Parenting

Tiba-tiba terasa nk menulis blog malam ni. Mungkin disebabkan bahang panas buatkan saya tk boleh nk tidur. Ichiro plak kt sebelah sibuk tengok you tube , video truck, bising betul lah. Hari-hari pon tengok truck. Imran baru jer terlena, kesian penat kerja, balik rumah layan anak-anak pulak.

Akhir-akhir ni terasa banyak pula dugaan yg mendatang. Rasa collapse tapi …..alhamdullilah still standing. Dari dugaan anak-anak yg tk berapa sihat, sampai la ke dugaan menyelesaikan masalah2 tempahan baju.

Bulan lepas Kenji kene bisul di punggung. So worried dia jenis bisul yg “fistula”, which means kene undergo operation utk remove the abscess thread completely, if not bisul will keep coming and repeat. Masa Kenji kene kali pertama, dan bisul pecah, kami bawa jumpa paed surgeon, and diaorg drain kan nanah yg still remain. The process made me cried like a crazy woman dekat hospital. Tk ada bius, just diaorg letak sejenis cream yg boleh buat the area numb but still…can feel the pain lah kan. The surgeon cam buka sedikit opening dan picit keluar nanah, and lepas tu cuci dgn air. Mmg sedih tgk anak kesakitan. At the moment I wish all the pain transfer to me. Sakit bersalin tk habis lagi, biarlah saya tahan pula sakit bisul anak ni. Sedih sangat. Tapi Kenji quite ok, lepas selesai cuci, dia terus tidur jer. Mungkin penat tanah sakit.

Amik masa seminggu utk luka heal, tapi unfortunately bisul tu mcm develop again. Lagipon area dalam diaper sentiasa lembap jadi agak susah utk heal. Kali kedua bisul keluar tapi tk sebesar yg dulu, agak kecil dan tak begitu meradang. Lepas tu mungkin sbb asyik bergesel, bisul pon pecah. Kali ni, kami kasi antibiotik sekejap jer, sbb I tanak terlalu depend dgn antibiotik, kemudian kami guna antibiotik cream, still mcm so-so jer healing process tu. Doktor kata kalau terpaksa buat operation, try to delay it. Jadinya, I try nk cari natural solution. I did some research and cari petua utk keringkan/kecutkan bisul. Terjumpa org suggest tea tree oil. So, kiterorg pon beli tea tree and sapu. Surprisingly the wound looks better in a matter of few hours. Ni dah beberapa hari guna tea tree, bisul dah jadi very small, tiada nanah dan luka dah tertutup. Sangat2 syukur, alhamdullilah. But kami continue sapu, sbb hope the whole thread yg menyebabkan bisul tu akan clean, sbb tanak nnt datang balik lagi and hope boleh pass the operation.

Ichiro pula, hari tu terkena infection dan demam sangat panas sampai temperature shoot up to cecah 38-39 degree. Dan kali pertama tengok Ichiro demam sampai kejang. Lucky masa tu husband ada di rumah, masa Ichiro kejang tu I was holding my books and drawing kits, bila tengok Ichiro kejang, semua benda in my hands i campak. Kelam kabut suruh husband bawa Ichiro ke klinik terus. But before that kami basahkan Ichiro dengan air. Balik from clinic makan ubat and dia tidur. Kemudian terbangun and kejang again. Aduhhh panik gila. But after few days ok dah, so kalau anak2 demam panas and kejang cepat2 check doctor ok. Dikhuatiri terkena sawan dan merosakkan saraf otak nnt.

Alhamdullilah episode anak2 tk sihat nampaknya dah berlalu buat masa ini. Huhuh. Masa anak-anak sakit ni, saya pula menghadapi masalah dgn tukang jahit dan tukang manik. Tukang jahit ni mmg saya dh biasa tempah dan hasil adalah memuaskan, tapi tiba-tiba entah apasal hasil kerja dia caca marba. Buat saya tk leh tido malam , kemudian dgn tukang manik yg ambil masa terlalu lama utk menyiapkan baju menambah2 lagi kerisauan. Tapi dalam pada semua ni terjadi , saya belajar banyak benda dan insyallah lebih bersedia lain kali.

