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.

Can happiness be inherited?

Yesterday, I read a very interesting news article on the topic of happiness.

It is discussing about a latest study of nearly 1,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins in which they found that genes control half the personality traits that make people happy while factors such as relationships, health and careers are responsible for the rest of our well-being.

So it seems like if we inherited the "happy" genes, we may tend to be a happier person. But what if we inherited the "sad" genes? Perhaps then we should "breed happiness thoughts" to these people since young? So that they could have a stronger inner emotional support later in life?

I was intrigued by these thoughts as I observed some difference in the emotional state of my fraternal twins. By the way, what this new study also showed was that the identical twins in a family were very similar in personality and in well-being, and by contrast, the fraternal twins were only around half as similar. I found that strangely true in my fraternal twins.

My twin girl, Gwyneth, tends to be happier and is always in a cheery mood. On the other hand, my twin boy, Asher, tends to be more worried and needs more assurance.

And it looks like this study has given parents a new task of "moulding" the other half of the children's happiness regardless if they inherited the "happy" or "sad" genes. Perhaps more so in the child who inherited the "sad" genes?

Read article:
"Happiness can be inherited, research finds".

3 Most Effective Ways of Managing Tantrums for Busy Parents

From experience and reading books on managing tantrums, I find that the 3 most effective ways or methods of managing tantrums are as follows:

• 1. Prevent or avoid it : The best way to manage tantrums is actually to prevent tantrums from happening. The key is to find out the cause or causes of your toddler/kid's tantrum. What are the factors triggering the tantrum? Is it hunger, tiredness, lack of sleep or perhaps simply an inability to express or communicate their needs? For example, if you know that your toddler/kid is going to flare up or throw a tantrum after switching off his/her favourite TV program, then pre-empt him/her about 10 minutes before that. Give your toddler/kid another reminder 2-3 minutes before you switch off the TV. Young children basically do not like sudden changes or to be caught by suprise.
  


• 2. Distraction : If you sense that your toddler/kid is about to throw or has started a tantrum, try distracting him/her. "Shall we go to the pet shop to see Elmo's goldfish, Dorothy?", " Shall we play hide-and-seek now?, "Do you want to eat your favourite yogurt now?". The trick here is to find something else that will catch the toddler/kid's attention and led him/her to another action instead of letting the toddler/kid focused on his emotions.



• 3. Ignore it : If all else fails, then simply ignore the tantrums. Do not attempt to shout or argue back (most parents under stress tend to have this reaction, it is important to keep your cool or control your rage at this moment) with your emotionally charged toddler or kid. That will make the tantrums worse. Sensing that you are not giving him/her any attention on his tantrums, the toddler/kid would eventually "cool down".

These three tried-and-tested ways or methods of managing tantrums work even pretty well with twins. Try it and share your experience with me.

Recommended book for managing tantrum if you need one :

Should young kids watch TV?

I guess the reply would usually be,"why not?". But some parents were cautious on this, especially for toddlers below 2 years old. Perhaps due to some reports by experts saying that young toddlers expose to TV at an earlier age could threaten their attention span. Some recommended that only toddlers after 2 years old be allowed to watch TV and that parents should also limit the time spent on TV for only an hour per day.

Actually I have also been limiting the twins' time spent on TV for an hour a day. But since 8 months old, I had allowed the twins to watch educational video for the most half an hour daily. Sometimes, mommy just need to take a break, so the TV comes in handy in this case, and particularly for taking care of twins. Nevertheless, being selective on TV programmes or videos is good, as you keep a watch on what's the kids are "receiving on air".

TV is such a powerful tool that the kids easily learn or pick up what's shown on it. A good example is the recent MOCCA "sexy man" ads,"the kitchen is over there, the toilet is over there.......". The twins laughed each time the "sexy man" appeared and would follow exactly his action and words. Hmmm.....that's the power of TV advertising!

So what have the twins been watching? Not too long ago, we discovered a recommended programme - "The Little Einsteins".

Initially, we thought it is some kids scientific cartoon, but it turned out to be a programme on classical music and general knowledge.

In fact, I use it as a beginner classical music lesson for the twins. The twins could now hum a few classical pieces like Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Dvorak's New World Symphony No.9, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Mozart's Symphony No.40 in G, etc. I consider this as a "breakthrough" kids cartoon which had such a terrific impact on them!

4 Useful Tips to Get Your Child to Read!

My twins love to read.
Start Young : Thanks mainly to their daddy who had been reading voraciously since they were 8 months in my tummy. *wink*

Find a specific time daily : We would borrow or buy either infant or toddlers books and read to them daily in a specific hour, usually before bedtime. It has became a routine. Such that if we would consider a miss session on that night, the twins would throw tantrums (a justified one) and refused to go to bed.

Previously, one of their favourite English child author is Eric Carle. Recently, Dr Seuss and Jane Simmons' books are on the hit lists. Particularly Dr Seuss's "Hop on Pop" - the words just rythm, good illustration & it's funny; Jane Simmons's "Daisy" and "Ebb & Flo" series. For chinese books, they seems to prefer this "Xiao Tai Yang" series.

Find interesting books : Usually a book with clear good description, big and nice drawings and most importantly, a captivating story is what attracts them to sit through the reading session. And they would want to read that particularly book over and over again, until you had to put a white flag in front of the twins.

Be consistent : Some parents asked us how did we manage to read to them so consistenly and in fact, daily without fail? We do feel tired at times but we force ourselves to read to them, whether it's a 30 mins session or just a 10 mins session.

The benefits are tremendous - their vocabs are 'richer' and you open them up to the world of wonderful things. You will be amazed the next time when they started to describe vividly an action, event or object using certain adjectives that they had just read in the books. So start reading to your infant, toddlers or kids now!

*If you are an Amazon shopper, please support me by purchasing through the links. Thank you.
*Note : All books recommended here are read by my children and found worthwhile recommending

Related post : What's so funny about Dr Seuss's books?

Potty Training : Day and Night

Gwyn woke up last night about 11.30pm to pass urine. It has been a year since she was off the diaper for the night. This daughter of mine is particularly sensible in the area of cleaniness.

In fact, since 8 months old, when I started letting them sat on the potty, she had since then rarely pass motion on her diaper. She would give me a signal on her face expression, and wait till I let her sat on the potty before she did her business. After 20 months old, Gwyn was already potty trained for the day. Lucky me? Oh yes, I wouldn't deny that.

Asher took a longer time, but I was not particularly concerned. The famous child expert, author, Dr Miriam Stoppard actually recommended that we start potty training when the child is about three years old. She explained that by this time, the bladder is more matured and makes potty training easier for the parents; and for the night, she recommended that the child only be trained by 5 or 6 years old. So I have a few lead years for Asher.

Though I still followed the Asian tradition of early potty training since 18 months old, Asher was only completely off his diaper for the day slightly after 2 years old by his own accord, perhaps seeing his sister doing so. He is then off the diaper at night recently in December 2007, slightly after 3 years old. It took me by suprise when he suddenly woke up in the middle of one night and said that he wanted to take off his diaper to pass urine.

The potty training for the twins is rather "smooth" for me. But I believe that generally the girls can be trained earlier - my girlfriend, Mokkie's daughter was day and night trained by 18 months old! On the other hand, my sister, Xian's son was only night trained by 4 years old.

Whatever it is in the timeframe chosen, the initial period always required the parents to be more patience in getting the child's cooperation.