Category Archives: Dr Pixie says

It has begun.

Posted on 4 February, 2010 | Leave a comment

Dr Pixie warned before that children reaching 2 will start to push the envelope with you.

Caleb turned 2 this January. But this post isn’t about him.

Last night I smacked Caitlin- the grab-her-arm-so-she-can’t-run-away smack; the night before Hot Mummee smacked her too.

I have had long car-ride talks with her about being the big sister to Caleb- she snatches from him, does dangerous leaps; how he looks up to her and mimics her not knowing right from wrong yet; and so, telling her that what he does is generally her fault (on this I had clearly highlighted both the good things he mimics as well as the bad things).

But last night she was just plainly defying me.

Hot Mummee says I have always been too lenient: I believe in a couple of warnings first. Last night she was pounding an inverted empty raisin tin like a drum with some of her colour pencils, her brother copying her. After repeated and increasingly stern pleas and warnings to stop “Because it’s noisy and you will break the pencils inside..”, she still went on with it. I took it away. She went to get it back. I took it away again out of reach.

Then she started playing with her plastic childrens-table, turning it upside down and crawling under it pretending to be a tunnel, her brother copying her, when he has already cleaned up in pj’s ready for bed. Pleas turned into warnings, not heeded again.

“I said no!”

” I said yes!”

I flipped: CHASED and grabbed her arm and whipped-smacked the back of her thigh.

She bawled. It stung my fingers for a while, which I am sure was the same on her fleshy thigh. I didn’t regret it. Repeated warnings warranted it.

“Don’t you talk back to me!” and reminded her about the earlier two let-go’s before I flipped.

And here’s the potential tear jerker:
Why are you more happy with di-di (younger brother) than with me??

Fine tight rope act and speech required here.

After insisting that she calmed down, I explained; as had Hot Mummee the night before. “We love you both the same, but you just plainly do not listen!“, “.. he listens to us..”, “..but he copies what you do, especially the bad things..”, “.. at 2 he is already very polite..” etc.

Sigh.

She is a smart kid. Quite bright, observant (that’s obvious from above), and at present somewhat requiring lots of guidance. We work fulltime, Grandma can only do so much. She is still okay with her studies, but it is this kinda in-discipline that is preventing her to start being able to read, at 5-turning-6 age.

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Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Caitlin the heiress, Caleb the heir, Dr Pixie says, Education, Parenting rules, siblings

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Did your toddler develop a fever and then a rash 3 days later?

Posted on 22 August, 2009 | 8 Comments

Caleb did.

When he first developed the fever on Sunday, we didn’t think much about it, only perhaps he’d caught something; maybe from his sister.

But you wouldn’t know it.

Caleb has been running around being his cheeky self, toddling around in circles at tv jingles, walking after HM when he sees her, playing and demanding the toys that Caitlin is playing (and Caitlin demanding it back). If you didn’t touch him, he certainly wasn’t showing any of the visual signs of suffering from fever.

Naturally worried, we took him to the nearby children’s clinic Tuesday evening- yup, it was already 36 hours since the fever started. The pediatrician kinda went “Yup, fever”, poked a spatula making Caleb puke on his floor, “Yup, sore throat, and stuffed nose too” and charged me RM80 for making us wait for him almost 3 hours (when we registered him we were told to come back in an hour. We did, and still had to wait our turn), and prescribed paracetamol and rhinothiol, two of which you can already buy from your neighbourhood pharmacy, and also what Dr Pixie‘s already prescribed before.

Yesterday, Wednesday, his fever had subsided. Again, you wouldn’t know it because of his still normal (ie high!) level of energy. Last night in the lift on the way upstairs, HM was carrying him. He had knocked out- and I still thought Why not, he’s probably lethargic from the fever. I had noticed Caleb had rashes starting from his jawline going down under his pj’s collar. Since he was already asleep I didn’t endevour to examine him, and subsequently forgotten about checking him at all when he did wake for a while.

