Foods to increase breast milk

Source: Foods to increase breast milk supply

1. Oatmeal

Oatmeal can help a nursing mother to relax. When the nursing mother is in a relaxed mood, her body will release oxytocin which is a hormone involved in breast milk production.

Besides increasing breast milk supply, oatmeal is also known for lowering the cholesterol level and maintaining healthy blood pressure as it is full of fibre.

Oatmeal is available in all stores and supermarkets in Singapore. 

2. Carrots

Carrots help to boost the quality of breast milk. In the human’s body, beta carotene will be converted to vitamin A which helps to maintain healthy eyesight for the baby.

However, you should avoid excessive consumption of carrots as allergies to carrot can still occur and your baby may experience a harmless colour change in his or her skin.

Carrots are available in all wet market and supermarkets. 

3. Sesame seeds

Sesame is rich in iron which is important for red blood cell formation. Having enough iron in the diet can improve the quality of the breast milk and benefit babies who are growing very fast.

Sesame also contains other minerals like magnesium, zinc and vitamins like vitamin E which are all beneficial for mothers and babies.

 Sesame seeds are available in supermarkets.

4. Garlic

Garlic is considered one of the best food to increase breast milk.

Garlic has many health benefits. It is good for the digestive tract and heart health. It is also used to treat bacterial and viral infection.

Garlic can be found in all supermarkets, some convenient stores in neighborhood and wet markets. 

5. Asparagus

Asparagus is considered as a must-have food for nursing mothers.

It is a high-fibre food and is rich in Vitamin A and K.

It helps stimulate the hormones in nursing mothers that are essential for lactation.

Asparagus is available in all supermarkets and wet markets. 

6. Sweet potato

Sweet potato is a major source of potassium. It has energy producing carbohydrates which is needed to fight the fatigue. 

Vitamin A found in sweet potatoes is beneficial for the development of the vision and immune system of growing babies.

7. Fenugreek

Fenugreek helps nursing women who experience low milk supply. Fenugreek is a galactagogue which is a substance that increases milk supply. It stimulates the milk ducts and can increase milk production in as little as 24 hours.

Studies published on Complementary & Alternative Medicine, Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have all suggested that fenugreek promotes milk flow.

Fenugreek may be available in the form of capulse in GNC. Fenugreek can also be purchased in certain wet markets.  

8. Fennel

Fennel is believed by lactation consultant to be a galactagogue which is a substance that brings more breast milk for nursing mothers.

Some lactation consultants say that fennel assists with triggering the letdown reflex and therefore helps nursing mothers to increase their breast milk supply.

Moderate consumption of fennel is recommended as excessive consumption may have a negative impact on the breast milk supply.

Fennel may be available in the form of capulse in GNC. Fenugreek can also be purchased in certain wet markets.  

Diarrhea in Baby

What is diarrhea?

Diarrhea is a condition in which watery stool is discharged from the bowels frequently.

The symptoms of diarrhea may last for 2 to 4 days. This infection of the intestine is known as gastroenteritis in medical field.

Symptoms of diarrhea

Frequent stool and water stool are symptoms of diarrhea. Other symptoms of diarrhea may  include stomach pain, vomiting, abdominal cramps, bloating, weight loss and fever.

When to seek doctor’s help?

As stated in KKH (KK women and children’s hospital) HealthPedia, majority of children suffers from diarrhea do not need any medication. Parents just need to ensure their babies remain well hydrated. Most of the children will recover from diarrhea in two days without any medicine. 

If any of the following happens to your child who suffer from diarrhea, parents should consider seeking doctor’s help as soon as possible.

1. Has a fever of more than 39 degree celcius.

2. Has bloody stools. This can be a sign of viral infection.

3. Has not wet diaper in three or more hours. This is can be a sign of severe dehydration.

4. Cries without tears. This can be a sign of severe dehydration.

5. Diarrhea condition does not improve after 24 hours.

6. Has black stools.

7. You baby looks unusually sleepy, drowsy, unresponsive or irritable such as excessive crying

Source: Diarrhea in Babies

Low Lying Placenta

What is placenta and its function?

The placenta is an organ that connects the growing fetus to the uterine wall. It plays an important role in keeping baby alive and healthy. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, she was diagnosed with low lying placenta. Of course, the result can only be shown through ultrasound scan.

The placenta acts to provide oxygen and nutrients to the growing baby via umbilical cord.  It also helps to protect the growing fetus from infections because it filters the blood from mothers.

