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Guess what I found!

A birthday of photo of me (second from the left, just in case!) and my three sisters, when I was just a tiny THREE year old girl! Even Anya is older than me in that picture!

[And haha, check out the super-bob haircut that we sisters ALL shared!]

What a nice blast to the past!

Oh btw, one of my aunts keeps telling me how Anya looks just like me when I was her age. And now that I have this photo to compare, I guess both Anya and Vai somehow do resemble me, a teeny weeny bit ?

Two weeks ago Vai had a tiny scratch on his nose tip, and since then he’s been having ’strange sores’ appearing on his face.

First, his nose looked as if it’s been burnt, then as the scabs slowly came off, little red blister-like dots appeared here and there.

We suspected cold sores. We even assumed it’s actually some sort of an allergic reaction to this medicated ointment called ‘Zam-buk‘.

Since his skin condition didn’t get better, we went to see a dermatologist at National University Hospital to find out what it’s all about.

[We saw Dr. Seow from clinic D]

And we’re glad we saw a skin specialist because within 3 minutes of seeing him, he told us it is NOT an allergic reaction to Zam-buk!

He said Zam-buk contains Eucalyptus oil and it’s actually alright for kids’ skin.

Hmm.

Vai apparently has this skin condition called ‘Impetigo‘.

[And here's more info about it for everyone's reference, just in case you encounter anything similar in the future]

It’s a skin infection that happens when a certain type of bacteria enters the skin, eg. through a cut or scrape, and it’s common among children between the ages of 2 and 6 years.

It is contagious if the infected skin touches another person who has a cut too. Otherwise, our healthy skin is well designed to resist all sorts of infection, keeping billions of bacteria from entering our body.

[Photo sequence above : how it all started and developed over six days]

For Vai’s case, then apparently the bacteria got in through that tiny little scratch on his nose.

There are two types :
crusted and fluid-filled blisters, and apparently Vai got the crusted type.

Though in some cases they do get itchy, for Vai’s case he doesn’t feel the itch at all. There’s no fever and he’s as normal as he can be.

And here’s the good news:
however ’scary’ the skin may look when one has impetigo, there’ll be no scarring (Phew!). And with antibiotics, it should all clear within three or four days.

[And really, after a quick check on the internet I saw how 'bad' the skin condition can get when one comes down with Impetigo, and I'm VERY glad Vai's condition is still considerably mild when we saw the doctor!]

Frankly, with Vai touching ‘everything’ in public, playing and even lying on the floor in public places at times, I do wonder if I can actually ‘protect’ him from getting bacterial infections again in the future.

I don’t think I can though.

On one hand, I obviously don’t want him to get sick or infected by anything (no sane parents do).

On the other hand however, I never want to be a parent who carries antiseptic wipes everywhere, always wiping my kids hands and face every time they’ve played and touched something in public. That’ll be too paranoid for me, and my husband and I don’t want to have such an attitude when it comes to kids and play.

And so having gone through this episode with Vai, this is what we’ll most likely do :
Try to immediately (where possible) apply antiseptic cream when our kids get scratches or cuts while in public, to prevent bacteria / germs from entering the body through that cut.

BUT. Even if we practice such a habit, I know there’s no guarantee that our kids will be ‘protected’ from sickness though (eg. if he’s gotten the bacteria on his skin right BEFORE he gets a cut, or when the scrape is simply not noticeable)

In the end, it all comes to down to one thing I think :
If our children are healthy, if we’re healthy, if our other family members are healthy, it’s not because we can protect ourselves 100% from sickness (because nobody can ever do that).

It’s only because of God’s grace alone that we have good health.

[One more good reason why we should always live a grateful life, counting our 'uncountable' blessings we've received from above]

Now. I do look forward to seeing Vai’s skin getting the ‘all-clear’ condition real soon!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Click the links below to read more on IMPETIGO :

- Impetigo by Babycenter

- Impetigo by Wikipedia

- Impetigo by Kidshealth

The ‘burnt’ wound on Vai’s nose is looking better now. The skin on the nose is still rather pinkish but most of the scabs have come off by themselves. Which is good.

Now, the puzzling thing about all this is, as the skin on the nose gets better, he’s getting bits and pieces of ‘extra sores’ elsewhere. It’s as if they slowly crop up from nowhere!

He now has little reddish brown ’sores’ under his left eye, near his right eyelid, under his nostrils, on his lip line. And the biggest of them all is on his chin (ie. the size of a green pea).