Cumanya kepada tukang jahit, buat lah kerja betul2. Skill yg ada guna sehabis baik. Kalau belum rasa bersedia utk jahit baju fesyen, belajar dan praktis lah dulu sebelum kata boleh buat, dan kemudian rosakkan fabric orang sbb salah potongan. Kemudian presentation itu penting, jgn lah baju yg dh siap podok2 jer dalam plastik bag. Iron la siap2, tajam2. Ni bila saya tanya kenapa jahitan tepi baju ni berkedut2? …”oh ni nnt kalau iron ok ni” Soalannya skang, kenapa kau tk iron? Bukankah utk mendapatkan kelim jahitan yg cantik dan rapi, kene iron dan press elok2 masa pembikinan baju? Jadi mcm mana baju kau jahit leh berkedut jahitan nya? Ni mesti masa jahit tu mmg tak iron. Nak short cut. Hasilnya caca marba.

Dan satu lagi, kalau buat bisnes ataupon kalau tk bisnes pon, bila org message or call tolonglah reply. Ni mcm nk gila call dan sms, tapi tk reply. Mcm bercakap dgn tunggul. Tak ada respect langsung dgn orang. Kalau di whatsapp lagilah, reply message tu free jer, dan kita boleh tahu bila org tu last check message2 dia di whatsapp, so bila ternyata sengaja tk membalas message mmg saya rasa org mcm ni tk ada rasa tanggungjawab dan respect kepada orang lain, especially org yg saya bayar utk service (dalam kes saya service jahitan lah). Kalau saya boleh tolak ansur bila tailor bagi alasan anak sakit dan itu ini. Jadi tolong jangan pijak kepala. Saya ada anak, dan anak saya sakit juga. Saya tk ada masa nk kesana kemari dan buang masa saya tertunggu2 awak nk balas message/call. Sad to say semua ni tailor melayu. melayu! melayu! melayu!

Kadang-kadang saya malu nk mengaku melayu.

Ok bye.

Morning all! I’m staying up tonight to take care my sick son while trying to finish to read all the books that I bought recently (will do review soon). Ichiro is down with fever and I feel a bit depressed when this happened at the time I got so much works to do. I know this is a test from Allah the almighty and insyallah I will try  to get through this gracefully.

When I’m not in the mood to do anything there is one thing that I love to do to keep me occupy or to bring back the good mood. Photo editing. Yup, I love playing with photoshop and edit the photos according to my current mood. Since I am in sad state because my son in sick and it really breaks my heart to see him looking so tired and unenrgetic, here is the result of the editing works that reflects my feeling now. I edit the photo so that it looks like as if we are looking at the baby from outside a glass window during rainy day. Yeah, rains reflect my sad feeling.

I hope Ichiro gets better tomorrow. Come on son, please don’t make mommy worry.

Many of us believe that eating a lot of fruits is good and can make us healthy. Hence, some of us are making a very huge effort to eat lots of fruits everyday. Ramai yang bawa buah dalam handbag, tapi of courselah buah-buah yg kecil2 dan tk berbau pelik mcm orange or apple, bukan bawak durian dalam handbag yer, itu sengal namanya. Hehe.

Tapi do you guys know that by eating fruits excessively will actually make us fat and lead to many other health problems such as diabetes? I still remember I came across an article about Jeniffer Lopez, she refused to eat too much fruits to avoid unnecessary amount of glucose intake. Since
that day baru lah I mcm terfikir, ooo buah-buahan pon boleh buat gemuk rupanya! Patutlah JLO lentik yewww.

There’s no denying fruit’s health benefits – it’s packed with vitamins, fibre and antioxidants, which protect against disease. But while it is fine to exceed this amount if you are a healthy weight, if you are overweight or suffer from high cholesterol or diabetes, too much fruit could be trouble. Itcould also explain why, despite your healthy lifestyle, you’re piling on the pounds.

