Constipation on kids

Constipation makes kids stomach bloaty- if there such a word.

KY would sometimes complained to me that her stomach pain then I would check her tummy and often find her stomach rather huge...and "bloaty".

Some of the ways I found to be found useful to prevent constipation in kids are:

1. Feed them oatmeal every morning. My son would normally do the "business" right after each oatmeal breakfast so much so that DH and I would be on standby to wash Shone up after feeding him oats.
2. Give them fruits daily, like kiwi, papaya, bananas, guava (I find that these fruits helps in bowel movement)
3. Make them drink lotsa water. Every morning after wakes up, once they wake up from nap and before they nap.

Some of the ways I used to make KY drink lotsa water are:

1. I made her check her urine each time she pass urine. If it is yellow color and smelly(70% of the time IT IS!), means she didn't drink enough water and she would need to drink lotsa water immediately..normally this works..
2. I would do rounds of toasting with her...wedding-style like-YAM....SENG....or western style....CHEERS..... with my water bottle and hers...
3. Let her have her favourite Yakult drinks and sometimes 100plus as well...(nope she doesn't like Ribena...at all)

As for Shone, he loves to drink...most of the time he would not refuse any water unless he doesn't feel thirsty or he prefers milk at that point of time. Else he would normally drink water as and when we pass him his water bottle.

I think the fact that he's been trained since newborn(as early as 2 weeks' old) to drink water after each feed and each time he wakes up helps. Although it may be contradicting what most experts says about not feeding a breastfed baby water as breastmilk contains lotsa water.

BUT I find that KY which I follow the expert's advice doesn't like drinking water later on...but with Shone I followed my auntie's(who's a nurse in S'pore and breastfed her two child) who feels that in our type of weather..drinking water is very important even for breastfed child as long as it doesn't interfere with their breastmilk intake.

So well..it's very much up to our own discretion and wisdom? Check out this article in TheStar , "Is your child constipated? "

Water water...drink lotsa water does help to prevent constipation I felt...

Cheers....have some water NOW!

Why you didn't ask in the first place?

Yep, that is what I told myself whenever I tend to "blame" the time wasted or opportunity wasted or even relationship "broken" (or hurt).

This morning I went to Tesco to try returning a shoes I bought for Shone (too small..even at size 5...when KY can wear size 4 at his age...hmm..underestimate his feet size...for one year old kid..hmm). But deep inside I thought hmm wonder if I can just get a refund instead of getting another shoes as replacement...but I only ask this question silently and not ALOUD to the customer service personnel...SIGH...

So I wasted my time searching for suitable shoes(yet again...I should have known there's no more design and size suitable after my last visit..else I would have got it...)...and FINALLY i returned to the counter with a shoes for KY instead even though she doesn't need another shoes as I have got her a new one when I bought one for Shone...

Then I told myself why not I try asking for refund instead of buying another "not-needed" and "not so nice" shoes for KY. So I asked and I got my refund...cheh...this episode reminded me YET AGAIN....ASK ...ASK.... you won't lose anything except getting a NO as reply...if you DON'T ASK, what you get FOR SURE is...WASTE of time, opportunity and etc etc...

So folks..here's my lesson thought for the day! Have you been ASKING every now and then like how our kids do? Smart little ones...haha...I am not even at their par.."shy"

Cheers!

Kind gestures makes our day

How many kind acts you take and how many kind gestures by others that makes your day shines..brighter?

 

I had mine..few days ago, when Chinnee(mamapatch brand owner) said she'll send over some cookies(see how my two kids enjoying her cookies in the picture) which I missed out..nope not only the cookies but the gathering they had on 21 June at TDDI for June Babies as it was Father's Day and I am back at my in-law's place.

 

See how my two kids enjoy the super-filled with love cute Mickey/Minnie cookies which Chinnee sent to me(via her hubby who works near my place).

 

Thanks Chinnee and hopefully I get the chance to meet her and her lovely kids someday...and other bloggers whom we chat now and then as well..it would so nice to meet up with you all :)

 

Cheers!

