of outputs and inputs

we’d recently saved on, ohhh, about two diapers the past two days.

the first day, the lil one decided he wanted to have a dump in the toilet bowl. i wasn’t around to witness it, so it was a second-hand account by our current help. she’d smelled him, err, gassing, and asked if he’d like to use the potty. he nodded and she helped him onto the toilet bowl, and whaddayaknow…

i made a big deal out of it and went “WOW!!! GOOD BOY!!!” so he’d feel the sense of accomplishment of doing the do like the big boy that he is.

and last night, before bed, he’d had a bit of constipation and was a little teary coz it must’ve been discomforting, as he’d not gone the whole day. so the two of us got him to sit on his little potty, remember the blue one?, so it would make the elimination easier.

and just like expert lamaze coaches, we encouraged him to “push, aniq! PUSHHH… erk erkkkk… sikit lagi! dah nampak tuuu… come on! you can do it!”

imagine that, two adults squatting in the bathroom, akin to a labour ward, massaging the little one’s tummy and coaxing the stubborn poo out of him. very dignified, LOL!

he stood up halfway, upset because the poo was obviously stuck between two worlds (!!) and again, the midwives aka izadnhana made him sit down and continued cheering him (and the poo) on.

he gave a final red-faced push and we all, including him, peered down the potty and… what a relief (pun intended)! more rounds of cheers and claps ensued.

as we put him to bed, i told him that THAT was how mummy felt when she pushed him out of her. much, much more painful than that, and with less tears. this was nothing.

he must be thinking mummy pooed him out in a potty.

***

on a different note, i’ve been reading the ‘zero to three’ magazine again, and found some articles really interesting. (sheesh, what happened to girly fun mags like cosmo and cleo, hana?!)

this issue focused on childhood obesity, and some points i noted:

“Unlike adults, young children do not decrease their attention to TV during advertisements. This may make infants, toddlers, and preschoolers especially vulnerable to ads on TV at an age when food preferences and eating habits are forming rapidly. Indeed, watching a 30-second ad only 1 time increases a preschooler’s liking for the advertised product. Young children are bombarded with TV commercials for food: 2- to 5-year-old children see just under 5,500 commercials for food, or 30 hours of food advertising, each year, most of which are for foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt.

Many commercials use themes centered around taste, fun, and happiness, with a focus on branding. Branding is a form of marketing that promotes product recognition, which focuses on creating long-term consumers… Children as young as 2 years were able to recognise 8 out of 12 advertised brands, and their liking for recognised brands increased with age. Perhaps not surprisingly, young children will request more advertised food at home and at the grocery store, and parents are likely to comply with these requests.”

i think it’s true – kids are known to LOVE tv ads! even the little one is not spared, often stopping to intently watch the commercials, especially where kids are shown. one time i gave him a cup of jelly and he associated it with that ad where the kids sing “give me one, give me one, give me one more!”, and proceeded to sing along to it – “one more! one more!”

and whenever the honey stars or coco crunch cereal ad comes on, he’d get all excited and point, “NAK!”

of course, it’s cute that they have the ability to imitate, but hmm… there may be some subliminal ‘brainwashing’ thing going on coz then they instantly want all those things on tv instead of boring ol wheat crackers or vegetables. which of course leads to higher chances of obesity, or poor eating habits. :S

another article on eating and emotions in obese toddlers brought this to my attention:

“In addition to the negotiation of autonomy during feeding, infants also must learn to differentiate between internal sensations related to eating (hunger vs fullness) and emotional experiences (wish for affection, feelings of anger or frustration). It is, therefore, of utmost umportance that caregivers recognise the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond accordingly. For example, parents should offer food when the infant signals hunger and should not offer food when the infant is upset and needs affection or calming. Likewise, parents should end the meal when the infant is satiated and should not insist that the infant keep eating until the plate is empty.

If the parents consistently differentiate the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond appropriately, they will support the infant’s internal regulation of eating. The children will become attuned to internal sensations of hunger and fullness and will be able to tell the difference between these sensations and other internal sensations such as anger, sadness, and pleasure… However, if parents respond to their infant’s emotional needs by feeding the infant, the infant will confuse hunger with emotional experiences and will learn to eat when sad, lonely, frustrated, or angry.

