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Originally posted 2008-09-12 17:28:44. I used to rollerblade, or more correctly, inline skate (Rollerblade is actually a brand name). I say used to ‘cos my middle-aged knee has been reminding me that I am not as young as I used … Continue reading
Originally posted 2008-08-13 13:50:27.
That is usually the question parents ask the detective, in cops & robbers shows on TV, when they speak about the mishaps regarding their kids.
I never knew the implications until I now that I have my own kids. The writers of these shows know what they are talking about- about how parents feel about kids, and about how child-less folks not knowing what it feels like when mishaps befall (other people’s) children.
I saw this article on The Star this morning. It saddens me that people can do this to children; and in this case, presumably by someone who’s not had kids of their own.
What I had wanted to share in this post, mainly, is that I was reminded by Dr Pixie recently not to throw kids up in the air during play- you know, throw them up, and catch them by the armpits when they are falling.
She said that in playing like this, there is a chance of busting a vein or vessel in the head.
Presumably the same thing this abused child suffered “….. (sic) had suffered bleeding in the head probably due to a violent shake”…..
Sigh…
Posted in A father's POV, Dr Pixie says, Education, Ergonomics
Originally posted 2007-11-04 23:13:40.
Caitlin turns 3 this Nov-end.
Is the “terrible two’s” over? Or does it actually mean that kids simply upgrade in their level of terrible-ness?
Terrible-Two’s -> Terrorism-Three’s?
I distinctly recall Dr Pixie mentioning just over a year ago; few months before Caitlin turned 2 in fact, that once kids turned 2, they’d be starting to push the envelope with the adults around them; that they’d be trying to test & see how far they can get with people.
Looking back, I was distinctly reminded of Dr Pixie’s advice almost exactly a month before Caitlin turned 2. Our little angel started to grow devil horns. What was an easy-going little responsive child with joyful smiles (it’s probably a positive trait from none other than Daddee) suddenly showed signs of defiance & stubbornness (definitely from Mummee).
Looking at the present, Caitlin has already established a few things:
Dr Pixie therefore advised that two’s is also the time when they ought to be “molded” in terms of their manners & mannerisms. For if they did not learn & practise their manners & be told or put in their place often enough, this (mis)behaviour & rudeness is likely to set in place, difficult to change (just like men reaching their mid-30s getting harder to lose that bit around the middle.. I guess).
Luckily we try to nip it in the bud as it happens (toddler behaviour, I mean), & with the announced rule of while-I-reprimand-no-one-else-interjects-or-overrules being widely adopted, so far Caitlin does heed what she is told. The few areas that still need work is the greeting of elders when she sees them; when we arrive at their residence, their arrival into our’s, “good morning”- just generally when we see them.
What are / were your experience with your two-year olds?
Next: Terrible-two’s: The Bully!
Posted in A father's POV, Dr Pixie says, Parenting musing
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.
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:
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.
Posted in A father's POV, Ailments & cures, Caleb the heir, Dr Pixie says
Originally posted 2008-10-08 13:35:35.
I kid you not. This was what Caleb did a few days ago.
I was at work and Grandma called to tell me of this.
Apparently he was crying quite profusely. You know how at each Waaa… babies would then draw their breath for the next Waaa…? Well, he didn’t. So he turned blue in the lips, then in the face, and went limp.
Grandma had the shock of her life. She quickly stroked him, patted him on the body and face, and then Caleb woke up.
So, upon finding out this I quickly called Dr Pixie to tell her of this.
Is this a physiological condition?
An inherited condition?
A psychological condition?
Are there any dangers to this?
WHAT’S GOING ON??
Very calmly, Dr Pixie tells me that this is nothing new. Kids do this to get attention, to get things their way; that there is nothing to worry about.
The only thing she said was out of the ordinary was that Caleb is (already) doing this at such a young age of 9 months; my own niece / her own daughter did this once when she was 2.
She did say these words though: Do not give in to the boy’s demands. This is how kids become spoilt brats – they start getting adults to give into them and the trouble starts.
Most of the explanation and conversation revolved around behavioural attitude rather than anything medical.