What does it mean by low lying placenta?

Low lying placenta, also known as placenta previa, is a common problem during pregnancy.

There are three different forms of placenta previa which is detected through ultrasound scan. Different forms show different degree of seriousness of problem.

When the gynecologist informs you that your placenta lies low, you may want to know the exact form of placenta previa that you suffer from. This would give you a rough idea of what you will need to prepare.

When my wife was diagnosed with low lying placenta, we did not know what to do and were not aware of this at all. The only thing we did is to worry.

Why cesarean delivery (C-section) is needed if condition does not improve?

Gynecologist will tell you that you may need a Cesarean (C-section) delivery if the condition of placenta previa does not improve. This is really necessary. When the placenta lies low, it will cover all or part of the cervix which is the opening to the birth canal. A vaginal delivery is impossible in this case. Vaginal delivery in such case can cause severe bleeding which is very harmful to both the mother and baby.

Will my placenta move up as pregnancy progresses?

In many cases, the placenta will be able to move up gradually as pregnancy progresses.

If the placenta still lies low in the third trimester, you may need to prepare yourself for a cesarean delivery.

Precaution to be taken at home

First and foremost, always follow the instruction from the gynecologist. Usually, the gynecologist will ask you rest more and do not carry heavy objects. In some severe cases, hospital bed rest may be required. For the health of both mother and baby in the long term, expecting mother should slow down the daily activities for a few months.

Exercises should be banned. If placenta previa is detected during early pregnancy, you can still enjoy light exercises like brisk walking. However, if the condition does not improve in second trimester, all kinds of exercises should be disallowed.

Please take note that you should seek gynecologist’s help if you experience any severe cramp or bleeding.

Source: low lying placenta 

My child is always sick at preschool

It is very common to hear parents complaining children getting sick at child care centres. For my case, my lao er was sick once in April and just recovered from another one. In both instances, he suffered from cough and a painful throat with fever. 

I know I am not alone. This is because preschools provide a good environment for the transmission of viruses. Whenever children are together, there is a high chance of spreading viruses. This is because children are likely to use their hands to wipe their noses or rub their eyes and then handle toys, books or touch other children.

For younger children, they do not know they should cover their mouth with tissue paper when they cough or they do not have time to react to cough. This gives virsus chances to infect other children in the same child care centre.

Of course, children’s immunity system is still not mature. This make them more susceptible to infection when they are coming to contact with illness they have never had before. This is also one of the factor why your child is sick often.

To protect our children, first thing we should do is to select a child care centre carefully. I observe. I need to know how frequent the care giver or teacher wash their hands as well as how frequent children in the child care centre wash their hand. If they wash hands more often, spread of virus is much less likely to occur.

Another thing we can do for our children is to teach them to cover their mouth when coughing and do not rub their eyes or noses.

Lastly, we can help to boost our children’s immune system by providing them with nutritious food. Make sure there is enough vegetable in your child's meal. 

Source: my child is always sick since starting preschool

what food to avoid during breastfeeding?

First of all, all babies are unique. Their reaction to what food their mothers consume may be different. Therefore, the information here can only serve as a guideline.

During breastfeeding, nursing mother may want to avoid certain food such as fried food or those from fast food restaurant as these food in general are not healthy.

Not only mothers need to avoid these spam food, there are two more major categories of food that nursing mothers may want to avoid.

First, food that may be gassy. As these food may cause tummy trouble in the small babies. Gassy vegetable includes garlic, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber and peppers.

Gassy vegetable may cause colic or spitting up in babies. These vegetable includes garlic, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber and peppers.

Second category of food is food that may add taste to the breast milk. For some babies, they may be very sensitive to certain taste. If they do not like it, they may end up rejecting the breast milk which is a problem to nursing mothers. Food that may cause this problem include garlic.

There are also food like coffee, tea, chocolate that may cause irritation in baby.

Furthermore, nursing mother should also avoid alcohol as alcohol is definitely bad for the healthy development of children as study shows it can delay gross motor development of baby.

Food that is high in mercury level such as tuna should also be avoided as mercury can cause a child's brain. 

Source: what food to avoid during breastfeeding?

No water for newborns

When i first officially became a father in 2012, i was told by a nurse who assisted the doctor in the birth delivery of my son that I can give my child water 30 minutes later. I gave my newborn the water exactly 30 minutes as I was a new parents without much knowledge in raising children. But I learnt. 