Breast is Best for College..wow..

I came across an article lately saying that, Breast is Best for College...wow...

Another reason to continue my BF journey.....hoping to conduct my own small experiment, what the difference of BF for a year and for 2 years be? What would be the benefits (for child and mom) to Go for the Gold (which is 2 years breastfeeding).

Keep my finger crossed but I would do my best to continue BF as long as I could and as long as Shone wants it. Pray for me :)

Cheers!

What to buy for second or next baby..

As I was compiling this list for a friend who asked me on what I bought for my second child, I thought why not I put it up on my blog to share with other mommies friends..

Hope you find this list useful:

1. New nursing bras
2. New nursing wear (for festive and special occasion use) - old ones bit worn out
3. New EBM storage bottles - I bought momslittleones
4. New BPA free milk bottles( I bought MAM bottles) - big and small- double set for babysitter's site
5. Backup bottles teats - buy later stage type cos my first baby prefer fast flow I guess due to letdown reflex they kinda used to fast flow
6. A tent(for KY to spend her time when mommy is busy)
7. A new shoes for KY (being a big sister's present)
8. Pureen Cleaning Liquid for milk bottles and baby food
9. NappiKleen - got few bottles during sales at around RM17 per bottle @ Tesco
10. Hankerchief - soft type for babies
11. Disposable Newborn diapers (just hospital time use...just small pack cos baby outgrown it very fast plus you don't need a lot if you are cloth-diapering)
12. Bought a few new rompers for baby(just so that he got something new to wear instead of all pass-me-down, just to make me feel better haha)
13. New bolster set for baby as KY is still clinging strongly to hers
14. Nappy rash cream - I switched to using Bepanthen for my second one..seems better
15. Spare Isomil(milk powder) small can just in case(my breastmilk supply often arrives late...even if second baby doesn't need it later can give KY)
16. New towels
17. New baby bath - for first one or two week the confinement bath baby with herbs then later on with Buds Baby

I think that is about all...the rest mostly can recycle what the first child used ;)

How about you folks? What item you found you need to get for your second, third or fourth babies?

Cheers!

My Dear Warehouse sales is back

For those of you who are looking to purchase big baby items like carseat, strollers, or even tricycle for toddler, this My Dear warehouse sales (from 25 June to 5 July 2009) is one which you would find some good bargains!

Do check out more details at their website here.

I bought a pink tricycle and a toddler carseat(strapped on type for RM46) for KY during their warehouse sales ;)

Happy Shopping...

Cheers!

Long or short?

Lately I am contemplating of cutting KY and my own hair. KY refused to cut her hair short as she starting to like to doll herself up or be princess-like.

For me, I am VERY much happy to cut my hair short (yet again..my DH would say as somehow DH always prefer me in my long hair).

There are many good reasons for me to keep my hair short.

1. I am always running out of time to wash and not to mentioned dry my hair.

2. Keeping a short hair is hassle free, low-maintenance, less time-consuming to maintain(lazy ppl like me :P)

3. Isn't it more environmental-friendly, use less water and less shampoo (hehe).

4. Head feel lighter(not helmet-like)

5. Feel cooler (especially when weather is so hot now)

I guess the list can go on...and on..just simply because I guess I just prefer to be in short hair for less maintenance and less time-comsumption....simply put I am lazy to maintain a long hair.

Haih...I am lazier than KY then? :P

Perhaps this time I ought to keep a long hair after all..for a change(3 yrs having short hair now..ever since with kids I noticed)..and check if it's really true what DH said I loooked better with long hair (haha)..

So see how long I can stand leaving my hair uncut for now...keep my finger crossed.

Cheers folks! Thanks for reading my rather trivial post on what the Chinese said..san qien fan nao shi...(hair is being referred as three thousand worries..erm thoughts? alamak..sorry my Chinese vocab really limited...)

One year old jab

This morning I had a rather frustrated waiting period...where did I went? Government clinic for Shone's one year old jab..

