Darius at home instead of being in school...

On Wednesday, Darius’ childcare centre attached a notice in his communication booklet, informing us that one of the girls from the centre had just been confirmed with the Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD). From what we understand, she had been absent from the centre since last Friday so it could be possible that she might have caught the disease elsewhere too. Still, coupled with the news that HFMD is getting widespread in Singapore recently, the cc is stepping up on its checks of their children for any symptom of the disease.

Yesterday morning, soon after I dropped Darius at his cc, we received a call from them, informing us that they had discovered two newly appeared red spots on Darius’ left sole. They were suspecting that it might be a sign of HFMD. However, believeing that those spots were actually mosquito bites since last week (as I had already remembered the locations of all the bites from my applying of cream on each of these bites regularly), we assured the teachers that these spots weren’t new and were thus unlikely to be related to HFMD. Furthermore, Darius had been behaving normally and actively all these while. Even so, they didn’t sound convinced and would still want us to bring him back home immediately. In the end, we compromised by agreeing that we would fetch him back if genuinely new spots were discovered on him or if he had developed other symptoms, such as fever or loss of appetite.

Just half an hour later, the centre called me again, informing me that there was one ‘new’ spot on the left side of his abdomen (this one was actually an old mosquito bite). Since they were already very suspicious of Darius and we were worried too, we agreed to go pick him up. Meanwhile, Darius was being quarantined from the other children in the admin’s office.

Two new spots and two hardly visible old spots on his sole

Catherine then promptly rushed down to fetch him from the childcare centre and noted that there were in fact two new spots on his sole (on top of the two old, hardly visible mosquito bites) which seemed like ‘big reddish raised bumps’ before bringing him to a GP for confirmation of his spots, as strongly recommended by the teachers. We knew that if we were to convince the centre that he was clear of HFMD, we needed a doctor’s proof. After a long wait at the clinic, Catherine and Darius finally got to see the doctor. He then diagnosed those spots as insect bites and mentioned that they were very unlikely to be caused by HFMD, since spots caused by the disease wouldn’t become as big as those spots spotted on Darius. He then wrote us a note to certify that he was fit for school for that day.

According to the GP, HFMD usually starts with a mild fever, followed by ulcers in the mouth or throat, and only after that, small spotty rashes on the hands or mouth.

Reaching home and while Darius was taking his nap (both of them were very tired after all the traveling and waiting), Catherine updated the admin on the doctor’s findings by phone. Despite the diagnosis by the doctor, she still did not sound convinced. -_-| Cat: Vigilance is good, but over-paranoid?

Later on, I headed to a neighbouring shopping mall after work in search for an electronic mosquito repellent, which was mentioned recently by my mother-in-law. To spare Darius the misery of itchy bites and also being suspected of HFMD again due to new bites, we decided to work on methods to get rid of mosquitoes in our home. We had previously used mosquitoes coils to repel the pests but the smell generated didn’t go well with our noses (and our neighbours’). Insecticides wouldn’t be a viable option too since we wouldn’t want Darius to take in any of the chemical substance, even if we sprayed it hours before he was to go inside the room.

Anyway, it wasn’t long before I located the electronic mosquito repellents, as they were prominently displayed on a shelf near the store’s entrance, labelled ‘Best Buys’. I’m quite sure we are not the only family bothered by mosquitoes lately then, no thanks to the regular rains that have been pouring down.

This device uses advanced ultrasonic sound wave technology

Reaching home, I quickly plugged the repeller into a socket in our bedroom, which happened to be near the windows. That happans to be a very suitable place for the device since that was near the likely opening that the mosquitoes have flew in from. By the way, the device works by emitting a constant-changing ultrasonic signal that drives pests crazy and forces them to leave the place. The signal is however inaudible to humans and their pets so it is harmless to us. The device also has an effective area of 2000 square feet, uses only 1 Watt of electricity and doubles up as a night light with its soft glow.

So far, we had not gotten any new bites during our sleep so hopefully this device is working as it is intended to.

Anyway, we decided not to send Darius to cc this morning, worried that he might get sent back again if the teachers were to discover any ‘new’ spots on his body again (unless maybe if we marked down and highlighted all his bites to the teachers before sending him in, but that would be too much work). We understand that the centre has to be vigilant to prevent any outbreak of the disease and ended up getting itself closed down, so we didn’t want to make things difficult for them either. Therefore, we will only send him back again from next week onwards.

