to drink water) and melted it into hot oil before frying. That’s why the goreng pisang, goreng ubi etc are all very crispy for hours…. And my uncle could not explain why, and he asked them. They just keep quiet. And then when my uncle told my mom, and we realized this is how to make the foods crispy for a while….

DO NOT EAT CRISPY FOOD especially from the hawker!
I have been to Cameron Highlands (holiday resort in Malaysia) with my family, It was 3pm ++. We were hanging around the market area, we saw many hawker stalls doing their business, suddenly something attracted me…. One of the stalls, there was a big wok of oil and there was a half-5-litre empty oil bottle on it! It was melting slowly in the hot frying oil… I freaked out, I thought it was an unintentional act by a 7-yr-old girl … but when I looked at it closely, I saw a pair of chopstick stirring the bottle…. Seemed like it was done purposely. Immediately I asked my family to come and check it out…. At that moment, the parents of the girl who sat beside, were looking at us ferociously. Oh my god…they were using melted plastic to fry food…. The reason is that the titbits will not soften after placing for some time due to the plastic hardening.

It doesn’t end here.

Looking For Lumps? Read This.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now.

As women living in this day and age of the common cancer, we’ve all been told that we should go for mammograms and do regular self-checks on our breasts.

If like me, you feel for lumps every once in a while to reassure yourself that all is well, please read this post from Whymommy at Toddler Planet.

Infertile? Eat Ice Cream.

A friend sent me an article from the New Scientist saying that researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health discovered that women who ate two or more servings of low-fat dairy foods a day were 85% more likely to be infertile vs those who ate less than one serving of low-fat dairy food a week. And women who ate at least one serving of high-fat dairy food a day (ice cream!) reduced their risk of infertility by 25%!

Now that’s the kind of science I like

Here’s the article. Worth a read.

“Tubs of ice cream help women make babies” 

The Worst of Times

The worst is over. Although coughs and runny noses persists, the boys are no longer feverish. I can finally get back to a semi-decent sleep pattern. But just as an indication of the madness that is a household of sick people:

In Sickness and In Health

Totally exhausted.

The boys have been falling sick one by one – symptoms include some combination of high fever, phlegmy cough, stomachache, headache, dizziness and runny nose. According to the doctor and several colleagues with children, there’s a nasty virus going around which causes long and high fevers (5-7 days of erratic temperatures going as high as 40 degrees), causing much havoc and misery. We even brought Athos for a blood test….

Life has been an endless cycle of temperature-taking, medicating, cold compresses, feeding, hydrating and soothing. I don’t mind so much in the daytime, but in the night it is torture. Aramis is the latest to fall ill, and he wants to be carried all the time, even at night. I’ve taken to sleeping semi-upright, with him against my chest.

Now Pilgrim Dad is sick too…. And me, I feel the walking dead. I was talking to Athos just now and actually fell asleep mid-sentence!

Being a parent is hard enough work in health. But it’s in sickness that parental love meets its challenger, and by God’s grace, finds its deepest expression.

Sleepless in Singapore

Another one of those “why-oh-why” nights.

I’m having a nasty cough – something called mycoplasma, which sounds as bad as it feels – and the doctor prescribed me some medication which puts me in a stupor and wanting to fall asleep all the time. Porthos is also having the same cough, which was compounded last night by a fever and a blocked nose. He made a huge fuss of it, and cried so loudly that Aramis woke up.

Great, I thought. It’s 3am in the morning, I’m feeling lightheaded and woozy, and have TWO crying children on my hands. Honestly, I felt like crying too. Anyway, I told myself to get a grip. Then one at a time, I calmed them down – medication for Porthos, nursing for Aramis, and lots of warm cuddles all round.

By the time I was done it must have been close to 4am and I was exhausted. Thank God it was two and not three….

Solids And Avoiding Allergies

The other day, I picked up a brochure produced by Nestle. It promotes their hypoallergenic infant formula (Nan), and also includes some information on how to reduce the incidence of food allergy which I found really useful. Here are the salient bits:

• Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months provides the ideal protection
• Introduce solids after the 6th month
• Foods least likely to cause allergic reactions: rice, pear, prune, carrot, apple, pork
• Foods which occasionally cause allergic reactions: barley, apricot, beef, wheat, plum, spinach, cabbage, oat, banana, chicken, peach, broccoli, lamb, turnip, potato, cherry, corn
• Foods most likely to cause allergic reactions (introduce from the 9th month): berries, cow’s milk, legumes, fish
• Foods which are highly allergenic (introduce from the 12th month): seafood, peanuts, egg white

We’ve already transgressed the guidelines on fish! Still, it’s a useful list to keep handy.