I shouldn't have been feeling annoyed and frustrated....after all it is sort of like EXPECTED? Long wait...long queue etc? That is what I have been experiencing every visit after all? Haih...pathetic...why must we tolerate such poor service? I am sure other country's government offices/services fare much better? Or at least that is what we all expected.

Can you imagine, for each injection trip, it'll take me at least 2 hrs 30 mins?

1 hr merely to wait to get our waiting no!!! Yes 1 hr!

Then, another 1 hr 30 mins to go from weighing and checking height counter -> interviewing counter of sort...for their recording purposes whether our child met the right weight and milestones plus setting the next date of appointment and getting our medication slip(if required like fever medication etc) -> FINALLY injection place.

Phew...

The fact that the place is hot and crowded makes each visit barely tolerable, cannot imagine how the low-heat-tolerance babies and pregnant women can stand this kinda environment. In fact, the uniform the nurses wear I bet it's quite thick and hot too...pity them too..

Actually recently the govt. clinic I been visiting has been renovated a bit..furnished with air-cond, big TV to entertain patient on waiting and also computers(supposingly to speed up their service??)....

However today(after 6 months) when i went, the air-cond and TV seems like white elephant, either spoilt or not being ON and the computers are being removed from their counter???!! To think I felt..wow..on my last visit to see such improvement...haih...heading backward again...

Sorry to be seemingly so impatient and ungrateful...for having such affordable checkup and immunization program by the government, guess we all like to have better service no matter by private or government offices rite.

Anyway, here's for record purpose:

Shone weighted at 11kg at 1 year 4 days which the nurse says is a good progress (nope not overweight as Shone is a big baby from birth at 4.24kg). He took 3 in1 jab at government clinic which the nurse told me such jab would cause fever only a week later(if any) so fever medication is to be given only when fever(touch wood) occurs. By the way, one old folks way to avoid getting fever after injection is to feed the child barley water before the jab ..I done it..hope it works ;)

Cheers for the day!

Happy Father’s Day(Belated) to DH

Another Father's Day posting..this time to the Father of my kids.

This cake was bought during my family side(sponsored by my younger sis, Eu and erm..dunno who else ler..paiseh) during our 5 in 1 celebration for June- my birthday, Father's day(for 3 dads in our house, my dad, DH and my bil), my son's birthday, my father's birthday and my brother homecoming of sort (away from industrial training but being the youngest in our family..it means a lot to us that our little brother has moved away from us a bit further and being grown up hehe..)

Yesterday I got KY to wish DH – Happy Father's Day to DH and give him a big hug. I was wondering at 2 yrs plus, does she even knows what is Father's Day and whether she would do as what I taught her to do..yep she did…perfectly…even though it's the first time this term "Happy Father's Day" comes to her..Thank God…:P else it'll be so funny rite…(cos silly me I didn't teach her earlier but right on the spot in front of my DH..and if she doesn't get it..wouldn't it be so erm…un-romantic? :P hehe)

Anyhow, Thank God KY picks it up fast and spontaneously! Haha…save my day and blunder..

To my DH, thanks for being a great hubby and father to our kids…please take good care of your health while working hard to provide warm, shelter and love to us…we LOVE u lots…Big Big HUGSSS from three of us..mmuuahhh..

Father's Day cum Dad's Birthday update

How was your Father's Day yesterday? I celebrated with my dad much earlier(together with my brother who's back from Penang). And yesterday my dad went back to hometown to celebrate with his father-in-law for Father's Day. My dad lost his dad(my grandpa passed away rather early) in his early teens. So he treasured and respected his fil a lot. 

I remembered how he mentioned a no. of times to plan our trip back to visit our grandparents (with kids on tow...which takes a bit of planning and grit determination to drive 4-5 hours back to Johor)..why takes so long? Cos half way have to stop to visit numerous relatives..(We FINALLY made the trip during 2009 CNY-see picture above, the one in army green pants sitting down is my dad and beside him in blue shirt is my grandpa).