Same goes to children also. We need to be careful with amount of sugar that we feed our children everyday. Like myself, other than rice (carbohydrate is also a high source of natural sugar) I tried not to expose my son to sweet things like chocolates, sweets or anything sugary. But little did I know (dululah), that some of formula milk contains too much sugar and it tastes terribly sweet. Very sweet indeed ok. Mcm rasa susu for adult. Of course laaa the kids love it, but it’s not good.

Excessive sugar is always not good. What makes it even worst is when some manufacturer claimed it is ok to feed sugars to small kids providing if it is from a natural source. They are actually saying that for the sake of selling their products lah dearies. Maybe I nk kene tunjuk article pasal Jeniffer Lopez tu kt diaorg kot. Huhuh.

Sini ada few tips ok which I gathered from few websites, this is for all mothers out there to really think what is good and bad for the kids especially things that are related to sugar added.

Tip 1 : Sugars are sugars
As I mentioned above natural sugars (gula asli) ker added sugars ker (gula tambahan), they are all SUGARS! They all provide extra calories and they all end up the same inside child’s body. So, don’t get confuse ok.

Quote from http://www.thefitshack.com/2007/06/19/high-fructose-corn-syrup-vs-corn-syrup-solids-whats-the-difference/
Corn syrup, corn syrup solids, and high fructose corn syrup (as well as crystalline fructose) are all made from corn, and bottom line, all are sugar. So, first off, because they’re sugar, my opinion is that they are all damaging to your health, just because sugar is so damaging.

Don’t ever ever think that if you child’s milk contains a lot of natural sugars is ok and safe to be consumed than one with added sugar. No it’s not dearie.

Tip 2 : Sugars ain’t all bad but if too much added sugars? …that’s a problem. Sugar isn’t necessarily all-bad. Sugar is needed in producing energy for child, this means our child still needs sugar in milk, but it can’t be added excessively. You can read here the recommended sugars intake for kids in a day http://recipes.familyeducation.com/nutritional-information/obesity/64270.html

Quote from the above mention link;
The Scary Truth. Are you ready for the scary truth? A study conducted by the AHA found children as young as 1-3 years already bypass the daily recommendations, and typically consume around 12 teaspoons of sugar a day. By the time a child is 4-8 years old, his sugar consumption skyrockets to an average of 21 teaspoons a day. The same study found 14-18 year old children intake the most sugar on a daily basis, averaging about 34.3 teaspoons. In general, a statement from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted from 2001-2004 found the average American consumes about 355 calories of added sugar a day, or the equivalent of 22.2 teaspoons. That is about triple the recommended amount!

Tip 3 : Carbohydrates is sugars
There are 2 things you need to know;

Sugars that are naturally present in the milk powder : Ini kita panggil lactose yer, dan natural healthy level in a glass of regular milk is around 11g to 12g per serving.
Sugars that are added to milk powder : Anything added lah like corn syrup solids, sucrose and glucose syrup solids sbb because all these aren’t naturally present in milk so bila moms sekalian check label kotak susu formula, if u guys spotted anything higher than 11 to 12g for carbohydrate
per serving is actually ADDED sugars ok.

Quote http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/feeding/sugar.html
Sugars: Also listed under Total Carbohydrate on food labels, sugars are found in most foods. However, the Nutrition Facts label doesn’t make the distinction between natural sugars and added sugars. Natural sugars are found in many foods, including fruit and dairy products. Snack
foods, candy, and soda often have large amounts of added sugars. To find out if a food has added sugar, you need to look at the ingredient list for  sugar, corn syrup or sweetener, dextrose, fructose, honey, or molasses, to name just a few. Avoid products that have sugar or other sweeteners high on the ingredient list.

So with these few tips senang dah utk u all semua buat pertimbangan, just follow the next few steps in determining whether not our child’s milk is having excessive sugars (remember natural or added they are all SUGARS). Check your child’s pack of growing up milk powder – remember
anything higher than 11g to 12 g carbohydrate per serve is added sugars and taste your child’s growing up milk – now even! and notice how sweet it is (I did once before lama, memang manis sangat sampaikan semut pon suka, padan la sedap and Ichiro dok nk susu jer) .

