Boosting my immune system!

Dang! I've been down with cold pretty often ever since I had Ziyi. Pregnancy and parenting has taken its toll on my health! I realized I hardly fell sick before my pregnancy until I had Ziyi 3+ years ago.

What has caused my weaken immune system? Late nights and interrupted sleeps? I've become a light sleeper ever since this baby was born. My motherly instinct keeps me awake few times in the middle of the night to check on her, to see if she is warm enough, to check if she wets her bed, etc etc. Worse when she is ill.

I'm now having cough and blocked nose, which is causing my extreme headache too! Breathing through my mouth is making me burping all the time due to gassy stomach. Totally irritating. I'm going to stock up on immune system boosting supplements. I've read so much about Esberitox N and I'm going to give that a shot. 3 times a day, plus my Blackmores Vitamin C. It's high time to do something about it before the big move to migrate to Australia, I am pretty sure I will be even more prone to cold and cough with the crazy weather there.

As for Ziyi, she is supplemented with Seven Seas Multivitamin and Probiotics. That should work well with her.

Ziyi is down with fever

Viral attack! The hubs got it first, then Ziyi's turn now. She had mild fever on Sunday and a full blown fever attack on Monday morning.

• Her temperature was hovering between 37.5 - 39.4 on Monday & Tuesday. 
• Didn't bring her to the doctor, self treating her for at least 3 days, and if fever is still high, then only decide to bring her to the doctor's clinic.
• I administered her with Paracetamol & Nurofen, alternating them at 3 hourly interval.
• Fed her with meehoon soup with fishball, plain porridge and plain bread. Lots of fluids - plain water, barley water and coconut water.
• Sponge her with wet towel whenever her temp shoots up.
• She was bored with her choices of food, and asking for bananas on Tuesday! I had to go all over our neighborhood in the morning to look for banana. After a few rounds & stops, finally found a shop selling decent looking bananas! Why can't they open a decent fruits shop in this area???
• Her temperature went down on Tuesday night, but decided to let her rest another day before sending her to kindy on Thursday.
• Today (3rd day), she stayed home and ate bread with butter and plain porridge. 

This is the first time I didn't rush her to the doc's clinic for falling sick with high temperature. She's very prone to throat infection which leads to high fever. I'm glad this time I was able to control her temperature well and hope to send her to kindy tomorrow again.

The Sterimar Ordeal

Ziyi's pediatrician swears by it! Each time we go to him for minor cough & cold, he will advise us to use the Sterimar nasal spray for Ziyi.  

My first attempt with this on Ziyi was in Feb '11. I gave up after that very first attempt! She screamed, ran, shouted and wailed! I gave the Sterimar to my mom instead and she said it was very effective on clearing her stuffy nose.

This time around, Ziyi was dragged to the Doc's office again when she had a cough for almost 2 weeks, from dry to wet cough. Doc diagnosed her and commented that her case was post nasal drip, thus causing the phlegm. Funny though, she did not have any flu or cold, just coughing at night. But anyhow, the doctor is still the expert in this and I'll just have to trust him and followed his instructions. 

We were told to administer her with Zyrtec and spray her nose with the Sterimar twice a day. I had a hard time explaining, bribing & threatening her but she still refused to let me use the spray. I still managed to do it once a day before her bedtime with some force and threats though. After doing it forcefully for 4 days, when I thought of giving up, she willingly allowed me to spray her nose instead! She was even very proud of herself and announced to everyone that she was a brave girl. 

I think one has to get used to it and it caused just a slight discomfort to your nose......I actually haven't used this before and dare not try it on my own too..........hehehe.

This pic was taken when she was still having her cough, but I allowed her to have her occasional indulgence.... marshmallow dipped with melted choc, choc cakes, fruits, buns, crackers, and the most forbidden of all, 1 scoop of ice cream! She was a happy child that night!

The flu bug was here and still not leaving us alone!

Yes, me and Ziyi. She was down with cough and cold for the past 1 week, not too serious I'd say. I gave her Zyrtec for a few days and she recovered. Too bad, 2 days later her cough and cold took revenge and this time her cough is disrupting her sleep. She has finished her medicine earlier, so no medication this round. I was hoping to let her immune system fights itself. I can see improvement in her condition, lesser cough during the day and hardly any coughs when she's sleeping too.

This morning it was my turn to be bitten by the flu bug! Started off with sore throat and I did a quick home remedy.

I gargled with sea salt, took a teaspoon of Manuka Honey neat, drank a cup of honey lemon (juiced a whole lemon) and popped vit C too. I am feeling slightly better now but can feel the flu is coming and I've been sneezing the whole morning....

Hope all of us will recover soon!

Ear infection

I had a shock this morning when Ziyi fussed over her itchy left ear the minute she woke up. I used a cotton bud to clean her outer ear and there was a small amount of pus on the cotton bud. Her ear smelled horrible too. I knew I had to bring her to the pediatrician first thing in the morning. 

She was diagnosed with otitis media, a middle ear infection. Her doctor couldn't tell what caused the infection, but suspected the post-nasal drip that caused the infection because she's been having cough with phlegm since last week.  She was prescribed with Sofradex antibiotic ear drops for her left ear, and Cerumol drop for her right ear (to soften hard wax). 

Doctor doesn't recommend her taking any cough mixture as he thinks that cough mixture will only suppresses her cough but not treating her problem. Since Ziyi's cough is not so serious, I was told to leave her alone and if need be, a dose of Zyrtec at night will be good enough. 