Dealing With Pain

Three days in a row, three different boys, three kinds of pain….

On Thursday night, Athos and Porthos were playing a crazy game of chase around the house, opening and closing the doors while hiding from each other. We’ve told them many times how dangerous it is to play with doors but let’s just say it’s the kind of lesson best learnt by experience. So as it happened, Porthos was hiding behind the door just as Athos swung it open, and ended up getting his big toe slammed into. He shrieked non-stop for a good 15 minutes. After we made sure his toe wasn’t broken, I cuddled him and tried to soothe him as best as I could. But Porthos has always worn his heart on his sleeve, and I was sure his screams could be heard clear across the neighbourhood. Eventually I distracted him with stories and songs. And he fell asleep.

Friday night, we came home to find Athos lying on the couch, clutching his head, gritting his teeth and stifling sobs. This was the first time we’d ever seen him do this and it was nothing short of alarming. I cradled him and it seemed to calm him though the pain did not go away. He slept cuddled against me, and fortunately the pain wasn’t bad enough to awaken him in the night. At the doctor’s the next morning, we were told it was an ear infection, commonly caught from swimming. We were prescribed an antibiotic and some ear drops, which have been a great help.

Last night, Aramis awoke with a loud cry and continued inconsolably for a good 10-15 minutes. I tried carrying him, rocking him, nursing him, singing to him. But nothing worked. It was beginning to frazzle me. Pilgrim Dad took over and after a while, Aramis cried himself to sleep. I still don’t know why he cried.

But these three consecutive experiences have taught me a few things. First, every child responds to pain differently, so every episode needs to be handled differently. Second, knowing the reason for the pain (no matter mild or serious), is far better than not knowing the reason. And third, pray!

Trans Fat and Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is a staple in the Pilgrim family. Athos and Porthos have it for breakfast several times a week, sometimes for supper as well. Some months back, I read that many brands of peanut butter contain trans fat. So I switched from our usual brand to Peter Pan, whose label read “0 trans fat”.

But while doing the groceries at NTUC Fairprice today, I decided to read the ingredients more carefully. To my surprise, I found “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils” listed. I always thought that was the same thing as trans fat.

I’ve been wondering about how trustworthy food labels are. Anyhow, I decided that today I would stop wondering and start acting. So I’ve just emailed ConAgra Foods (which owns the Peter Pan brand).  Here is what I wrote:

“I recently switched from a rival brand of peanut butter to Peter Pan because the nutrition label says “0 trans fat”. However, I just noticed that ‘partially hydrogenated vegetable oils’ is listed in the ingredients. Isn’t that the same as trans fat? I’d appreciate a clarification.”

I’ll post the reply when I get one.

Immunisation Time!

We brought Aramis for his shots today. The appointment was originally scheduled for the morning, but when Porthos heard that Di Di was getting an injection, he whined that he wanted to come along. The sadist….

So we turned it into a family outing. The boys were goofing around at first, but when the needle made its appearance, they watched in awed silence as the nurse prepared the vaccine.

I don’t enjoy needles, but somehow it feels much worse when your child is at the other end of it. As the needle went in, Aramis let out a loud cry of dismay. I felt terrible for him. Surprisingly it lasted all of 5 seconds, and then he was fine. I think having his brothers around as a distraction helped. Both Athos and Porthos asked to “see the hole” and the cotton wool with the spot of blood on it….

Someone told me that it helps to put the baby on the breast while he is getting his shots so that he feels protected.

Solids and the Passing Phase of Mammaries

Aramis has just turned 6 months! We started him on solids about a month ago – in part out of desperation because my milk supply wasn’t keeping up with his insatiable appetite. His first morsel of food was mashed banana. Just a wee teaspoon which seemed to amuse him though he couldn’t quite swallow it.

Since then, he’s had apple, papaya and brown rice, and he seems to be taking it all in his stride. He now takes solids twice a day. I know it’s a matter of time before he, like his brothers, will no longer need me to supply his meals.

Part of me looks forward to stopping breastfeeding. But another part of me whispers that this is a role I’m unlikely to reprise. I think of those times when he’s suckling and gazing at me intently as I talk or sing to him, and I know that those are moments I wouldn’t give up for the world.