By the way, if you are clueless on how to check milk label for sugar, no worries. It’s pretty easy actually even though the manufacturer won’t make it easy for us to spot the sugars in the nutrition facts but be prepared a little bit of knowledge in decoding the sugars will benefit your
child. Ok sonang baitu…kalau takder tulis GULA terang-terang, just look for other sugars code like corn syrup solids, sucrose and glucose syrup solids. See? Easy peasy and make sure it doesn’t exceed 11g to 12g per serve ok?

Yoo, lama tak cakap pasal formula milk. Neway, ni ada shocking discovery yang I rasa ramai mak-mak tak tahu and that’s including me lah. Believe it or not, you are actually feeding your child with a lot added sugars in a day. All these while I know mmg susu formula tu sangat manis, but I thot it was ok and harmless (shame on me!) I mean I thot maybe the formula ker apa ker yg buat dia manis, and tkkan la all the manufacturer nk buat susu yang manis utk budak2 kan? So maybe manis tu datang dari formula dia kot? Agak sengal sikit haku di situ kan? Kalau dah manis tu confirm la dari gulaaaaa.

I saw new Anmum Essentials TV ads and was quite shocked to know that current growing up milk contains too much sugars up to 13 teaspoons daily and I’m soooooo glad that Anmum Essentials contains no added sugar at all.

How to know how much added sugars in the milk? Ha sekarang you all boleh check sendiri tau kandungan gula tambahan dalam susu tu. It’s actually pretty easy and you can check this on your own and it can help you and your child to avoid from excessive sugar intake especially in growing up milk. In my case I want to reconfirm that Anmum Essentials doesn’t contains any added sugar. Ok let me show you how; there are 2 ways;

Read label carefully and decode the hidden names of added sugar such as SUCROSE, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS or GLUCOSE SYRUP SOLIDS.

If is not declared as sugars it will be included in the level of carbohydrate. The higher the carbohydrate = the higher added sugars level. You can check the added sugars level in carbohydrate by using a sugar calculator. Make your way to http://www.semakgula.com.my and use the calculator to calculate the added sugars level. We can actually get this calculator at the supermarket as well, but am not that sure where can I get em so guna online lah senang.

Senang kan? So why not nanti spare some times to check on the label and calculate the sugars level or look for the hidden names of added sugars in the label and you might be surprise with your discovery nnt because you could be feeding your child up to 13 teaspoons* of added sugars every day if you see any of these common added sugars in the ingredient list of your child’s growing up milk powder.

Anmum Essentials is the only brand that produce no added sugars product especially for growing up milk so it kinda easy for me to cross out other brand. Heee. No added sugars, then ada ganglioside (for brain development), high in DHA …well all the essentials are already in so no wonder why they named it as Anmum Essentials

* Approximation of additional sugars in growing up milk powders as compared to Anmum Essential in Malaysia; assuming 3-4 servings per day & 1 teaspoon of sugar = 5 g. All growing up milks contain some natural sugars and minor variations may occur due to formulation differences.

NOTICE : I’M NOT ANMUM REPRESENTATIVE. PLEASE KINDLY REQUEST FOR THE FREE SAMPLE FROM ANMUM VIA ANMUM WEBSITE. DO NOT REQUEST IT FROM ME. I DON’T HAVE ANY SAMPLE.

Malaysians are such a “sweet” people , agree? And we are so “sweet” till we don’t realize that our health is actually at stake. Betul tak? Ataupun mmg tahu In a local 2003 food study, the researcher discovered Malaysian adults add about 7 teaspoons sugar per day to his or her drinks. Sangat byk ok! and it is definitely not good if 7 teaspoons of sugars being consume everyday! When I was still working back in year 2009, I saw many of my colleagues make sweet drinks every morning and I believe semua office pon sama kan? Pagi-pagi makan nasi lemak and buat coffee or tea or milo aktiviti wajib sambil bergossip pasal drama TV3 malam smlmnya. Haha. Lepas tu pukul 10 masuk pantry lagi refill drinks. Goshhhh. Sgtlah sugary ok hari anda!