Parents may also further blur the line between the child’s hunger sensations and emotions by trying to soothe the children through feeding them – that is, by using special foods (eg. sweets) as rewards or to express their love and nurturance.”

i think this probably explains why we have ‘comfort foods’ as adults, mostly in the form of ‘junk’ food, like ice cream and chips and chocolates! feeling depressed? let’s reach for that tub of ben & jerry’s…

i’m aware all along of how i shouldn’t force him to finish up his food if he didn’t feel like it. i always tell the helper to just stop giving him any more porridge if he doesn’t want anymore. sometimes i fall into the trap of ’sayang makanan’ and try to coax one more scoop into his mouth, even though he’d shown signs of having enough. we always think it’s not enough! and sometimes i end up regretting, coz occasionally he’d throw up, and there goes all the food, much more of a waste. so i think there’s something to be said about kids and their “internal regulation of food”.

the article continues to say that restricting appealing foods focuses children’s attention on the restricted foods and increases their desire to obtain and consume those foods. of course, there has to be limitations! so i guess those “poks” and other bad stuff i give him occasionally are justified. (haha, making myself feel better here.)

food for thought?

mummy says this is “pok” coz it’s crunchy…

of outputs and inputs

we’d recently saved on, ohhh, about two diapers the past two days.

the first day, the lil one decided he wanted to have a dump in the toilet bowl. i wasn’t around to witness it, so it was a second-hand account by our current help. she’d smelled him, err, gassing, and asked if he’d like to use the potty. he nodded and she helped him onto the toilet bowl, and whaddayaknow…

i made a big deal out of it and went “WOW!!! GOOD BOY!!!” so he’d feel the sense of accomplishment of doing the do like the big boy that he is.

and last night, before bed, he’d had a bit of constipation and was a little teary coz it must’ve been discomforting, as he’d not gone the whole day. so the two of us got him to sit on his little potty, remember the blue one?, so it would make the elimination easier.

and just like expert lamaze coaches, we encouraged him to “push, aniq! PUSHHH… erk erkkkk… sikit lagi! dah nampak tuuu… come on! you can do it!”

imagine that, two adults squatting in the bathroom, akin to a labour ward, massaging the little one’s tummy and coaxing the stubborn poo out of him. very dignified, LOL!

he stood up halfway, upset because the poo was obviously stuck between two worlds (!!) and again, the midwives aka izadnhana made him sit down and continued cheering him (and the poo) on.

he gave a final red-faced push and we all, including him, peered down the potty and… what a relief (pun intended)! more rounds of cheers and claps ensued.

as we put him to bed, i told him that THAT was how mummy felt when she pushed him out of her. much, much more painful than that, and with less tears. this was nothing.

he must be thinking mummy pooed him out in a potty.

***

on a different note, i’ve been reading the ‘zero to three’ magazine again, and found some articles really interesting. (sheesh, what happened to girly fun mags like cosmo and cleo, hana?!)

this issue focused on childhood obesity, and some points i noted:

“Unlike adults, young children do not decrease their attention to TV during advertisements. This may make infants, toddlers, and preschoolers especially vulnerable to ads on TV at an age when food preferences and eating habits are forming rapidly. Indeed, watching a 30-second ad only 1 time increases a preschooler’s liking for the advertised product. Young children are bombarded with TV commercials for food: 2- to 5-year-old children see just under 5,500 commercials for food, or 30 hours of food advertising, each year, most of which are for foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt.

Many commercials use themes centered around taste, fun, and happiness, with a focus on branding. Branding is a form of marketing that promotes product recognition, which focuses on creating long-term consumers… Children as young as 2 years were able to recognise 8 out of 12 advertised brands, and their liking for recognised brands increased with age. Perhaps not surprisingly, young children will request more advertised food at home and at the grocery store, and parents are likely to comply with these requests.”

i think it’s true – kids are known to LOVE tv ads! even the little one is not spared, often stopping to intently watch the commercials, especially where kids are shown. one time i gave him a cup of jelly and he associated it with that ad where the kids sing “give me one, give me one, give me one more!”, and proceeded to sing along to it – “one more! one more!”

and whenever the honey stars or coco crunch cereal ad comes on, he’d get all excited and point, “NAK!”

of course, it’s cute that they have the ability to imitate, but hmm… there may be some subliminal ‘brainwashing’ thing going on coz then they instantly want all those things on tv instead of boring ol wheat crackers or vegetables. which of course leads to higher chances of obesity, or poor eating habits. :S

another article on eating and emotions in obese toddlers brought this to my attention:

“In addition to the negotiation of autonomy during feeding, infants also must learn to differentiate between internal sensations related to eating (hunger vs fullness) and emotional experiences (wish for affection, feelings of anger or frustration). It is, therefore, of utmost umportance that caregivers recognise the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond accordingly. For example, parents should offer food when the infant signals hunger and should not offer food when the infant is upset and needs affection or calming. Likewise, parents should end the meal when the infant is satiated and should not insist that the infant keep eating until the plate is empty.

