Bye warts, by impulse

My last derma trip was about last year prior to returning to work after my maternity leave. This afternoon was my recent trip. I just had my warts removed for the first time this afternoon. I did not go to my regular derma as this was just a spur of the moment decision. I passed by a derma clinic below our building after my foot spa trip to the salon. There were a lot of patients waiting in his clinic which I took as a good sign. I waited for my turn and filled up necessary forms.

I was asked to lie down, an antibiotic cream was applied to my face and Mr Derma let it stayed for about an hour. I think i dozed off and woke up when I felt some buzz sensation on my face.. off he went zapping/cauterizing (as they term it) my warts away. There are a few black spots left in my face reminiscent of the procedure but I felt relieved and happy afterwards.

It was an impulsive decision from my end to have my warts removed today but had no regrets in doing so. =)

Breastfeeding 101

I regretted the fact that my firstborn did not encounter exclusive breastfeeding. Given my limited knowledge on the importance of breastfeeding then, I had him mixed feed (with infant formula and breastmilk) since birth. We should not underestimate the fact that breasfeeding is best for babies up to 2 years. I was quite fortunate to exclusively breastfed my second child for about 4 months. I had her in mixed feeding until she was about 7 months and I can see the difference from my 2 kids. My firstborn used to get sick often while he was still a baby while my second child is healthier compared to my first.

I would like to share to first time moms a short course on breastfeeding. Breasfeeding 101 will include various topics not limited to benefits of breastfeeding, basics of breastfeeding, positions, common problems and solutions and other breastfeeding tips. I got hold of this course copy in one of the mommy seminars that I've attended to.

BENEFITS OF BREASTFEEDING FOR BABIES AND MOTHERS:
1. Breastmilk contains colostrum which is easily digested and is full of antibodies that prevent diseases
2. They say breastfed babies are more likely to be intelligent
3. Delays return of menstrual period which might help space pregnancies
4. Creates a strong bond between mom and child
5. Economical (saves us from purchasing expensive breastmilk substitutes) and readily available

BREASTFEEDING BASICS:
1. Start nursing soon after birth if possible when baby is most awake and sucking instinct is strong.
2. Position baby's chest to your chest. Make sure that baby's mouth is wide open.
3. Once baby is properly positioned, relax and let the feel happen naturally.
4. Make sure baby has your areola and not just the nipple.
5. Your baby is sucking properly if there is a rhythmic motion visible in his cheek.
6. If possible, request for rooming in so that you can demand feed the baby. (Though there is another philosophy on scheduled feeding. whichever works best for you is ok)
7. Breastfeed on demand every 2-3 hours
8. If you received anesthesia during delivery, your baby might be recovering from effects of the anesthetic. Expect him to be drowsy and sluggish at the 1st and 2nd day.
9. It's ok if your baby will only suck a few times or even none at all. There is no danger that the baby will starve since babies born without complications have little need for nourishment during the first few days of life.
10. Don't be ever tempted to give a feeding bottle with breastmilk substitute. Breastfeed exclusively as much as you can.
11. Be wary of the signs that your baby is hungry. Crying is the ultimate sign of all but take note as well on subtle feeding cues such as mouthing, rooting and licking.
12. Don't try to feed a screaming baby. Soothe him first prior to nursing.
13. Learning how to breastfeed properly takes time. Don't give up and give yourself and your baby time to learn how to breastfeed.

BREASTFEEDING POSITIONS
1. Cradle Hold - hold your baby with his head on your forearm while his body is facing yours
2. Cross Cradle Hold - hold your baby along the opposite arm from the breast you are using. SUpport baby's head with the palm of your hand at the base of his head. Good for premature babies or those with problems latching on
3. Clutch Hold - for moms with large breasts or inverted nipples, hold babies at your side lying on his back. Baby's head should be at the level of your nipple. SUpport his head with the palm of your hand at the base of his head
4. Side Lying Position - perfect position at night but requires a lot of practice. This allows moms to rest or sleep while baby nurses. Ideal for moms who had caesarean births. Lie on the side with baby facing you. Pull baby close and guide his mouth to your nipples.

