All About Your Child

This is Weidong, my youngest nephew (as of now). He was born with holes in his heart. I did not type an extra ‘s’, yes he was born with THREE HOLES in his heart.

My Sister-in-law was shattered the moment she heard the news a few hours after labour. She has been hoping for a son. She wanted to have 2 children and stop ‘production’. But her 1st 2 kids were daughters and she wanted to have a son very much. So she ‘try’ for the 3rd time.

Luckily God was gracious and granted her wish. Without God’s grace, I cannot imagine how many more tries she will go through. She may just end up like her mother who had 7 daughters before the 8th was a son!!!

Weidong need to go for monthly checkups for his heart condition. Today on his 9th checkup, the doctor did another S$300+ scan for him and announced “He is discharged!” Yeah! He is fully well now.

The 3 holes have closed up completely! No more worries on everyone faces. No more hospital checkups. No more extra expenses to pay for. Yippee! 3 cheers for Weidong! As you read this post, hope you could feel the excitement in us too.

Give your child the best.

Although most parents know that breast feeding is the best choice, but the perceived inconvenience, previous attempts failure and lack of knowledge on the actual advantages that breastmilk have caused many newborns to be denied benefiting from breastfeeding.

In the beginning, it may be frustrating and may take some effort to get it started right, but once the perserverance has passed the test, you are on your way to make a big difference in you and your baby’s life.

Breastfeeding creates a special bond between you and your baby. Every mother’s milk has a unique smell to a baby. This enhances bonding between the mother and baby. In fact this is a great help to promote behavioural development of the baby. Bottle feeding is merely providing food and even then, not necessarily the best food.

All the right kinds of fat in breastmilk comes in higher quantity but is more easily absorbable than formula milk. These include Omega fatty acids, such as DHA and AHA, which enhance your baby’s brain and vision development when they needed most.

Breastmilk contains more carbohydrates compared to formula milk to meet your baby’s needs.

Breastmilk contains less protein than formula milk, but this protein is of a form that is more digestible for the sensitive stomach. All the protein from breastmilk can be absorbed by your baby, unlike formula milk.

The proportion of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals in breastmilk changes with the needs of your growing baby up to 6 months of age. Formula milk proportion stays the same and are often less easily absorbable.

The amount of water in breast milk is just right to satisfy your baby’s thirst, thus, when you breastfeed your baby, you do not need to give water at all. The proportion of water in formula milk is dependent on how much you put in.

There are more than a hundred ingredients in breastmilk that cannot be created with human hands or brain. These are important for your baby’s complete development.

The anitbodies in breastmilk help your baby fight against infection. These are absent in formula milk. Bottle fed babies are more likely to suffer from diarrhea, ear, lung and urine infections, increases anxiety and visits to the clinic.

The taste of breast milk varies according to the mother’s diet while formula milk taste the same all the time. Thus, breastfed babies are more ready to try new food during weaning then bottle fed babies.

In the long run, breastfed babies are less likely to develop obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes when they grow up.

The best part is the mother gets to return back to her pre-pregnant weight more quickly because more calories are burnt when producing breast milk. Breast feeding also protects the mother from breast cancer.