If the parents consistently differentiate the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond appropriately, they will support the infant’s internal regulation of eating. The children will become attuned to internal sensations of hunger and fullness and will be able to tell the difference between these sensations and other internal sensations such as anger, sadness, and pleasure… However, if parents respond to their infant’s emotional needs by feeding the infant, the infant will confuse hunger with emotional experiences and will learn to eat when sad, lonely, frustrated, or angry.

Parents may also further blur the line between the child’s hunger sensations and emotions by trying to soothe the children through feeding them – that is, by using special foods (eg. sweets) as rewards or to express their love and nurturance.”

i think this probably explains why we have ‘comfort foods’ as adults, mostly in the form of ‘junk’ food, like ice cream and chips and chocolates! feeling depressed? let’s reach for that tub of ben & jerry’s…

i’m aware all along of how i shouldn’t force him to finish up his food if he didn’t feel like it. i always tell the helper to just stop giving him any more porridge if he doesn’t want anymore. sometimes i fall into the trap of ’sayang makanan’ and try to coax one more scoop into his mouth, even though he’d shown signs of having enough. we always think it’s not enough! and sometimes i end up regretting, coz occasionally he’d throw up, and there goes all the food, much more of a waste. so i think there’s something to be said about kids and their “internal regulation of food”.

the article continues to say that restricting appealing foods focuses children’s attention on the restricted foods and increases their desire to obtain and consume those foods. of course, there has to be limitations! so i guess those “poks” and other bad stuff i give him occasionally are justified. (haha, making myself feel better here.)

food for thought?

mummy says this is “pok” coz it’s crunchy…

early bird

28 Nov, 2007 03:47 PM: i got you an early birthday gift! now with me already, hehe..

28 Nov, 2007 03:54 PM: when can i hv it?

28 Nov, 2007 03:59 PM: when u want it??

28 Nov, 2007 04:00 PM: over a candlelight dinner of coz!!

28 Nov, 2007 04:19 PM: dunno why people must dine to a candlelight dinner, gelap sey, tak nampak… makan aper pun tak tahu… makan mesti terang2, jadi boleh nampak…

!!!

oh well. i guess i shouldn’t push my luck, haha.

in any case, thank you for the advanced gift, which i got on the sofa, in front of the tv, where it was VERY bright, over the late-night snack of toasted nutella and marshmallows sandwich. YUMMY!

i’ll try your toasted goobers peanut butter jelly and marshmallows sandwich next, pls.

knight in shining whatever

DON’T tell me you didn’t bawl your eyes out during yesterday’s episode of grey’s anatomy!

i had tissues all around me at the end.

i only get all emotional and weepy when i watch made-up shows like this on tv. in real life? no way.

of course, it helps that it was mcdreamy and he was crying, and looking all distraught and dishevelled and… ok ok, i KNOW, it’s a made-up show! sheesh.

so will meredith die or revive? the spoilers are out there, and i’m itching to read or watch the next episodes online, but there’s something exciting about waiting in anticipation for the next episode to come on tv at the scheduled time next week.

delayed gratification is a virtue.

(but i’m sure there are some of you itching to spill the spoilers here, right? heh.)

still naan the wiser….

it’s been a while since i did a food review. it’s not that there isn’t any good makan place, just that i’ve been busy, well… running.

anyway, this stall is a personal favourite of ours. i think we did a review of this stall on our previous site, izadnhana.com, which, by the way, had been taken over by a cybersquater, no thanks to the previous domain administrator.

we used to get our naan fix at the stall, but that was before aniq was born. as there isn’t any babychair for the little one to sit, we haven’t gone there as often as before. from the outside, it looks like your typical naan coffeeshop, but behold, they make one of the meanest naan this side of town, piping hot naan plus its cheap too!

tucked at the corner of desker road lies this humble restaurant. we usually just order the butter chicken and mutton keema. but occasionally i would buy the tandoori chicken and the curry chickpeas, which are simply delicious.

if you don’t believe, just take a look at aniq’s facial expression, i rest my case

yes, he really dips his naan in the spicy butter chicken gravy, it’s finger lickin’ gooood.