Besides sugars, we also take food like “nasi lemak, roti canai , noodles and etc” which are a carbohydrate rich food and this will definitely double up the amount of daily sugars intake. So janganlah buat-buat terperanjat or tertanya-tanya (sound like me too. Heeee) from where lah the excessive baggage came from. It’s all from the sugars or maybe some from other sources, but sugars no doubt is the main culprit.

What is added sugars? Or better known as artificial sugars. Artificial sugar is non natural and being added to processed food by the manufacturer while natural sugars ialah sugar yang sedia ada dalam food seperti dalam buah-buahan. But key point di sini adalah kita kene mengurangkan kuantiti gula, tak kiralah added sugar or natural sugar. Faham kan? So kalau adalah la manufacturer kata…”ooo takpe2, product kami ni guna gula batu perah dari tebu bagai” . Firstly, don’t 100% believe them (hahah businessman talk only tu) secondly, it’s still sugar la dear, be it natural or not. Get me? Tetap penyebab diabetic. Haa…careful ok.

But not everything about sugars is bad lah. We still need sugars for energy to perform daily tasks nk main facebook semua tu pakai tenaga, our aim now is to reduce our sugar intake. Not to deny sugars. To train someone to not be a sweet tooth can be done since young, meaning since he/she still an infant. So choice of milk is very important to make sure child not addictive to sugars. Breast milk is definitely a perfect choice but to those who are not so lucky and in the looking for alternative milk, no worries sebab sekarang there is a susu formula tanpa gula available. Bagus kan? Me likey!

I used to worry about sugars being added to baby’s formula milk. In fact the first brand that we used (before we switching to Anmum) was wayyyyy too sweet for Ichiro. We prefer non added sugars milk but it wasn’t available before or maybe kalau ada pon, kami tak tahu kewujudannya.

But recently when we wanna buy Anmum Essentials milk for Ichiro, husband noticed there was a price difference in between the old and new packaging of Anmum Essentials, price per new box is slightly more (about few cents if I’ve not mistaken), the difference is very little I should say, somebody like me won’t notice for sure (sebab jenis orang tak apa-apa punya- i.e tk kisah), but my husband is quite alert….that’s most probably because he’s the one who paying for it…hahaha. Tapi dia mmg mcm tu, kalau dia tk bayar pon, mmg dia akan perasan dulu punya.

We inquired about the price increase and we were then being told that the milk has been repackaged due to new formula, which is with no added sugars. It is more concentrated formulation with 100% more DHA and provide more serving in each pack. Very good right? Concentrated formulation ni maksudnya macam nutrients yang ada dalam susu tu dah compact so the easiest example I can give is 1 scoop milk powder of non-concentrated contains less nutrients/vitamins/ compare to 1 scoop concentrated milk powder. So, that’s why kalau lah u all beli susu Anmum ni kan, scoop yg baru adalah lebih kecil sedikit, sbb u dh tk perlu scoop besar sebab susu tu sendiri dah concentrated. Bestest!

Tapi kan bila kira-kira balik, actually new pricing and packaging is more economy. You get more scoops sebenarnya sbb the powder is concentrated. So more servings.

But I was a bit worried juga that Ichiro might not like it, cos for sure it would be tasteless lah kan, but surprisingly that never happened at all! Like seriously! Ichiro drank his milk like usual! We were so relief. Another advantage of non added sugar milk is kami perasan no uninvited creatures (the ants!) near the area where we place the milk and bottles. They used to be having feast almost everyday before , sbb I selalu tertumpah susu. Hehe. Yeah am so reckless. Smack me please.

Anmum is the ONLY brand with no added sugar tau. If you are quiet worried and concerned about the transition period, you can find out more on the solution through Anmum Careline, Anmum Essential Products Page and Leaflet in the new packaging. I truly feel that I have chosen the right children growing up milk brand – Anmum that is!