Anyway, coming back to Father's Day and my dad...in my memory my dad is sort of a WAHF(Work at home father)  even when we were young. Being an electrician..he manage to work around his working time to fit in his schedule to drive us to school, sports activities and etc. I still remembered my dad used to pack very yummy lunch for me and sister when we had to stay back for sports practice.

Even though like all kids, I dislikes my dad to nag at me...but somehow I think it's his nagging that I will be missing most in future or even now when I am married and no longer seeing him on daily basis.

So, I like to take this opportuniy to wish my dad- Happy Father's Day & Happy Birthday. Thank you for all your sacrifices for us!

Pick me up food

What is your pick-me-up food when you are feeling off-peak? For me, it's fruits..lotsa of it..minimum three types in combination of some olive oils, herbs, some nuts(cashew, pistachios, walnuts, almond etc) and a pinch of salt would make me having the feel-good factor once more!

Yummy, yummy..it's such colorful combination that will sometimes manage to tempt my picky eater, Ms. KY to take more fruits(hehe).

So what food picks u up? Wanna share?

Other food(for me) includes:

1) Ice-cream(yum, yum)

2) dark bitter chocolate

3) Cold Lychee, nata-d-coco and pineapple cocktail(yummy..had lotsa this during my last trimester, cos it's really hot then)

What about you?

Cheers!

Another Happy Birthday...this time SHONE!

Happy 1 year old Birthday to Shone.

May you keep growing strong, happy and healthy.

Love you...mmuahh..

Are you a Book Lover?

Yes, I am!!

I think my love for reading was planted deeply the moment my English teacher, I think her name is Mrs. Thiang passed me three free copies of Reader's Digest. I was hooked instantaneously from then on. I would be reading Reader's Digest even right before taking the 1119 Exam :P

And when I started working(still single), the moment I get my paycheck, I would go to Popular, MPH or Kinokuniya for my book shopping. As I always end up with more books than I can finished in a month, I would have to fix my each purchase to three per trip. However once, I ended up buying 16 books(totalled close to MYR300) at MPH warehouse sales. Woot...that was the extreme(for me at least!!)

And naturally I am not missing out in buying books for my kids, from cloth book, to those tiny hard cover ones which we can bring along when travellling. Below is the picture of KY(I think when she is about 5-6mths old). But back then she prefered to chew on the book :P. Somehow I glad that my love of reading does rub a bit on her..she would now grab a book whereever she goes..even when I bring her to visit my friends.

And, yep one good news I would to share that Kitty Cat is having a giveaway at her blog aPregnantpause.net (1ChildrenBooks.com is giving away 2 (TWO) hardcover copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", each worth RM109.90). So if you are Harry Potter fans, do check out the giveaway here.

Happy Reading!

Cheers!

Donate to charity with a click

I think everyone is a giving person in some sense, but in current economy situation or even more for parents with kids...it's not easy to find some extras $$ to donate.

Now, if you know there is a way to donate without any penny from your piggy bank, would you do it? Digi is having a campaign  to try and raise RM150,000 in 30 days. And all we have to do is to help with a single click. And it does NOT matter whether you are a Digi user just as long we are among those who LovetoSave.

Just click once on the charity you’d like to support, and DiGi will donate RM5 to it. Check out the site now if you like to click now at http://www.lovetosave.com.my/lovebank.php.

Cheers!

Rock up with Rock sugar egg noodle

Tah dah…my rock sugar noodle for my birthday…to ROCK me up. If you read my post about what special dish you normally eat during your birthday here, I was being introduced to this special Teochew dish by a non-Teochew friend, JS, who having the same birthday as me(minus the year..he’s more senior..hehe…).

 

And for the noodle, I specially added some kelps following the Korean style…I remembered one Korean drama they mentioned about taking kelps soup on their birthday…so I added plenty into mine for that extra iron and calcium.