BREASTFEEDING PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
1. Inverted Nipples - compressing the areola between 2 fingers and expressing a small amount of milk will help relieve inverted nipples
2. Sore/Cracked Nipples - usual problem encountered by breastfeeding moms (including myself). This resolves once milk supply increases. AIr drying nipples after nursing may help. Do not be afraid breasfeeding when nipples are sore and cracked. Wash nipples with water only and leave a drop of milk on the nipples. No need to clean the nipples after each latch
3. Engorgement- caused by accumulation of mlk that makes breast big and hard. Feed baby often and express milk manually
4. Mastitis - inflammation of the breast caused by bacteria. One may experience fever if she has this. Offer unaffected breast while affected breast is emptied. Consult your doctor when you feel you have mastitis

BREASTFEEDING NUTRITION
1. Eat lots of protein rich foods,fresh fruits, whole grain breads and green leafy vegetables such as malunggay.
2. Hydrate yourself and increase fluid intake. Drink at least 8 glasses a day. It is also good to have soups as part of your daily meal and juices if possible. It is best to have a drinking water nearby while breastfeeding as sometimes in the middle of feeding your child you will feel thirsty.
3. Drink a glass or two of water before breastfeeding your baby.
4. Increase calcium requirement to 5 servings per day. Salmon and sardines are good sources of calcium. Take calcium supplements if possible.
5. Avoid drinking coffee, tea, colas or other caffeinated drinks
6. Don't drink alcohol.
7. Always consult your doctor before taking any medications
8. Check if your baby will encounter any allergic reactions to what you've eaten. Eliminate the food culprits if possible. Common food eliminated in a lactating mothers diet if their babies are sensitive are the following: chocolates, nuts and sometimes fresh milk.

OTHER BREASTFEEDING TIPS
1. If you are sick or concerned with other ilness, best to consult your doctor or lactation consultant for further advice if it is still safe for you to breastfeed.
2. Breastmilk is composed of about 88% water. Supplementing with water while breastfeeding is not necessary. Exclusive breastfeeding is encouraged for at least 6 months.
3. Working moms can still breastfeed their baby even if they are tired from work but it is best to breastfeed when one relaxed. The brain releases oxytocin,a hormone that makes us relaxed when one breastfeeds the baby.
4. Most moms worry if their baby is getting enough milk. Although we cannot see or measure the amount of milk our baby is getting, we might as well trust our instincts if they are getting enough milk.
5. Stools of breastfed babies are yellowish similar in consistency and odor with yogurt.
6. For a healthy baby, he should be gaining weight. Take note that babies' weight gain differ accordingly.
7. When one is in public, it is highly encouraged to still breastfeed your baby. There are breasfeeding rooms available in most malls. You may also opt to use a baby sling, a nursing cover or a shawl to cover your breast and your baby. Some would opt to wear nursing clothes.
8. If your trip is short, breastfeed before leaving and right after your return home.

Working Mom Experience

Such a political world! That's why they made a course out of it I suppose! There's magic in it and mostly everyone experience and learn from it in their own little way. I'm not supposed to but sometimes I get stressed on how work loads me up.. It's kind of a dementor thing zapping out every inch of happiness from you. But I chose not to be affected by it. I've used my EQ bank to ward off dementor moments. I decided to become Harry Potter and fight off every dementor and a Voldemort counterpart that one could ever imagine.

Almost 3 years have passed and I've been on a crossroad on whether to continue threading this path or decide to let go, break free and thread the path I would have loved to choose. But I just realized the path that I'm threading into is a road less travelled. A rare opportunity for life travelers like me. I don't know if anybody will like to be in my shoes for now but I have no regrets on the whole thing.

Choose your battles as they say. Big enough that matter, small enough that you can win. I would like to congratulate myself for having come this far. I've witnessed various political scenarios happening in my other side of life. i never thought these types ever existed in the world I'm into. I hope these would stop.. If ever this will continue, I am still not certain if I want to be part of it anymore. I'm truly content with living my personal life as happy as one could imagine and I never thought other side of life will become quite shitty as this. Sometimes I wonder how others could get to meditate and sleep well at night without realizing what they have done.

I hope someone will put an end on this. It was quite a great learning experience though. Something that strengthened me as a person. It tested in a way how I will stood by my moral grounds. I do hope others will have time to reflect on things they've done and realize the best thing that could possibly be done to correct the situation. Its never too late as many people say.

But when I reflect on the other blessings that I've experienced in life, it makes me forget things that I've experienced. I've come this far, the journey is not yet to an end. I believe this is just the beginning. I need to count on my little blessings, increase my EQ bank, move on and patiently awaits what lies ahead.

My Wellness Story

Late this March, I chose Wellness. I took part and enrolled in our company's Wellness Program for Employees. I'm quite thankful that our company puts highest importance on being a trusted and leading Nutrition Health and Wellness Company. We are quite lucky to have almost an entire floor in our building dedicated to a wellness center (aka gym). In addition, there are group classes being offered everyday for various health activities.