I made a conscious decision not to administer any more medication, since the fever was going away, and let his own defenses fight the other symptoms.

Today at work Grandma calls me and says the rashes seem to be getting worse. Since HM was mobile today, I left it to her to administer to the little man.

Tonite, after coming home from work and a work-related function, HM tells me that she had spent some time looking for another children’s clinic, and was about to go to a further suburb when Dr Pixie returned call (Dr Pixie’s hours were later in the evening, at the other side of KL, during very peak rush hour). Spoke to Dr Pixie about Caleb’s condition, and without mentioning beyond “Caleb’s got a rash and he’d just recovered from fever”, Dr Pixie correctly asked questions related to all the above conditions-

“Did he have fever for 3 days?”
“Yes…”
“Did he otherwise act all normal?”
“Yes..”
“The rash doesn’t seem to be annoying him in anyway, right?”
“No..”

She called it roseola infantum

Without reading all the contents of the above link to Wikipedia, HM says Dr Pixie said:

  • that kids aged under 3 get it;
  • there’s really nothing we can do;
  • nor need to do, and
  • it will go away eventually; probably also in 3 days.

Good thing Caleb left his mess on the dr’s floor. Honestly that was our second visit to that clinic with Caleb, both times the 2 different dr’s got their diagnosis wrong.

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Posted in A father's POV, Ailments & cures, Caleb the heir, Dr Pixie says

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Nappy rash

Posted on 24 January, 2009 | 4 Comments

Talk about sitting on it.

About a month or so back, due to bad parenting on our part, we had neglected to ensure Caleb was changed quickly and often enough.

It’s “interesting” that being in contact with urine long enough creates such a reaction on human skin. At first we weren’t too sure what the ultimate cause was.

Our guess was confirmed upon Dr Pixie’s first look / impression.

The affected reddened skin covered from between the butt cheeks, forward toward the scrotum, and stopping between that and the you-know-what (I don’t want spam bots picking up that keyword). That last bit (pun?) was the giveaway sign, given how the liquid is trapped in these crevices under the diaper. There was nothing wrong with the skin on the upper side of the ahem and upwards.

Dr Pixie also confirmed that the area would hurt; probably sting is a better description. This explained Caleb’s discomfort in those days. He was a real pain in ass to feed, manage etc, because he had a pain in his ass ha ha.

Here’s what Dr Pixie prescribed.

No more talcum powder on the groin / area; at least for now. When changing, wash / rinse the area as you would but no soap. Soap would only aggravate the area and the sting. Dab / pat dry- again, rubbing dry would also be painful on the skin. And go get this concoction: Hydrocortisol and Zinc oxide; to be applied on the reddened skin after each wash / change.

Hot Mummee and Grandma went out looking for this. Apparently the pharmacist they went didn’t have this, but was able to mix it. I don’t know if it was expensive, I doubt it was though.

That last treatment really helped our little man (another pun?) In probably 6 hours or 2-3 changes later he was feeling almost normal, and the area cleared up not long after.

Sharing my kids-treatment record with you here.

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Posted in Ailments & cures, Caleb the heir, Dr Pixie says, Ergonomics, Parenting rules

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The healing begins..

Posted on 15 January, 2009 | 4 Comments

A quick update.

I took this photo last night, and sent it to Dr Pixie.

Not as painful as it looks

It’s not as painful as it looks. In fact the only feedback I get now is that it is ticklish!

It looks shiny because of the flash on my camera. It is actually dry, but the “new” skin is smooth and dry, effectively giving it a sheen.

Dr Pixie replied saying that it looks like it is healing “cleanly”, but that it is likely to leave a lighter pigmentation as a result of scarring. I initially enquired if I could apply Eurax on the site, since Caitlin has been complaining that it is very itchy, and we don’t want her to be scratching the area at all!

She said no, which was also my initial reaction; general reaction, to letting things heal as naturally as possible.