I can definitely tell they’re not ’scratch wounds’. The look of the ’sores’ is very similar to how it all started  (ie. the day AFTER I applied Zam-buk on his nose and fyi, I applied the ointment only twice on Vai and that was before we noticed any change on his skin)

I went and browsed the internet for more info, and I sort of suspected that perhaps they’re cold sores. And as we’re seeing little new ones appearing on his face every two days or so, we decided that it’s best to just see a doctor.

[Vai, as at 5 August]

After examining Vai’s sores, he ruled out the possibility of them being cold sores (as cold sores are not likely to have been triggered from the nose area). He couldn’t pinpoint any definite cause of Vai’s skin (weird) condition though, and so he’s referred us to a paediatrician who specialises in dermatology.

Sigh. It’s good that we get to find out what’s really going on with him, but I can’t help but feel a bit concerned though. The whole thing somehow becomes a little more complicated than what I originally thought.

Oh well. We’ll see what the specialist will say.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

If you’ve seen / encountered similar cases with your kids or your friends’ kids, please do share with us.

Thanks heaps!

It’s been a week since the skin on his nose was somewhat ‘burnt’ by the medicated ointment.

By today, parts of the scab have come off by itself. Vai hasn’t been wanting to scratch it since day 1, so I’m assuming that he doesn’t quite feel the itch (?)

Lots of people asked too if he’s been cranky and moody, and actually he hasn’t. He’s been … ‘normal’. I mean, if he did get cranky in the past, it’s because he WAS cranky (eg. sleepy but refused to fall asleep).

Anyway.

I guess (and hope), it’ll be all clear by next week.

This is how his little nose looks like today. Mostly dried up and cracked.

Four days ago, Vai woke up with a rather deep scratch right on his nose.

And just before he went to bed that night, I thought of giving him some sort of an ointment or something to make it heal better.

Usually I’d just apply an antiseptic cream (eg. Savlon), but that night I thought of my recently bought medicated ointment called ‘Zam-buk‘.

It says how it provides fast, effective and soothing relief for bruises, burns, cuts, scalds, insect bites, etc.

And so I applied it on his nose.

The next day, I found out how that was a BAD decision.

His 2mm scratch now has somehow become the size of a 5 cents coin! It must’ve burnt his skin or something! The whole of last monday, it looked like his nose has ‘freshly’ been scraped! Poor thing!

By now, he has a dark red patch right on his nose. The ‘burn’ is finally drying up (it has uneven bumps too!), and though I know the skin will be okay again sooner or later, I’ve learned this lesson the hard way :

AVOID applying such medicated ointments on a child’s ‘open wounds’. Antiseptic cream / wash is better for such a case.

…

Click to see a guide on when to call the doctor (for parents of toddlers)

[ADDED]

This is how our Vai looks like today. The wound is all dry by now. But it looks bigger than yesterday and it looks like it is ‘dripping’ downwards. Weird.

Our family doctor advised that right now we should just let it heal by itself (read: NOT apply anything)

Also he mentioned how Zam-buk is actually not really for little kids, especially NOT on the face!

Sigh. Mommy’s fault.

PS: When people see Vai on the street, they usually go, “Awww, did he fall down badly?”

Like most Asians, I eat rice every single day. Like, about once or twice a day.

And so do my kids. For obvious reasons.

AND frankly, however silly it may sound, I can’t help but feel they haven’t eaten a filling and ‘proper’ meal IF they haven’t had any rice for their lunch or dinner!

[As a parent, do you feel that way btw? Just curious about how other parents feel about this 'rice' thing]

Anyway. I recently decided to try something different.

We had SALAD for lunch.

Yes. JUST salad.

Before Anya started eating she even asked, ‘Mommy, is this IT?’, to which I enthusiastically replied, ‘YUP! Nice and healthy vegetables!’

Each of us had a bowl of broccoli and corn (lightly boiled), lettuce, tomatoes and eggs, with a little bit of mayonnaise.

Anyway. The kids ate without complaints. They managed to finish only about 80% of what’s in their bowl though.

Not a bad start to eating more greens on a regular basis, I reckon.

Oh btw, you may want to check these links out to read more on putting more greens on our table:

> The Green Parent

> Easy salad recipes

> Salad - the cook’s thesaurus

We all know that breakfast is really important for everyone, but as it’s recently been covered in the news, quite a lot of kids (and us adults?) skip breakfast.

Good thing Anya attends an afternoon class (read: no need for us to wake up super early to have our meals before leaving for school, phew!), so we all get to enjoy some breakfast everyday.