 

Actually I made this on my “sickish” day..was down with fever(yea..on my birthday if you read my post here) and trying to make some soup and brunch then suddenly remembered this dish to try out…

 

And how was it? The verdict is….it TASTE yummy..and Jo(if you are reading this…) the sugary egg taste ok…BUT I must admit I prefer my egg salty for soupy noodle..haha…but at the end I don’t have the strength and patience to wait till the sugary water turn dry(if you see how to cook here), I just scoop the egg up when it is ready cooked..but at the end I drank the sugar water…it taste just like “tong sui” or those sweet desserts/soup we take.

 

So..are you Teochew and do you need some food to ROCK you up?

 

Try this dish if you dare..haha..

 

Cheers!

MOBS & ALICE WONDERS : Giveaway

Hi Bag Lovers...if you love bags like I do...check out this giveaway contest organised by malaysian online baby shops (mobs).

The lovely prize would be from AliceWonders.com.

My favourite bag from them is Thavasa White Patent Satchel actually but being a mommy who is proned to getting stains and etc..I would opt for a red(my lucky color) one of the same design(see picture below)

So everyone, if you are bag lovers too..check out this giveaway! The contest ends on 23 June 2009!

Have fun..Cheers!

Join This Giveaway

IN conjunction of Shone's 1 year old birthday, I saw this blogger mommy(Hanz) whose son, Hambali turning 1 as well and she had organized a fun contest to search for a perfect gift for her child, Hambali. How creative!

Check out her site on the giveaway if you are interested to join in the fun! There are some lovely prizes to be won while joining the fun ;) and this mommy is really into books and reading for her son as well...wow..

Hmm..now what would I to get for Shone...haha..I been buying things now and then for him...so coming to his birthday..wow...what to buy for him..maybe I should turn to this mommy blogger, Hanz for more creative ideas...

Cheers!

Two smiley Vege kids

KY and Isher

I attended my old classmate's wedding last Sat at Prince and Residence Hotel and she is so kind to arrange a Vegetarian table for us and a few other couples.

And I took the chance to snap this picture of the couple's son, Isher, who is a vegetarian from birth(in her mommy womb), same as KY. I am trying to get tips from her how to raise a healthy, strong and happy vege kid like she had..charming little 11 year "young" boy.. haha..he was ?? when I said how "old are you? which then I changed to how "young" are you..haha..

Hope to hear more good news from all my old buddies and from myself too...

Weddings..o..gatherings..have another one this coming Sat...Shone little birthday celeb with mil's side.

Cheers!

Low batt..dr. Ask to rest..

Recuperating...will b back.
Cheers!

Happy Birthday to......

15th June....half day, half year as I used to replied when people
asked about my "first cry" a.k.a birthday.

Actually I shared the same birthday with many people who were born on
15th June. One of them is my colleague cum sifu , JS (whose daughter's
birthday exactly same day ddmmyyy as KY..yep they were born on the
same day! What coincidence!), my Accounting Teacher(in Form 4 &
5)..opps...I forgot her surname..gosh..memory lapsed...comrades from
Convent...you guys can recall? Was it Ms. Lee or what's her surname
already...cham...really getting old liao man...and I think my buddy
from my Convent school, Niu's father also falls on this day...and many
more I am sure...so......

Let's celebrate and sing along....

Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to
everyone...Happy Birthday to ALL!

Why Happy Birthday to ALL? Because..the fact that we are
ALIVE...("sheng" in chinese) today is our sheng ri (alive day) so Have
a Happy Birthday Everyone!

Cheers!

Little Helper in action

Here is little KY helping me to hang laundry during one of our weekend together...thanks dearie...

Cheers! Have a good weekend folks!

MomBloggersPlanet Cutest Baby in Red Contest-entry 2

Here is Shone(posing with mom and sister, KY) red attire (who will be turning 1 this June 20, 2009) wearing his red attire for CNY 2009. I noticed most of his earlier picture will not be an individual potrait type as he has not know how to sit on his own...but soon..we shall capture more of this cheeky guy on his own.

I think Shone is the “Cutest Baby in Red” because he simply looks cute, cool and cheeky in RED.

This is a blog entry for “Cutest Baby in RED“ contest for June 09 organised by MomBloggersPlanet. In fact, MomBloggersPlanet is having a monthly Cutest Baby Photo Contest starting June 09.