If her ear does not recover in 5 days, I will need to bring her back to either the pediatrician or ENT doctor to flush her ear wax and to examine her ear membrane.  I need to monitor her closely and also to be more sensitive to her coughs in order to find out what actually trigger her cough. However doctor suspected the culprit could be house dust mites because Ziyi tends to develop rashes  due to external contacts. 

fell sick 3 days after her HepA jab

Ziyi was due for her hepA jab and we sent her for the jab on the 19 Feb. Her usual peadiatrician was closed (again), so we went to Columbia Asia Hospital for her jab by Dr. Yong. She had her weight and height measured. To my pleasant surprise, ziyi’s weight was above average, nearing to 80% mark on the chart. I was on cloud nine. I never expect this cili padi of mine to achieve this weight as she has always been a fussy eater.

This time she had her jab on her buttock as opposed to all her previous jabs, which were on her thigh. she refused to lie on the doctor’s examination bed, so Dr. Yong suggested me to carry her, with her legs wraparound my waist. I find this way better and easier to manage her. 

3 days later ziyi fell sick, with temperature so high that it got me worried and we sent her back to Columbia Asia and this time it was Dr. Cheah. as predicted, she was diagnosed with throat infection...AGAIN :( 

i was glad when her doctor said ziyi did not need antibiotic as she did not fit the criteria to be prescribed with antibiotic yet. we were instructed to administer her with Nurofen & Paracetamol, 3 hourly gap, alternating the medicine. apparently Nurofen has an added benefit: anti-inflammatory.

we were told to send her back if her fever did not subside after 4 days. true enough, i had to send her to the doctor on Friday night when her fever shot up to 39c. the MO at the hospital suggested for a blood test. my poor little girl was wrapped up with a huge blanket with 2 staff nurse holding on to her while another nurse pricked her finger. it was so heartbreaking to see her crying in pain. 

we collected the report an hour later and we were so glad it was not dengue fever but her bacteria infection reading was quite high. the MO prescribed her with Augmentin. 2 days after administering her with the antibiotic, she could attend school after being absence from school for almost a week.

i'm making sure she drinks barley water once a week and coconut juice too. right now i am diligently feeding her with probiotics and multivitamins to boost her immune system.

a new paediatrician

there's a new Columbia Asia Hospital in our neighbourhood, Kota Kemuning. a friend recommended the paediatrician from this hospital to me lately and since ziyi was having fever so i thought of giving this doc a try. what i like about this hospital is the ample parking space and since it's new, everything is so clean and new. 

we were greeted by the friendly reception staff and i immediately registered ziyi to see Dr. Yong. actually i wanted her to see Dr. Cheah instead but it so happen that Dr. Cheah was not on duty at that time and i couldn't wait coz ziyi's fever was pretty high, at 39c. 

she's forever active, climbing up and down!

the waiting area

Dr. Yong gave her some stickers as she was unusually well-behaved and listened to doc's instructions! i was amazed as she used to cry whenever she saw her previous paediatrician, Dr. Vino.

waiting to collect the medicine at the pharmacy

reception counter

ziyi was prescribed with Augmentin (antibiotic) and Zyrtec for her runny nose. she was diagnosed with inflamed throat and enlarged tonsils, thus causing her to have high fever. 

to give or not to give......medicines

each time ziyi falls sick, i would bring her to the paediatrician for consultation and prescription of medicines. i'd diligently feed her all the meds till she's fully recovered.

when we were in Australia last month, my friend was shocked to see the number of bottles of medications i had to give ziyi! she said in Australia, her family doctor hardly prescribe any medications for her daughter unless it's absolutely necessary. they believe in letting the child's antibody to do its job and at the same time strengthen her immune system to fight against infectious organisms and other invaders.

for the past few days ziyi's been having stuffy nose, especially at night and coughing every now and then. when i see my little girl suffering in her sleep every night, i'm very tempted to give her medications for her speedy recovery. but hubs and i still think we should try the conservative way and not rely too much on medicines!

i hope she'll recover soon but if it prolongs for more than 2 weeks, i may have to bring her back to her paediatrician.

falling sick after attending daycare

we went to KK Mayflower Seafood Restaurant for a dinner celebration for FIL's birthday. when we went home for the cake cutting session, ziyi's body temperature was a tad warm. her temp was 37.5c. i immediately administer her with paracetamol. i guess she must have caught the bug from her kindy since there are a few other kids who fell sick too. this means she fell sick after 7 days at the kindy!

brought her to paed the next morning. her fever was caused by throat infection. we were given antibiotic (3-days course), paracetamol and a flu/cough med. i bought 2 suppository for standby too. all this cost us RM90.00... that's blardy expensive.

- Sunday (11/7/10): flu was quite bad, body temp hit 39.3c. easy to administer med. refused milk and porridge though.

- Monday: body still quite hot, and temper was very bad and difficult to control her. refused med, she bit the syringe and one of her tooth bled...damn garang girl. her throat hurts badly, refused milk, water, porridge. had bits of white bread only. this hyperactive girl refused to nap too. she was awake from 7am - 5pm before she knocked off for a cat nap.

- Tuesday: fever subsided, but still refused milk and water. i finally managed to force feed her with 1 small bowl of plain porridge during dinner.

- Wednesday: totally recovered except still have minor flu. behaviour and temper was still unacceptable! extremely cranky and fussy! she's driving everyone up the wall!!!!!

mummy & baby fell sick

ziyi was down with mild flu 2 days ago and i gave her Atarax medicine. gosh... it has become extremely difficult to feed her medicine. she either cry and push me away or she will spit the med out!

i caught the pesky bug too, i'm having sore-throat now. been popping down garlic pill and vitamin C, gargle with salt water and taking manuka honey umf 10+ too. i've been sneezing the whole of today, guess i'm going to have flu too :(