cool runnings

those observant enough would notice a new widget somewhere at the bottom right of the blog. the nike+charity run initiative is a brilliant project by nike to give back to the community. it is in aid of the kids of Make-A-Wish foundation. nike is pledging $5 worth of nike products to the kids for every km that you run. so far i’ve covered 37km, which is about $185 worth of nike products. so for those with the nike+ ipod sport kit, this is a good way for you to burn some calories and at the same time, do a bit of charity to the community. you still have up till 5th december to run. in case you are searching for my name, look out for izadd in the table, i should be in the respectable top 40.

anyway, i got my number tag and singlet for the standard chartered singapore marathon this coming sunday. this is definitely singapore’s premier marathon event of the year! this is surprisingly my first time joining the event. the wifey doesn’t understand why people pay to run. (btw, to take part is not cheap, $58 for the half marathon!) i believe only people who enjoy running would be able to answer her question. to my wife, even if i pay her, she wouldn’t want to run. “buat penat aje….”, she would quip.

since this is the first time that i’m taking part, i decided to go for the less strenuous half marathon, rather than the full 42km. just like the new balance real run, i prefer to take it easy and enjoy the scenery during the run cos strangely enough, i enjoy running. just rewind to 4 years ago when, to me, people who run for fun are a crazy bunch. why run when you can cycle, and why cycle when you can drive, etc…

running has its benefits, for one, i’m less lethargic during work, sleep better at night, and also psychologically feel good. and yeah, its cheaper too.

fitter, happier, more… productive?

hola!

first and foremost, thank you to the uncle for the airwave offer, but the parents already parted with babycolt (and some $) on this new baby some time back.

i’d wave my hand in the air to you, like my parents had suggested i do, but that’d just be too corny, like them.

anyway, did daddy mention that he’s been running? yeah, he’s grown a little obsessed with it. so much so that he’s going to run in the standard chartered singapore marathon on the 2nd of december.

it’s funny listening to the parents’ conversation as we went to suntec to collect the race entry pack. it goes something like this:

M: “you mean, you have to PAY to run?”
D: “yaaaah.”
M: “but whyy?? THEY should pay YOU to run, what.”
D: “aiyah, you don’t understand. you’re not a sports person…”
M: “ah, you don’t exert yourself eh. aniq still needs a father ok.”
D: “no lah, i’m not there to win, i just want to complete the run.”
etc.

needless to say, mummy won’t be cheerleading at the sidelines again, however scenic the route, coz the run starts at 6.15am, which is not her best time to look remotely alive. but i know she secretly wishes daddy the best, and that daddy’s looking fitter these days… (don’t ask how i know what she secretly thinks!)

i also heard that there’s a Kids Dash, which is for kids (duh!) aged 13 and below, with, get this, no minimum age limit! which means *i* can run my own marathon as well. the parents reckon i’d do well, and i don’t think it’s just coz i look ‘dashing’, ha ha. (sorry, i got the corny genes from them.)

ohh but i think i’d much rather go for THIS sport – Combat Skirmish! GUNS!!! now THIS is my kinda thang, i tell ya…

*rat-a-tat-a-tat-tat-tat!!*

let’s hope the parents will bring me to esplanade park on 22nd dec, coz there’s an event there that day and i can get to play with more guns. but daddy isn’t keen though, he thinks we shouldn’t encourage violence and killing. and i thought mummy was bad, hmph. but reaaallly, i dunno, there’s just SOMETHING about guns that brings excitement to little boys like me, i can’t explain it. and i also don’t know why i keep wanting the BIGGER guns. (now don’t start with the mambo-jumbo about ‘phallic symbols’ and ‘fixations’, eh.)

the last stop for the day was my own doing, coz i wandered into the hair salon while mummy was in another shop.

the barber didn’t want to take any more customers, but seeing how shaggy my hair was, he propped me onto a chair before mummy even stepped into the salon and turned on Power Rangers on vcd after consulting with me on the various choices available for viewing – COOL! i didn’t even notice what was going on with my hair, like, whatever dude.

ok. that’s all. ended the day with me sleeping in the car, as usual.

so, have a good week ahead, all you old people who have to work! ttfn.

