Archive for the ‘Beauty & Health’ Category

When I was young, my baby teeth were left to drop by themselves.  I even remembered my mother trying to tie one end of a string to my loose tooth and the other end to a door knob. She was trying to help me pull out my loose tooth by closing the door. Sound so painful right? Of course I resisted!

With easy access to dentists today, the situation might be different for children now.  Brendan’s baby teeth started to loosen when he was about 6 years old.  For him, each loose tooth posed as a threat to him. Why? Because he was afraid to swallow it while eating or sleeping.  Although I could have continued to assure him that we could just wait for the tooth to drop on its own, I was not able to face his fear and sobbing everyday due to a loose tooth. Hence, I brought him to the dentist to remove each tooth that is loose. This effectively removed the stress of both mother and son immediately because although he was fearful of going to the dentist, he was even more fearful of a loose tooth.

I have collected some memorable photographs of Brendan while he was going through the baby teeth dropping process.

Part and parcel of bidding farewell to baby teeth - missing front teeth

Finally 1 new front tooth has grown while the other 1 took about a year!

It has been 3 weeks since the onset of the school holidays and we took a break to bring Brendan to the beach for cycling and also played badminton yesterday. It was an enjoyable afternoon until Brendan injured his neck ligaments. Everything happened so suddenly. Just bending down to pick the shuttlecock and all of a sudden, he was in great pain!

Nothing seems to soothe the pain and we had to bring him to the doctor. Doctor advised that an injection would ease his pain much faster.  However, it was really tough getting Brendan to stay calm and be jabbed.  A previous experience of an unpleasant injection must have scared him badly because he could not stop crying and resisting. He never struggled so hard when he had to receive his injection when he was younger. I really spent a long time coaxing him before the doctor managed to succeed in giving him the jab!  From encouragement, to incentive, to tight hug and I really put in my best persuasion power before he unwilling relented.  I guess the most important message is to let him know that there is nothing to fear at all. In the coaxing process, I believed I told him that I would buy him a new PS3 game and now I will have to keep to my promise.  Never imagine that it could be so chaotic when a kid has to receive his injection!

I guess when asked what is my greatest expenses, one of them would be on medical bills for my kids.  My boys tend to fall sick regularly especially the younger they are.  Taking turns to visit the clinic has already become a regular affair.

Some say that young kids tend to fall sick more but their immunity will strengthen when they are about 10 or 11 years old. Some say probably my family has been too “clean” and so my youngest boy’s immunity has become low. Others say that it is common for kids to fall sick when they are in a school community with a lot of other small kids. Doctors also tell me that it could probably be due to my youngest boy’s sensitive nose and nasal system. Yet there are also assumptions that it could be due to the fact that he was a premature baby.

Then what happen when one kid falls sick? The next one will follow soon.  No matter how we try to separate the kids when one is sick, there is no way at all.  It is tough to draw a boundary for them. Not too long ago, both boys were suspected with Hand Foot Mouth Disease. Then Darren was down with cold last week.  It is poor Brendan’s turn now with high fever, stomach cramp and nose bleeding. Staying awake at night to sponge a feverish kid and feed medication has become part and parcel of motherhood.

We are giving the boys vitamins, regularly cleaning the house, giving them healthy diet, giving them opportunities to do regular exercise and the boys do not snack much. Somehow, mummy still does not have superpower to “get the bacteria and virus” to stay away from the kids.