You can imagine my astonishment at hearing all this. But then when I was hearing this explanation I was reminded of the saying about kids who “.. held his breath till he turned blue to get his way…” It all kinda clicked at the point.
I knew this boy was likely going to be a difficult child with that behaviour, but now with this incident, or shall I more accurately say, manipulative behaviour, we really have a troublemaker in our hands…..
I looked up the internet to research this. I did find a lot of the same things as what Dr Pixie said, plus more:
Here are some links which I visited:
http://www.baby-medical-questions-and-answers.com/toddler-discipline.html
http://www.baby-medical-questions-and-answers.com/child-behavior-management.html
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Pediatrics-1429/Crying-Toddler-1.htm
And at the end is an excerpt from the last link above.
What a scare! Other than that quote above, none of us had ever heard of anything like this before, what more a 9 month old already starting to try manipulating the situation and people. Grandma still doesn’t believe this and asked to recheck this “condition”.
In a lot of ways, it kinda shows that this could possibly be a very smart boy.
I only hope that this genius will only use his power for good and not evil…..! Well at least be on his parents’ side! He already looks at his Daddee in a certain way!
Breath-Holding Spells
What is a breath-holding spell?
A breath-holding spell is when your child holds his breath when he is suddenly injured, frustrated, angry, or frightened. Breath-holding spells begin between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. They occur only while the child is awake.
During a breath-holding spell:
• Your child may make 1 or 2 cries and then hold his breath in expiration until he becomes blue around the lips and passes out.
• Your child may stiffen and may have a few twitches or muscle jerks.
• Your child will breathe normally again and become fully alert in less than 1 minute.
What is the cause?
An abnormal reflex allows 5% of normal children to hold their breath long enough to pass out. Most children do not do this deliberately.
Holding the breath (when frustrated) and becoming bluish without passing out is such a common reaction in young infants that it is not considered abnormal.
How long does it last?
Breath-holding spells usually occur from 1 or 2 times a day to 1 or 2 times a month. Children usually stop having breath-holding spells by the time they are 4 or 5 years old.
Breath-holding spells are not dangerous, and they don’t lead to epilepsy or brain damage.
How can I take care of my child?
• Treatment during attacks of breath-holding
These attacks are harmless and always stop by themselves. Time the length of a few attacks, using a watch with a second hand.
During an attack, do not hold your child upright. Instead, he should lie flat. This position will increase blood flow to the brain and may prevent some of the muscle jerking. Put a cold wet washcloth on your child’s forehead until he starts breathing again. Don’t start resuscitation or call a rescue squad–it’s not necessary. Also, don’t put anything in your child’s mouth because it could make him choke or vomit.
• Treatment after attacks of breath-holding
Give your child a brief hug and go about your business. A relaxed attitude is best. If you are frightened, don’t let your child know it. If your child had a temper tantrum because he wanted his way, don’t give in to him after the attack.
• Prevention of injuries
The main injury risk of a breath-holding spell is a head injury. If your child starts to have an attack while standing near a hard surface, go to him quickly and help lower him to the floor.
What can I do to help prevent breath-holding spells?
Most attacks from falling down or a sudden fright can’t be prevented. Neither can most attacks that are triggered by anger. However, some children can be distracted from their breath-holding if you intervene before they become blue. Tell your child to come to you for a hug or to look at something interesting. Ask him if he wants a drink of juice.
If your child is having attacks every day, he probably has learned to trigger some of the attacks himself. This can happen when parents run to the child and pick him up every time he starts to cry, or when they give him his way as soon as the attack is over. Avoid these responses and your child won’t have an undue number of attacks.
When should I call my child’s health care provider?
Call during office hours if:
• More than one spell occurs each week.
• The attacks change.
• You have other concerns or questions.Caution: Call a rescue squad (911) if your child has a different kind of attack during which he stops breathing for more than 1 minute or turns white (not blue).
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.
Posted in Ailments & cures, Caleb the heir, Dr Pixie says, Ergonomics, Parenting rules
Tagged nappy, pain, poor parenting, rash, skin, sting, urine