Upon program enrollment, we had nutrition counselling and initial measurements were done by certified/human kenetics graduates on the following: Height, Weight, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist:hip ratio and had initial physical assessments such as VO2 Max, Baseline Circumferences( arm, chest, waist, hip and thigh) Skinfolds (Chest, Triceps, SUbscapular, Thigh, Supraillac, Abdominal, Med Calf and had the sum of skinfold), isometric strength (push up, abdominal curl up, hamstring, quadriceps, hamstring:quadricep ratio) and flexibility.

I am very happy that I achieved my weight achievement for the past 2 months. I try to attend the group classes but never tried going to the wellness center yet. I hope to find time and be able to go to our gym someday. Currently, Im enjoying attending various cardio exercises at least once a week. I am trying to increase my group classes attendance to 2x a week and gradually increase it until I could attend it everyday!=)

Every month, we have nutrition counselling to track as well how well we've progressed and check if we met our month's target. I am hoping that by the end of the Wellness Program by December, I will achieve my desired weight with a flatter tummy! =)

Welcome to my blogging world

I am not a good writer.. I just write what I feel and anything that I wishes to write.. =) It's my stress reliever. A therapy, my emotional outlet, my online diary, my advocacy.. I wanted to give blogging a shot but I don't know if I will succeed.. I'm not in a hurry though.. I will just write any topic on what I feel writing about wishing and hoping that someday, someone will read a few of my postings and learn something from them..=)

Working Mom Reflection

I believe every mother is a working mom. Motherhood is a career in itself they say. Mothers work hard to take good care of their children, protect them and do the best things possible for their kids. Some moms opt to work at home. Others chose to find a job and build a career around it to be able to provide well for their kids. 

I'm the type of mom who has a career on her own but career at work takes second priority to working hard to be a better mom for my kids. If only I could, I would give up my job but I believe I won't become a better mom if I do so. For financial reasons and for personal reasons, I opted to have a career in one of the best company in the world along with taking care of my children. I hired a yaya (nanny) to be our co-partner (together with my husband) with the objective in mind of raising healthy, well-rounded children. After two attempts, we are grateful to have efficient yayas in our midst to take good care of our kids while we are at work.

Some might call me non-traditional in terms of bringing up kids and there might be some choices I made as a mother particularly in childcare that might be spurned by others. I still firmly believe that these choices are the best ones taking mostly into consideration the welfare of my children. 

Personal Tips on Feeding your Child

A lot of first time moms will have this normal dilemma of what to feed their child once they start weaning from breastmilk or milk supplements. Some are even struggling when it comes to feeding their child. I used to dread feeding my firstborn and often pass this to his yaya (nanny). Now, I enjoy feeding my second child and wish I had taken the same route with my firstborn. 

I tried to recall what I learned from my  experience, what I've read on some books and pedia advice retained in my mind on feeding a child.. Here are those that are worth sharing. I cannot guarantee if same will be effective with your baby as what could work with my 2 kids would work otherwise for your child. Hope this helps mothers out there especially those struggling how to feed their child.

1. Breastmilk is best for babies upto 2 years and beyond. Most moms would have exclusive breastfeeding of upto 6 months then start on complementary foods thereafter. Some moms would start weaning their child to baby food as early as 4 months onwards. Check what you think is the best schedule for your baby. If your baby is having rashes or has acute dermatitis, it is best to postpone infant weaning to about 6 months onwards and start slowly on trying out different food types for your baby.

2. Baby foods that are good to start at those that are finely mashed or diced such as potatoes, apple, banana, mango, strawberry, carrots, squash, chayote, papaya and camote. Some would have rice porridge or what we locally term as "lugaw". Others would boil water used for washing rice or what we locally call as "am". For hassle free and convenient options, there are a lot of stage 1 infant cereal available with Cerelac as the trusted infant cereal brands by most moms. As infant grows older, you can adjust his cereal to the next stage. You may also opt to mix and match finely mashed or diced fruits and vegetable above to your babies delight.  My pedia's advise was to start offering ground or flaked meat to my second child as she turned 9 months old.

3. Rule of thumb when trying food for the first time is to have these offered to the baby for around 3 days straight to check if he doesn't encounter any allergy with the food offered. For infant cereal product, a teaspoon of Cerelac stage 1 coupled with few drops of water is best. Make the first baby food as watery as possible and gradually adjust consistency as soon as you feel your baby is ready for it.