Now, I know I should not give newborn water when I first learn it from one article (source below). I then confirmed it after checking WHO website. Yes, i really checked it out as it sounds weired to me at the begining and it means what the nurse told me was completely wrong and many people out there are repeating my mistake. 

To be precise, WHO advises no water for newborn until solid food is introduced to the baby. For most babies, solid food should be introduced at the age of 6 months.

Reason for this is because breast milk or formula milk can provide all necessary nutrition that a baby needs. If you use formula milk, do not need to dilute the formula milk also. You just need to follow the recommended practice given by the manufacturer of the formula milk.

Water can actually harm your baby. Water interfere with baby’s ability to absorb nutrition from the breast milk or formula milk.

Water can also cause water intoxicification. Although it is very rare, it can be serious once it occurs. It can cause tissue to swell, potentially causing seisure or even a coma. For my case, it did not cause any harm to my baby, in my opinion. 

You can read the original articles at: no water for newborn

No salt for baby

Without salt, food may taste like disaster to you. This is why you are wondering whether you should add salt to your baby’s food.

Babies are different from adult. Without salt, food will not be tasteless to them.

Baby will need salt, they just need 1 gram of salt. All these sodium can be obtained from formula milk or breast milk, and hence, it is not necessary for you to add any salt to your baby’s food.

First, a high salt intake has been shown to increase blood pressure and this increases the risk of heart related diseases.

When you add salt to your baby’s food, your baby may develop a dependency on salt. Once you stop adding salt, they may find it the food tasteless. This will make feeding harder as time goes by.

Other harmful effects of high salt intake include childhood obesity, higher risk of stomach cancer later in life, higher risk of kidney disease and asthma.

Source: why no salt for baby

Baby walkers:advantages and disadvantages

Baby walker, as its name implied, has been claimed by manufacturers that it helps baby to walk. However, in Canada, baby walker is banned. Obviously, authorities in Canada think baby walkers do more harm than good.

Many health expert or organisation also believe that baby walker is not necessary, this is the opinion of KK hospital in Singapore.

First, baby walker does not help baby to walk, it actually slows down this development milestone. Most baby will be able to walk at the age of 10 months to 15 months. Using baby walker too often can delay this by one month, as some studies suggest.

Second, there is a danger of using baby walker. This is because baby walker enable baby to move around faster and reach a greater height. For example, with help of baby walker, he can reach items that he cannot reach without baby walker.

Baby walker may tip, this can cause the baby to be thrown downstairs which is extremely dangerous.

In some studies, researchers also found that baby walker can cause atypical walking pattern. Reasons given is that baby cannot see his or her leg while walking due to baby walker. 

But this does not mean the baby walker does not have any advantage.

In my opinion, it temporarily give mothers some free time to do other things. While carrying baby or watching him walk with the help of chair, mothers really do not have any free time to do other stuff. With the help of baby walker, they are able to perform some simple and quick task.

With proper planning, danger of using baby walker can be minimized. At least for me, it does not show any danger. Whether it delays the development milestone, it is hard to tell.

Source: baby walker: is it necessary

Popular baby names in Singapore

The most popular baby boy name and baby girl name in Singapore all start with E.

Emma has been chosen as the most popular baby girl name in Singapore and Ethan is the top pick for baby boy name.

Emma means universal in Latin.

Ethan means firm and strong in Hesbrew, a good choice for boy who grows up to serve national service in Singapore.

Top ten baby girl names, according to Babyment.com is Emma, Olivia, Charlotte, Hannah, Alyssa, Scarlett, Chloe, Mikayla, Leia and Meredith.

Top ten baby boy names, is Ethan, Aiden, Lucas, Caleb, Javier, Zayven, Ivan, Jayden, Ryan and Enzo.

Among all these names, Emma, Olivia, Charlotte, Hannha, Chloe has been the popular choices among parents with baby girl for many years.

For parents with baby boy, Ethan, Lucas, Caleb, Javier has also been top picks.

It is a bit surprise to see one created name Zayven to be in the top ten for baby boy name.

Meaning of the name is always the top consideration for many parents as reflected from meaning of the popular names such as Ethan, Ryan, Charlotte, Chloe.

It is believed that religion affect parents in naming their children. Many the names picked is related to regiion. These include Mikayla, Jayden and Ivan.

You can refer to popular baby names in Singapore for a list of top 20 baby girl names or baby boy girls name in 2017.