An example of their simple morning menu will be:

Anya: bread and jam (one slice), hard boiled egg, cheese (one slice) and 200ml of milk.

Vai: hard boiled egg, a banana and 200ml of milk

Anyway.

Here are a few good write-ups on breakfast and why it’s especially necessary for our little ones:

>> Breakfast - a great way to start the day

>> Kids and breakfast

>> Five important reasons why your child should eat breakfast

Both Anya and Vai had their chicken pox vaccination today.

The doctor at our usual GP was apparently a stand-in doctor. He looked rather young and he did the jab on Anya’s ABDOMEN. Before he did it, I did ask if having it done on the tummy was okay (because usually it’s done on the arm, buttock or thigh), and he said it’s okay because it’s done to the skin, not to the muscle.

Anya didn’t cry during the jab. She was teary-eyed when he pulled out the needle and cried a painful cry afterwards.

I was NOT happy with the doctor because afterwards I saw him reading the ‘instruction leaflet’ and calling someone, asking about the jab! The doctor also said something on the phone insinuating that he did it at the ‘wrong place’!

After he hung up the phone, I asked him about what I’ve just heard. He said that it’s fine to have it done on the abdomen, but Vai’s case, because he’s much younger, he’d do the the jab on his arm instead.

Our usual doctor called us later that afternoon to ensure that we’re all okay. He did say that usually jabs on children are NOT done on the abdomen, because it’s just too plain scary for the poor kid!

Of course!

Anyway I learned something today :

if you’re not too comfortable with the doctor and the way he does things, do not let him carry out the procedure. Instead, postpone the appointment and see another doctor whom you’re more comfortable with.

Sigh.

If the weather hadn’t always been this wet everyday, I would’ve brought the kids for the jab on another day. But we just had to get it done today because we’re leaving for Jakarta in 8 days time and since our aunt just recovered from chicken pox, it’s best to get the kids vaccinated and ‘protected’ from it.

Now that it’s all over (I hope!), I’ll write and share a little bit of what happened last week. Or to be exact, from Wednesday to Sunday.

It all started last Wednesday morning when Vai just suddenly was NOT interested in ANY meals. I mean, he’d look away and completely REFUSE to open his mouth. He’d SCREAM and CRY whenever I insisted.

And if I somehow managed to get some food (however fresh, soft, tender or yummy) into his mouth, he’d spit it out immediately, OR kept it in his mouth, un-chewed, and let it DRIP slowly out of his mouth soon after.

Mealtimes were such a struggle! (for both of us, I guess).

And frankly, I’ve lost count of the many different approaches I’ve tried, just to get him to eat something.

Over the five days (wed - sun), the total amount of food that went into his tummy was closely equivalent to the amount he’d usually eat in 1.5 days! It was really bad.

Over those five days, his meal portion would be something like:

Breakfast: boiled egg (half of it)
Lunch: 10 - 15 pieces of ONLY green peas!
Afternoon tea: two small cubes of papaya
Dinner: two spoonfuls of rice and vegie

The only thing that he really welcomed was breastmilk! (He completely refused formula too). Throughout the day AND at night, he asked to be breastfed SO often that I decided to pop an extra dose of my usual multi-vitamin!

He’d wake up crying at night pretty frequently and became more clingy.

He came down with a rather high fever (over 39 deg Celsius) last wednesday too. After I gave him some paracetamol, twice, once in the evening and another the next morning, he was completely okay.

And oh, the drooling! It was SO excessive that at times it’d just drip down like a water tap that wasn’t properly turned off!

The whole going-hungry thing got slightly better on Sunday evening. AND, on monday morning he was completely back to normal. He even asked for food, saying ‘Mum-mum…’ pretty often throughout the day.

Formula was still not well received (but wasn’t as bad as last week!). The drooling went back to normal too!

Really. It was just too weird!

And my verdict: it’s his teething phase!

Now, since last Monday, he’s eating well again. Err… mealtimes are still VERY messy though because he strongly insists on self-feeding, using his hands, a spoon and/or a fork, moving his food from one bowl to another!

[And so I now spread out sheets of newspaper below his babychair. It makes cleaning up after his super-messy mealtimes so much better!]

Ah. I’m just happy he’s eating and getting the nutrients he needs again.

PS: [top photo] Vai’s finishing up his pasta earlier today (and judging from the amount of mess on the table, he just started his meal NOT that long ago).

Nowadays, whenever he’s having pasta or noodles, he’d usually eat about 70% of it all by himself. The mess goes all over though. Including his face, arms, legs, hair, you name it.