All About Your Child

last night 9pm

“Mommy….(scratching his right knee) ….very itching….very pain…..”cried Keatkeat.

Must be the mosquitoes, I thought. Ready to reach out for Mopiko to stop his itch. But I was wrong. He has about 8 -10 irregular bumps, big and small, on that right knee which he was scratching really hard. There was a potential danger that he may overdo it, so I ran for the nail-clipper and trimmed his nails real short.

When that was done, surprisingly that itching area subsided. Noooo…wait! It migrated to the left knee! “Mommy, they ran over to this side….and got more….maybe they ask their friends to come…”

He was perspiring profusely from the scratching. I switched on the fan. Wrong move! The affected areas increased. Now small bumps were appearing every where. The shoulders, the elbows, the hands, the feet….except the face! Lucky!

This looked really familiar. I was searching through my memory files and found the answer in the file labelled eldest sis-in-law.

Hives! That’s it! She had this 2 months ago. She is still having them every now and then. It comes and goes, on its on. No medication needed. No food in particular to avoid. Just stay away from the windy places.

Windy places…Damn! My fan is on. Jumped up on my feet and put that wind machine to sleep. Indeed, 10 mins passed. The areas disappeared on its own.

last night 10pm

Called my mother-in-law (who is staying with my sis-in-law) to confirm the symptoms. Then called my 72 year old Chinese physician uncle for confirmation. Both said, “Yes!”

Advice: Avoid windy places, drink more water preferably barley to cool down the body. The warmer Keatkeat feels the more bumps he’s gonna get.

Went to this site and got to know the causes:-

Many substances can trigger hives:

• Medications (Keatkeat is not on medication)
• Shellfish, fish, nuts, eggs, milk, and other foods (did not eat anything special yesterday)
• Pollen (He was at home the whole time)
• Animal dander (especially cats) (no pets in the house)
• Insect bites (possible)

Hives may also develop from:

• Infections like mononucleosis or illness (including lupus, other autoimmune diseases, and leukemia) (out of the question)
• Emotional stress (oh no. at this age? maybe he got infected by my stress)
• Extreme cold or sun exposure (don’t think so, although the weather has been unpredictable lately)
• Excessive perspiration (excessive? he has been perspiring this much ever since he learnt to run)

last night 10.15pm

Keatkeat’s itch was unbearable for him and for us to see. He was like a little monkey that can’t stop scratching. Rushed down to 7-11 to try our luck. No Calamine lotion nor any Prickly Heat powder. But we were lucky, it was SATURDAY and Giant at IMM opens till 1am.

So off we went and lucky indeed. The Guardian was still in operation. We got both the medication. After payment, got Keatkeat to sit at a corner of the shop and started applying the Prickly Heat powder all over. “Ahhhh….I love it….very cold….not itchy already…put more here and here and here…..” smiled Keatkeat.

Just before he sleeps. Got the powder all over his legs and hands. “Mommy, I’m like a snowman….”

Today 10am

Woke up with perfect skin. All was gone.

today 8pm

The bumps came back and they are all over the face now. Start applying the Calamine lotion. Although hives are not contagious, but when I see the bumps, I didn’t realise I was scratching myself too. So hives not contagious, scratching is!

today 9pm

Keatkeat became feverish. 37.3 Degrees Celsius. Started to cough too. Guess the hives have affected the throat area. My worst fear is this cough will trigger his ‘worst friend’ to join in the fun- Bronchitis. Then I will be in big trouble again.

today 10pm

“Mommy….I got pokka-dot here….” Dear readers, that’s not Keatkeat….its Binbin!!! Even Binbin have it now!!

today 11pm

Allan came back from his appointment. Lost his voice, got migraine and slight fever.

So now I’ve got 3 babies to take care off…..Wish me luck!

Since my little one has turned 3 on Sunday, we called up the Polyclinic to schedule him for the development assessment sometime next week.

So while we wait for that day to come, we went through the development checklist given. A whole list of stuff, which we had to put a tick on the “Yes” or “No” box, before Binbin goes for the test at the Polyclinic. Do you know of a 2-3 years old kid? Could he or she do these:-

24mths – Your child can completely remove any of his own clothing such as the shirt, shoes or pants.

24.5mths – your child plays imaginatively, like playing with a doll and pretending to comb the doll’s hair.

34mths – your child can put on any of his own clothing like underpants, socks or shoes.

45.5mths – your child uses a friend’s name when referring or speaking to the friend.

23/29/35.5mths – your child can put 4 blocks, 6 blocks or 8 blocks, one on top of the other, without the blocks falling. This applies to small blocks of about one inch square in size.

38.5mths – demonstrate drawing a vertical straight line to your child and tell him to draw one like yours. Answer “yes” if he can make a fairly vertical line of less than 30 degrees inclination. He is not allowed to trace the line and the line should be more than 5 cm long but does not have to be perfectly straight.

46.5mths – draw two lines, 4 and 5 cm long, side by side on a card. Ask the child to point to the longer line.

25.5/28.5mths – show your child 5 black and white drawn picture cards, size of 6 by 8 cm, of a dog, bird, fish, bus, and baby. When asked to point to each picture, one at a time, making sure the pictures are being moved around after each time, he can point 2 pictures and 4 pictures correctly.

27mths – your child uses a combination of at least two words to make a meaningful phrase that indicated an action like “play ball”, “want drink”.

30/37mths – show your child 5 black and white drawn picture cards, size of 6 by 8cm, of a dog, bird, fish, bus, and baby. When asked to name each picture, one at a time, he can name 2 pictures and 4 pictures correctly.

40mths – When asked “How old are you?”, “Are you a boy or a girl?”, “What is your name?”, your child gives the correct answer 2 out of 3 questions.

21.5mths – your child can walk up several steps of the staircase by himself. He may use the wall or rail for support but not hold on to a person.

24.5mths – your child can walk down several steps of the staircase by himself. He may use the wall or rail for support but not hold on to a person.

26mths – without holding on to any support, your child can kick a small ball like a tennis ball in a forward direction.

32.5mths – without holding on to any support, your child can jump up with both feet off the floor at the same time.

33mths – your child can throw a small ball overhand, not sideways or underhand, straight towards you with reasonable aim within your arm’s reach and between your knees and head.

Just like I’ve mentioned in that post, Binbin’s development has always been on the express train. He is able to do (sometimes even better) what a child, who is 9 months older than him, does. So this was chicken-feet to him.

So how did your child fare?