These are their great prizes to be won….wow..
1x FIRST PRIZE
· One Medium Landscape or Medium Portrait HARDCOVER Photobook by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM144)
· One bag of our choice (pick ANY bag) from AliceWonders (worth from RM50-RM200)
1x SECOND PRIZE

· One Medium Portrait or Medium Portrait Classic SOFTCOVER PhotoBook by Photo Book Malaysia(worth RM80)
1x THIRD PRIZE
One Large Landscape POSTER by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM68)
3x CONSOLATION PRIZE

· One PurseHook each from AliceWonders (worth RM20)
The First and Second Prize winners will be automatically qualified for the 2009 Cutest Baby of the Planet contest (will be held on January 2010 with more great prizes).

This contest is only for babies age 0-3 years old only (so both KY and Shone qualified....check out for KY Red picture here).

So folks, if you like to enter this fun contest, check out at MomBloggersPlanet site now!

Cheers!

Breastfeeding Awareness Talk by Mothercare

Dear All,

Got this in my newsletter. Would like to share with all mothers-to-be
or anyone interested to learn about breastfeeding.

This talk will be held at KLCC. Check more details in flyers below or at their site here:

Cheers to Breastfeeding!

My Lunch today

Today I am having my favourite fried bee hoon.

I made 4 servings- two for our(me and DH) breakfast and lunch
Estimated time: 10mins (provided all ingredients are pre-cut)

I was supposed to cook this for lunch yesterday, however, I
overslept..so it became today's meal.

And, just to share some hmm..very adult-like conversation I had with
KY this morning.

When both the kids woke up at 7.15am, I was hanging the laundry and
after that gonna fried the bee hoon (vermicelli). Therefore I
requested KY to assist me to entertain her brother.

Mommy: KY can you please help to take care of your brother while mommy
hang the clothes and then later fried bee hoon for you?

KY: I help you to cook bee hoon, mom. Ask daddy to take care of Shone.

Mommy: But daddy is sleeping.

KY: I wake him up.

Mommy: Don't want lar..daddy is tired. Daddy work very late last
night. You help mommy lar ok...please..

KY: Grinning...I wake daddy up lar..and off she went asking her dad to wake up.

Hmm..guess KY just prefered helping me with the cooking(see her
cooking adventure with me here) rather than playing with Shone who
likes to snatch things from his sister now...haha..

Cheers folks!

The done-for-you solution if you market to Moms

Hi folks,

For the benefit of my friends who are venturing into ebooks and marketing especially for mommies...here is some great offer you won't want to missed.

I remember a friend of mine mentioned about hard to get content for his site. Content is the stuff our Internet-based business is made up of. And it’s also the hardest to produce. There’s the blog that needs constant updating. A newsletter or ezine that should go out regularly. Not to mention articles, guest blog posts, viral reports… the list is endless!

Well, if you’re in the Mom market, there’s a done-for-you solution that makes it easy to come up with all the content you need and it’s even better than ever.

Every month, Mom PLR eBooks gives you a complete eBook marketing package made just for Moms:

- a 7,000+ word eBook

- a short 2,100+ word report you can give away to promote
the eBook

- 5 follow-up emails

- 1 promotional email to help sell the eBook

- 5 articles

- 5 blog posts

- 1 sales page

- 1 squeeze page

- 6 promotional banners

- ecovers for both the eBook and special report

- affiliate program recommendations

… all for the low price of $27 a month!

Honestly, all these really would take us much more money and not to mention time, energy and aggravation to come up with all that content every month.

And the best part about PLR…even if you’re not into eBook marketing, you can still use all this content. Break them up, combine them, edit, repurpose - and then use them on your blog or website, in article directories, video sharing sites, Squidoo lenses, forums and so much more.

For a limited time, you can try out Mom PLR eBooks for only $2 for the first month. Use coupon code “allinone” (without the quotation marks). Go here to find out more.

http://momplrebooks.com/amember/go.php?r=382&i=l0

Enjoy..