If you are interested in HFMD, you can find out more here, an article from the Health Promotion Board : http://www.hpb.gov.sg/health_articles/hfmd

Blogs that I read which helped me to understand and look out for symptoms of HFMD are: Offsprings’s Blogpost, Chen Xi & Mama. (not sure why PD prescribed antibiotics though when it’s not supposed to be effective) and Angeline’s BlogPost 1 and I can totally empathized with her for this blogpost, “He was rejected“.

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Recaps of Last Week
Dated: 16th of Aug – 22th of August 2010

I Want to Remember

…His Sudden Love for A Teddy Bear. This boy doesn’t like soft toys and when we bought him a Pooh Bear when he was about a year old, he only held it for a while because we requested him to. Since we all have sensitive nose, I kept it away to prevent dust mites allergy or sneezing due to the ‘fur’ stuff. Only recently, he started hugging his bolster and enjoyed the comfort. When we were at the Popular Bookstore that day, Daddy passed him this teddy bear for him to hold and he said “Hawee!” (his version of Hello) to it. He then held it and kept giggling to himself.  He also started walking around with the bear and was mumbling to it while laughing. When we were leaving, he was alright with the bear being placed back onto the shelf though. On the way out, I discovered several tuffs of ‘fur’ from the bear sticking onto his pants. It’s a right decision not to get it after all.

…His Love For Buses and How He Doesn’t Throw A Ball. This week, he didn’t do much funny stuff. He kept playing with his buses and cars by opening and closing the doors. In the process, he often caught his finger in it and yelled. He was just sitting there, opening and closing the top when I found him in the living room after I heard him yell. He must have caught his thumb on the door of the Pooh Bus. He used to throw small balls but now doesn’t seem to be able to do it well. We kept urging him to throw when we play ball with him but he preferred to take the ball and pressed it close to his face. He would then walk this way for a while to pass it to us. He found it funny but it’s dangerous for him as he could not see clearly where he was going but we just couldn’t get him to stop.

…The First Time He Drank Milk From A Packet. I decided to let him try packet milk as a replacement for powder milk sometimes because he will need to gradually move away from the sweet powdered milk. I wanted him to drink for snack time after his nap. This milk was recently advertised so choosing between UHT (means heat treated and sterilised) Full Cream Milk and this, we decided to get this because it seemed to be made specially for children. However, it turned out quite sweet and tasted almost like the milk powder he was drinking, with that same vanilla ice-cream taste! This defeated my purpose of getting natural milk that is not so sweet. He liked it though and could finish the whole packet of 250ml when normally he only drank 180ml of milk! BUT it totally spoilt his dinner about two hours later since he didn’t quite finish his porridge. He was watching the Dolphin Media Story Video while drinking it and it was ‘straw-licking’ good to him. Any recommendations for a brand that is not so sweet?

…The Attack of the Mosquitoes. The rainy weather these days produced many mosquitoes and he was badly bitten on his hands, legs, body and one side of his cheek. It really looked horrible. Even his left sole had two bites! We believed he was bitten during his naps or bedtime. He was whining a little then but we didn’t know why. I got bitten too while I was in the study room and even once while I was preparing food in the kitchen! I managed to kill two mosquitoes this week and the ointment prescribed from the doctor we visited last time was religiously applied on him. It worked to reduce his itch. And the Hubby? With our delicious blood type for the mozzies to feed on, he was hardly bitten! So good for him…

…Him Moving Up and Down to the Owl Babies Story. We showed him the Owl Babies on Youtube on our iPod Touch and he was comparing it with the storybook while the story unfolded. It is his favourite book these two weeks that we are borrowing it. He got to know the word, “Mommy” from it. There’s this part where the owl babies jumped up and down on the branch excitedly when they saw their Mother coming back and he would always move his body up and down following their actions. Comical to watch.