Dr Pixie did say to continue using the SSD though, which we did because it does have antiseptic properties in it, and since there are still skin areas that need peeling but which may likely be peeled by itchy fingers leading to hey-I-am-not-ready-to-be-exposed-yet new unready skin being open to infection….

Caitlin is already asking when she can go (back to) swimming… I’d like to bring her too. She needs the break.

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Posted in A father's POV, Ailments & cures, Caitlin the heiress, Dr Pixie says, Ergonomics, Short post

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The scalding site : blister popped

Posted on 11 January, 2009

Caitlin took this shot, among others, after the last post regarding the burn site’s blister bursting. I think it should get easier managing the site now, since there is nothing left to burst! It wasn’t easy ensuring the site was … Continue reading →

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The Scalding Site

Posted on 9 January, 2009
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This gallery contains 2 photos.

A short update post. Don’t mean to gross you out; and it’s not as yuck as it looks.. These were taken by Caitlin herself with my phone. Don’t know what prompted her to, likely cos she was just toying with … Continue reading →

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Scarred for life

Posted on 8 January, 2009 | 11 Comments

There are a few things in life that you kinda expect to happen to you; and when you are a parent- to your children.

You expect them to fall down once a while.
You expect them to get hurt once a while.
You expect them to get a bump on the head, a cut there, a bruise here.

But you don’t expect them to be scalded.

At dinner tonite, Grandma was serving up dinner. Caitlin was seated already next to me, at the far side of the table against the doorway into the dining area. Grandma was coming in with bowls of hot soup. She makes them really hot. She reached forward to put a bowl down infront of Caitlin for her, and it slipped out of her hand, away from her, towards Caitlin.

Without really thinking I made the mistake of trying to sweep away the soup from her lap; thinking to remove the hot element from skin.
Grandma comes in to carry her off the wet seat.
I went to get some cloth- anything, to wet with cold water to put over the area.
Grandma says NO.
By which time Mummee was rushing down after hearing the scream. She was shouting DO NOT GET ICE.
My wet cloth was ignored. I could see some peeled skin. It looks like what it’d be like a few days after being sunburnt.
Mummee came with toothpaste, and we all started to spread it over the area.
Caitlin starts to settle.

The old school Chinese old wives way was NOT to encourage quick contraction after a hot expansion. My basic first aid was ignored. We then remembered some ointment bought from China by either grandparents, which had quickly healed the assistant’s hands during the sideshow (more like freakshow) demo, where he applied the ointment immediately after grasping red hot iron bar- don’t ask.

4-5 hours later we are back at our apartment, our regular routine, ready for bed. Mummee’s gentle dabs removed the toothpaste ready for another application of Chinese ointment. Cleared, we could see the damage. Blisters. Multiple of them. Bigger and smaller than peanuts. And the roll of broken skin.

I called Dr Pixie to ask what else we could do other than to air it. She said to go get sulphur silver diazine. It would help with the burn, and it is also antiseptic.

In the conversation I related the whole ordeal, whether it was likely to scar- YES. Provided the blisters aren’t popped during this whole time. but definitely there will be different pigmentation during / after healing.

But I made the worst mistake. I effectively already removed some skin when I swept her lap. It would be those area that is guaranteed to scar; don’t even talk about popping the blisters, I had already effectively done that.

I went to the only 24 hours pharmacy I could think of- Pantai Hospital, not too far from here. Got 60g of the cream, at RM12.40. They call is Flamazine

She is sleeping now with Mummee.

In the coming days these are what I am anticipating:
- her in her school uniform- how do we ensure the area is kept medicated?
- her in her school uniform- how do we ensure she doesn’t get the area accidentally bumped / scraped / pop the blisters?
- her in regular clothes- to remove them to go pee? Who’s gonna help her removal?
- her in bed- same precautions as above?

I feel like shit. I feel much worse actually.

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Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Ailments & cures, Caitlin the heiress, Dr Pixie says, Ergonomics, milestones, The future

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