Cheers!

PS: If you’re in the Mommy market, you couldn’t find a
better way to spend $2. Grab your package from Mom PLR eBook
now.

http://momplrebooks.com/amember/go.php?r=382&i=l0

MomBloggersPlanet Cutest Baby in Red Contest

My DH family have a tradition of wearing red(a MUST) on the first day of Chinese New Year(CNY) and every other days of the 15 days CNY celebration(optional).

So that makes my CNY clothes shopping a breeze. I simply need to just scout for 4 red attires for my family of four (DH, myself, KY and Shone).

Here is KY (who is turning 3 this July 25) wearing her red attire for CNY 2009.

I think KY is the “Cutest Baby in Red” because she simply looks cute, comfortable and fun in RED.

Red, yes , “Cutest Baby in RED“..this is theme for the contest for June 09 organised by MomBloggersPlanet. In fact, MomBloggersPlanet is having a monthly Cutest Baby Photo Contest starting June 09.

Check out their great prizes to be won….wow..

1x FIRST PRIZE

· One Medium Landscape or Medium Portrait HARDCOVER Photobook by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM144)

· One bag of our choice (pick ANY bag) from AliceWonders (worth from RM50-RM200)

1x SECOND PRIZE

· One Medium Portrait or Medium Portrait Classic SOFTCOVER PhotoBook by Photo Book Malaysia(worth RM80)

1x THIRD PRIZE

One Large Landscape POSTER by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM68)

3x CONSOLATION PRIZE

· One PurseHook each from AliceWonders (worth RM20)

The First and Second Prize winners will be automatically qualified for the 2009 Cutest Baby of the Planet contest (will be held on January 2010 with more great prizes).

This contest is only for babies age 0-3 years old only (so both KY and Shone qualified..haha..so check out for Shone Red picture soon).

So folks, if you like to enter this fun contest, check out at MomBloggersPlanet site now!

Cheers!

Cost per child

How much does it cost per child?...This is one of the question my friends(not mothers yet) used to pose to me.

Actually it very much depends on:

1) Where you are staying

2) Who you will be placing your child at , i.e. whether you taking care yourself, getting your parents to take care for you, sending to child-care or babysitter

3) The type of things you planning to get for your child, be it insurance plan, education savings fund, babies stuff, toys, learning programme etc

I have never thought of this question until when my sister-in-law mentioned it once...and I do think that it's very important question to think about for those who planning to have child/children. More so if you plan to have more than one child.

For us,

1) Staying in KL city

2) Both of us(me and DH) working, thus sending to babysitter(we chose babysitter instead of child care centre for convenience and avoid spreading of germs which is common and unavoidable) 

3) We invest in medical, life-insurance and education savings, buy moderately good quality stuff for our child(depends what items) 

And being a shopaholic mom I am, I must admit, I am the biggest culprit for over-spending I guess... :P

So how much on average for a young baby cost(I have not reach the stage of pre-schooler or schooling kids expenses yet but I guess it would roughly be almost the same, perhaps some of the mommies out there can share about this stage) is MYR1000.

Yup..and these expenses is the basic items which included:

1) Babysitter monthly fees - depending on areas and Chinese babysitter can easily cost you RM650-750 per child in KL and most Selangor area.

But somehow, I was told that many Indians and Malays charge only RM120-300 for same service...hmm..so why do Chinese babysitter market seems better? This, I am not sure...

2) Diapers(unless you cloth-diaper your baby)

3) Milk powder(unless you fully-breastfeed your child)

4) Monthly insurance and savings fund

Excluded are:

1) Immunisation/Injections (unless you opt out the optional injection or get it FOC at govt. clinic) else per jab cost you easily MYR100 plus or minus depending what jab you are taking at the private clinics/hospital

2) Baby equipments, attires, toys, etc etc..(this list can never ends..haha..especially for shopaholic mom like me :P )

For a more thorough advice, do check out the article in Parenthots: Starting a family – how much RM do you need?

Cheers to all! Happy Parenthood!