The Dreadful Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease

There is an outbreak of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD) recently at my twins childcare centre. 5 cases were reported in the last two weeks. And it seems that country wide Singapore had reported about over 700 cases of HFMD last month, mainly infected by pre-schoolers and young kids under the age of five. It is definitely a viral season.

Am I afraid? Certainly. Though my twins had unluckily contacted HFMD last September, they are not immune to the next infection.

What's so terrible about it?

The young children will usually have the following symptoms :

• mouth ulcers,
• Rashes (flat or raised red spots, some with blisters) on their palms, soles or buttocks;
• maybe some fever for 2-3 days, sore throat and runny noses.
• Vomiting and diarrhoea
• Poor appetite (mainly due to mouth ulcers)
• Tiredness and weakness

There is no treatment for HFMD, except medications to relieve symptoms which takes about 10 days to retreat. And in severe cases, if the young children are infected with a enterovirus-71(EV71) strains, it can cause neurological diseases like encephalitis and meningitis.

I remembered about 7 deaths of young pre-schoolers reported in Singapore over the peak virus outbreak of the HFMD EV71 in year 2000 and 2001. The island wide childcare centres had to be shut down for two weeks to stop the strain of virus from spreading. And parents at that time were more than happy to keep their children at home.

Last September, I was cursing and swearing at the odd chances of my twins getting HFMD though it was the milder coxsackie virus (CA16). Apparently, HFMD never sparred anyone, even adults could get it.

At that time, my twin girl, Gwyneth got HFMD first, but I did not notice any symptoms except her poor appetite; which I mistakenly thought it was due to her picky eating habit. Then her childcare teacher called to inform me that Gwyneth had a fever and she discovered some light red spots on her hands on the second day. That was when I started to find several mouth ulcers deep in her throat which were not easily visible unless you shine a torchlight in it.

I actually refused to believe Gwyneth got HFMD until the paediatrician confirmed the diagnosis. By then, on the third day, my twin boy, Asher was also infected with HFMD due to his supposedly contact with contaminated articles by Gwyneth; not surprisingly for twins with such close relationship.

My twins were not allowed to attend pre-school for at least 10 days until all symptoms are cleared. The most difficult part was the kids' diet, they basically did not feel like eating anything due to the pain coming from the ulcers. And I certainly do not wish to go through the same cycle again. God Bless.

Teaching my kids to be offensive to School Bullies

The last time I wrote about my twins being bullied in preschool, a website "Coffee Grounds", primarily discussing about school bullies, picked up my story to relate to his readers. I find that interesting as finally some parents congregate to share and hopefully seek some practical solutions in a common issue that they faced with their young kids.

Perhaps as a first time parent, it amazes me that school bullying could occur at such a young age (my twins were only about three years old when the incident happened). At that time, I was thinking hard if my parenting skills could have gone "hay wired" in anyway? Maybe as parents, we could have entrenched such a strong mindset of good behaviour in our kids that when school bullying occurs, the kids did not know how to deal or react to it.

So recently, my husband and I decided to teach our twins to be on the mildly offensive side to their school bullies should any incident happen again.

"If Jarren beat you again, tell him to stop it, and quickly tell your teacher about it." We role play in front of them a few times. I noticed that my twin son brightened up immediately as if he was armed with a "new weapon". We got both twins to role play with us until they are both confident about saying,"Stop it, stop beating me .....I'll go and tell Teacher Michelle now...".

A week after the role play, my twin son told me cheerfully that he had fend off one of his friend who tried to beat him. I praised him for being brave. He definitely feels more confident in preschool now. It is a stark contrast in comparison to his worried face every morning when I brought him to preschool previously.

Comic Strip on Preschool Children

Although the comic is about a five year old boy who has a blog where he shares his life and thoughts to the world, the scenario portrayed here actually happened to my three and a half year old boy who is in preschool.

I totally had a good laugh, it's really what happened to my kid who sometimes find excuses not to go to school!

School Bullies in Preschool?

Think that school bullying will never happen to preschoolers?

My twin son just told me last night before he slept,"Mommy, Jarren used a duster to hit on my head.....and also on Gwyneth (his twin sister)." He was also showing the action of the duster hitting his forehead concurrently.

I asked him immediately what his reaction was. He said he had told his teacher and Jarren, his preschool friend, got a "scolding". I commended that he did the right thing and should inform the teacher should such incidents happen again.

In anyway, this is not the first incident since the twins joined the preschool. End of last year, both of them were beaten (on the chest and face) by a bigger size boy in their class, though they were not physically hurt. Apparently, another boy in that class had joined the action, thinking that it was fun. It went on for about two weeks even after my twins "complained" to the teacher and both of them started to develop a fear for school. I quickly spoke to the principal and teacher regarding the bullies "beating" incidence and my then twin toddlers' phobia about school. I think the preschool realised how serious the "bullying" was and not just toddlers or young kids messing around with gentle fight (my kids did not even fight back!). The preschool separated them into different classes this year, counselled both "bullies" and spoke to their parents about the beating incidents. That was when my twins started to re-settle into preschool life; but they remembered that incident and sometimes would still talk to me about it.