*waves hand in the air*

aVa: i-empire

thank you for leaving the cd in the car. <3

[track #3: breathe]

ps: can we buy more cds, pls? or… at least get me my own damn i-pod/nano/whatever to play in the car!

disclaimer: this is NOT a birthday gift hint. that one’s still being carefully deliberated.

pps: wait, don’t i owe you one too?? whoops.

keeping abas

thanks to the ‘tit nazi’ (ha ha) for her recent reminder of this topic, coz i finally got round to finding these posters and brochures, which shall be errm, kept as souvenirs and wisely used in future… whenever THAT is.

tsk, SO propagandistic hor. *chuckles*

just to get me a little nostalgic once in a while. (especially when i see the freaking price of milk on the shelves these days. sigh.)

for more information the ‘tit nazi’ would be proud of, go to http://www.abas.org.sg.

nice and pink, just for the ladies. (ps: check out the video clips available! yes yes, totally un-p/o/r/n ones with real spurting bits, hehe. vair useful stuff, especially for new mums, e.g. on compression. man, i like this doctor, we really should have more of his kind around.)

this has been a public service announcement.

**********

ok, just because i *happened* to be surfing, i found a survey done in s’pore some years ago by HPB. excerpts i found interesting:

Muslim mothers were 6.7 times more likely to breastfeed their babies at 2 months compared to Buddhist/Taoist mothers. This might be related to Islam’s favourable stance towards breastfeeding—for example, the Quran (Chapter 2, Verse 233) decrees that ‘mothers shall give suck to their offspring for two whole years’ (Counsilman and Viegas, 1985). Christian mothers were also more likely to breastfeed their babies longer compared to Buddhist/Taoist mothers.

It is noteworthy that while the model for predicting continued breastfeeding at 2 months shows that Muslim mothers were more likely to breastfeed their babies compared to Buddhist/Taoist mothers, Malay mothers were less likely to breastfeed their babies compared to Chinese mothers. This apparent contradiction could be explained by the differing influences of ethnicity and religion on breastfeeding among different subgroups of respondents. Among the Malay mothers, all were Muslims—their ethnic and religious identities are thus closely intertwined. Among the Chinese mothers, their religious affiliations were more diverse—about half were Buddhist/Taoists, about a quarter were Christians, and another quarter had no religion. In addition, the shift towards Christianity in Singapore is most pronounced among the better educated Chinese (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2000), and better educated mothers tend to breastfeed their babies longer.

The survey found that 54.5% of the mothers did not receive advice on breastfeeding from health professionals during their pregnancy. However, this did not have a negative impact on breastfeeding duration in the current study. On the contrary, women who did not receive advice on breastfeeding from health professionals during pregnancy were more likely to breastfeed for a longer duration. Among the women in the survey who had not received advice on breastfeeding, the three mostly commonly cited sources of information were family members, friends and books. This suggests that family support and maternal knowledge are important. Not discounting the important role of health professionals in promoting breastfeeding, it might still be useful to provide women with credible information on breastfeeding as soon as possible as studies have shown that infant feeding decisions are made prior to delivery and such decision would influence the initiation and duration of breastfeeding

In summary, the results of this study show higher breastfeeding prevalence rates compared to past studies in Singapore. Despite this, exclusive breastfeeding is still not a common practice.

- full article here.

so in short:

1) muslim mums do better than buddhist/taoist mums, but malay mums don’t do as well as chinese mums, because the latter include christians who are *generally* better educated and informed. hmm, we really gotta step up, huh? melayu… boleh? :S

2) health professionals, and i’m guessing nurses and doctors here, are not necessarily the best people to turn to, but family members, friends and books (or rather, the world wide web!). so much for asking the ‘experts’, ha ha.

3) let’s hope the statistics rise (and keep rising) in the next few years.

to do or not to do a do

it’s less than three weeks before his second birthday, and we’re in two minds as to whether to organise something or not for the occasion.

big or small, a do will definitely take up a considerably amount of energy and effort! of course, i’d love to do something nice for him, coz mommy LOVES birthdays.

but she’s been a little slack, and a lot of places she’s considered are already fully booked. (and remember that lovely multi purpose hall nearby? malay weddings galore the whole month, baby!)

and then there’s the current ‘climate’ of uncertainty shrouding the family where the birthday boy’s opa is concerned. even now with the foot problem out of the way (it’s a stump now, though i’ve never seen it myself – am too chicken to even have a peek!), he’s now not eating, not opening his eyes, and calling out to, err, ‘people of the past’, so to speak.

do we still go on with a celebration then, for our clueless kid’s sake? it’s kinda weird, but i don’t know. i still feel compelled to do something for the little one. if anything, it’ll bring some cheer to everyone. we could all use a bit of cake!

i mean, life goes on, right? or does that sound… callous and selfish? *scratches head*