4. For babies with sensitive skin or has acute dermatitis or encounters allergy rashes, it is best to postpone introducing other poultry based products and food known to alleviate allergic reactions such as nuts, chicken, fish/seafood and eggs. My pedia advised me to delay in giving these  to my son who had acute dermatitis until he turned 1 year old.  We offered these when he turned 1 and he encountered some rashes when he took these items thus we further delayed introducing these products and recently offered him these items now that he is 2 1/2 years old. Fortunately, he doesn't have any allergic reactions to these anymore. Good news: fish and chicken are now his favorite food to eat during meal times. 

5. There are times when your baby will reject some of the food being offered. Do not despair. Try and try until you succeed as they say. My second baby used to reject every new food being offered to her. We never gave up on reintroducing the food initially offered to her the following day, the week after even months after. Today, she now eats almost every food being offered to her.

6. Meal times for your kids are social times as well. If possible, take your meal together with your child. Bond with him as best as you can during meal. Do not be impatient as most mealtimes really takes longer than expected. For my first born, meal time takes an average of 30 minutes. For my second child, it is a few minutes less. We used to let our firstborn take his meal ahead of us. There are some struggling involved when we put him in his high chair and in letting him eat his food. This sometimes drains us when it is already our time to eat. Most of the time, we even let his nanny feed our child even if we are around. For our second child, we changed this and have her with us whenever we take our meals. We already kept the high chair since she would rather sit on our lap during mealtime. Sometimes she sits on her own on the regular vacant chair. We just let her be and make sure that she does not fall from the chair.

7. Start introducing other dairy products as early as your kid can tolerate it. When my kids turned one, they loved Chamyto - a lactobacilli drink as well as Yogurt. My firstborn's favorite snack drink are those of Nestle's Yoghurt drink in various flavors - strawberry, mango and even orange if im not mistaken. He loves NIDO Yoghurt and Nesvita yoghurt as well for more than a year of taking it already. We never fail to include in his baon when he goes to toddler class a bottle of Chamyto/Yoghurt drink or a cup of Nido/Nesvita Yoghurt together with his small pack of breakfast cereals. We occasionally treat them for a few spoons of ice cream when they turned 1 year.

8. Minimize (if not unavoidable) giving them junk foods such as chips which are very high in sodium since their kidneys cannot tolerate these types still. Offer them healthier alternatives instead  such as breakfast cereals or cookies.

9. There will come a time that you child would start wanting to eat on her own. Early signs would be wanting to hold his own spoon or fork. Drinking from a grown-ups glass instead of his sippy cup. Do not discourage this behavior. I used to regret scolding my firstborn on doing this stuff and until now he still eats with maximum supervision at 2 years of age. For my second child, even if it quite messy to do so, we encourage her to explore her utensils, try to feed by  herself using her own spoon and exploring various ways to try food - with her hands, with the spoon, with the straw etc. We got used to cleaning the mess afterwards and when we dine outside - we only go to child-friendly restaurants and make sure to give a generous tip to the attending food staff who tolerated our kid's mess.

10. Do not force-feed your child. If he doesn't want to partake his meal then let it be. Some disciplinarian parents would object on this tip but a child will eat when he feels hungry. If he would rather play than eat, then let him be. There will come a time that he will look for food or let you know that he is already hungry. Do not worry when he eats only one type of food for a given time. Each child is unique in his own little ways - there are some who are quite hard to feed, there are those who would just eat whatever is being served to them. You don't need an expensive milk or shift to another milk to give to a hard to feed child. You might not realize that you are just spending more or giving your child additional excess sugar depending on the type of milk you plan to shift him to. Just let him be - offer food that he wants and offer healthier alternatives such as increasing his milk intake. As long as his weight for his height is still within the norms for his age then there is no cause to worry.  I used to see in the TV ads with Pediasure and Lactum being promoted for hard to feed kids. Upon consulting with my pedia and checking out that Pediasure contains similar nutrients with my child's current milk - NIDO 1+ and its just the caloric content per serve which differs - i chose the less expensive option - to retain to NIDO 1+. The solution advised to me by my pedia was to increase my son's intake of NIDO 1+ to get the same caloric value of Pediasure's serving. With regards to Lactum, upon tasting the product during one of the samplings it offered in the supermarket, I noticed that the product is too sweet and too much sugar is a no-no for my kids. The earlier my child is predisposed to excess sugar, the greater his chances of having health related problems such as obesity. When I checked the label, true enough, sugar is the second ingredient highest in the product. From what I learned during nutrition seminar, Ingredient list in the labels are arranged in which those appearing first in the list are those of highest quantity. Sugar is listed second in lactum's pack while only listed third in  NIDO. Thus I was further convinced that I did a smart choice in giving my child NIDO. They still continue drinking NIDO until this day.

Hope this tips helped some moms in a way. These are based on personal experiences and we might find similarities or differences in feeding our child.