Sometimes, as a desperate mommy, I wish that my twins are the school bullies instead of being bullied; I wish that I could tell the twins that if the bullies hit you, hit them back instead of just standing there; I wish I could tell those young bullies off directly; and I also wish I could confront the parents of these bullies. But they were just desperate wishes to protect your own kids and everybody knew that they could never be deployed in the civilised world.

I suppose school bullying is what the twins got to manage in many years to come in their school life.

Separation Anxiety - Are twins alike?

This morning when I brought the twins to preschool, their new classmate of two weeks, Rannon, was crying out loud for Ms Michelle, their form class teacher. He refused to go to his class and insisted on waiting near the door for her. Rannon reminded me of Asher when he just joined 6 months ago, but Asher merely had tears in his eyes and was chokingly telling me that he wanted Ms Lily, then form teacher. Toddlers or young kids tend to look for familiar faces when separated from parents.

Actually, Asher occasionly still tears when waving goodbye to me. He is such a "sentimental" boy, or you would rather call "emotional' like what his teachers did. I would consider him having some forms of mild but prolong separation anxiety.

Often, Asher needs a lot of assurance and encouragement before going to school. Thereafter, he will be totally immersed in the school environment and came back happily. It is a much better scene compared to the initial period where he would cry almost every night before he sleep; saying that he did not want to go to school because a certain teacher scolded him. After verification with the teachers, it happened that he misunderstood the teachers' loud voice as a form of scolding.

On the other hand, his twin, Gwyneth is more at ease with herself in school. The only times when she had shown some fears or affected was when her brother's crying was more pronounced in the initial joining period.

Childcare Centre - Settling In (Part 2)

Today is the first day of school in the week and Asher began to grumble, "I don't want to go to school". So far he had shown contrasting feelings before he went to school and when he came back from school for the past 6 months. I do not know when he will stop to have these mixed feelings; perhaps never, like some kids. And I sometimes wonder if he had truly settled in.

For Gwyneth, she had rarely displayed these emotions when school begins in the week. But something interesting happened when she started school 6 months ago - she stopped eating bread, whether at home or in the childcare centre, except plain croissant. It's a little kind of headache for a mummy trying to settle a child in a childcare centre. You started to worry if she is going to eat well in school!

She had always been in the 20th percentile for her weight and being a picky eater here does not help. Thankfully she still eats her staple food for lunch - rice, noodles, but when it comes to the breakfast and tea-break, where the school served mostly bread related food, she would rather starve than eat! Her teachers had been helping to feed her, but she simply refused to open her mouth for the food she doesn't like.

To solve this issue for Gwyn, I rewarded her with big colourful stickers whenever she eats her breakfast or tea-break. It seems to work at times but not all the times, so I tried to make some breakfast for her before she goes to school. Boiled or scrambled eggs, cereals, oatmeal, croissants, muffins, pandan cake - these are the "countable" breakfast that she would eat.

At least for now, I knew that in the morning till her tea-break time, she would not starve, and I suppose that's good enough for her at the moment.

School Project - My Hobby!

Gwyneth and Asher were asked by the school to do a project with the parents on "My Hobby". The theme for this begining term is "On Myself", hence the teachers wanted them to identify their hobbies and speak about them in front of their classmates.

We would help to take a picture of the child engaged in the hobby and print it on a A4 paper with some captions. Asher's favourite activity is reading and Gwyneth favourite activity is singing. In anyway, both of them actually enjoyed these two activities equally.

Child Care Centre - Settling In (Part1)

Earlier when I went to pick Asher and Gwyneth home from the child care centre, I happened to find Asher in the toilet passing urine by himself. Before I could help him, he signaled to me that he wished to do it by himself. It is a scene quite totally different when he first joined the child care centre 6 months ago.

At that time, there was fear written all over his face even though I told him that his sister will be together with him. It was the first time that the twins were not accompanied by the daddy and mummy, though both of them had been in enrichment classes before. My hushand and I tried pyschologically preparing Ash & Gwyn for school life by reading related books and bringing them to the child care centre a few times to familiarise with the environment. Despite all these efforts, Asher in particular, was not receptive to the idea of "school". All he knew was that it is a place where he would not see his parents around him.

I accompanied the twins on their first two days in the centre; they were fine. But on the third "fateful" day when I had to leave the centre, they were both crying uncontrollably. It was heart wrenching for me as I stood outside the centre for about 10-15 minutes and the cries from both of them doesn't seem to fade off. As I walked back home, I realised that there was tears from my eyes. That was when I also discovered that I am equally attached to them as they are to me.

The crying went on for about a week and was getting shorter each time, according to the teachers. And perhaps you could imagine the joyful expression on their face when I went to bring them home. They were simply "sprinting" towards you!