…His Love For Being Swung Upside Down in the Air and His Ticklish Nature. What do we do if we are not reading books during the evening time? We play running from the kitchen to the bedroom, chasing each other. We play swinging him in the air so he gets upside down and shrieking with laughter. Dangerous acts like this is often performed by me instead of Daddy, not sure why. I started it since he was a baby and he still loves it. Another popular one is swinging him in 360 degrees turns. Because of this, I have developed ‘gorilla’ arms and aching backs. ^_^ I also enjoy tickling him on his feet, on his tummy and under his armpits because he’s just so ticklish.

…Him Talking To Himself and Depositing Coins With Both Hands. On Sunday Morning, he was playing beside me again with the hat and fan when I overheard him saying, “Do you (l)ike my hat?”…”I do!” Amusingly, he was talking to the person in the mirror and asking that question he loves from the book ‘Go,Dog, Go’. He was checking himself in the mirror for quite sometime which made me laugh. I didn’t mention it before but he really likes to talk to himself in the mirror these days, babbling non-stop and pressing his face very close to it.
Later, I heard a loud thump behind me and saw him taking the Chicken coin bank whining for me to help. I was totally shocked as the coin bank was very high up and almost impossible for him to reach… He remembered that he did that activity before and wanted to do it again! I exchanged it with the Piggy bank as it was easier to take out the coins deposited and he was sitting there doing it with both hands one after another for a while til everything was in.

…His Discovery of the ‘Car’. We were at Giant Hypermart that day for groceries and as usual he was walking around with Daddy while I did the shopping. They found this ‘car’ and he got interested in sitting on it and moving it with his legs. This was actually an imitation from China because we had seen the ‘real one’ before known as a ‘Plasma Car’. There was something wrong with the steering wheel as he actually would only need to turn the wheel to get it to move without having to push it along with his legs. Daddy brought him for a toilet break and when he came back, he immediately remembered the spot where they had left it and quickly got onto it again. The store was so big that nobody minded him moving along the aisles, turning here and there and doing his own ‘shopping’. Passers-by were in fact smiling at him as he passed by. Hah.

…The Stepping of The Drainage Cover. We went to another Supermarket the next day to get some other stuffs and he started stepping onto the shiny metal drainage cover. As he walked about, he would purposely search for each cover and step on it before moving on.

…His Achievement – Climbing Higher. Daddy brought Darius down for a walk at night but it started to drizzle. As a result, they had to walk along the void decks instead and Darius was quite bored. He then noticed the benches which was slightly higher than his waist and wanted to climb onto it. The first two times, Daddy helped him and subsequently, he managed to do it himself after using a lot of effort. Back home afterwards, he started climbing the Red Ikea Chair when he hadn’t done so before. We had to keep shouting at him not to do it as he was standing up at the edge and could topple over while we were in the kitchen. He also proceeded to climb our bed right from the floor (he usually climbs from the top of his 8-inch mattress bed) and would whine for us to help him do it. It’s still too tall for him right now though he could get down from our bed to the floor safely and without difficulty.

No related posts.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is Darius’ bedtime song and a common first song for many kids.

We had been singing it to him for naps during the daytime and bedtime at night since he was just a tiny baby. It’s the easiest song to sing and I could go on auto pilot mode repeating again and again without thinking too hard of the lyrics. I usually sing to him in Mandarin and sometimes in English while his Daddy sings to him in English.

For a long time now, we normally only sing it to him before bed and sometimes during his nap by his Daddy. Lately, as mentioned before in Darius’ Snippets #15, he started saying them out by himself while we sang. If we are not singing it, he will request for it by starting with “Fwinkle..fwinkle”.

Below, I managed to record him saying everything. It was not easy to get him to say it in front of the camera due to his shyness and also, he would usually need my prompt to continue saying it. I remembered that we were clapping our hands on Sunday that day while he was reciting the whole verse so I decided to tap my hand on my thigh in beat to his saying (that explains that cluck cluck sound in the recording). Sure enough, he continued on and I made my beats softer.

This is a small milestone for him as it was the first time he could say something in sentences. Of course, it is not perfect diction but to hear him say many words in a sentence and many sentences continuously at one go made us very happy. It is one step closer to talking properly in sentences instead of just one or two words.

The Video:

The transcript: “Fwinkle, Fwinkle, li…de..sar. How I won..di, what you are…Up ber ker ger….World so high, ke ke  dia..mond in the sar! Fwinkle, Fwinkle, li..de..star. How I won.di, what you are!”

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