Just a week ago, the happy baby still spotted a double chin
Hai, it's terrible to be sick ... the skinnier versionIt all began last monday when i came down with a high fever at night. A visit to the doctor revealed that i had a severe flu complete with cough and running nose. I was given multiple types of medication and told to stay home for two days.
The virus must have been passed to the baby since i still continued to nurse her. On Wednesday, baby started to have diarrhoea. We did not suspect anything at first as we introduced a small amount of infant formula and we thought it could be the new milk. The other hideous side effect was a damaged backside with itching red nappy rash, which made baby uncomfortable sitting down and her appetite went down by half. Finally a high fever at 39 degrees broke out on Friday. The baby clinic was full and we had no choice but to go straight to KK.
Diagnosis could not determine the true cause of the sickness, and the doctor attributed to a possible viral attack passed on by me (and daddy was sick too). We went home and continued on regular dose of paracetemol. We also had to feed baby Pedialyte, a rehydrating solution to replace water, glucose and electrolytes (salt) back into baby's body.
We came to another major headache. Baby has to be on a total fluid diet due to the diarrhoea, so that means only milk and the Pedialyte solution (which baby hated the taste and hardly drank any). But since i was badly sick too, the breastmilk supply continued to dwindle. Baby has a lactose intolerance and vomits each time we fed infant formula. The only other thing baby could drink was soy milk, which we had tried feeding a hundred times without success as baby is extremely picky about the taste.
If we could pull out our (or the baby's) hair we probably would. Seeing the poor child running a nasty fever, watery stools, hungry, crying but just refusing to drink the soy, any parent would give a million to reverse the situation. I was literally praying on my knees and crying my heart out to the Lord. The hungry baby would rather bite her pillow with pearly tears rolling down those sickly eyes than to drink the soy.
The night passed on so slowly i woke up every other minute to check if the baby was alright. At the first sight of dawn, i made another feed of soy and saying the most desperate prayer, the baby grabbed the bottle and quietly emptied the contents without a single coercion. I guess this is what we know as survival instinct. The poor baby have gone hungry for almost a day and finally ignored her preference and succumbed to her body needs. I was awestrucked and praised my Lord for this miracle!
The high fever persisted through the whole of Saturday, hovering between 38.4 to 38.8 degress. We diligently fed her medicine, then milk, then pat her to sleep, and the entire routine went on for as long as we could remember. I still said my prayers each time we fed her soy and thankfully she was consuming a reasonable amount each time.
As the day breaks on Sunday, the fever finally came down to 37.4, and going forward came back to normal to 36.2. I really do not have the right words to express our relief and joy! Baby was able to make a little play, respond a bit to people, and we almost caught a glimpse of the naughty baby back into action, biting and chewing slowly on her toys.
The dark week past, and today the fever has said bye bye. While the frequency of stools has lessened but we continue to monitor as the consistency is still watery. Baby can start to eat a little cereal and seems to be getting back to usual. However we found that she still can't smile like before. Probably will need a longer recovery period before the true blue cheeky girl is back.
The virus must have been passed to the baby since i still continued to nurse her. On Wednesday, baby started to have diarrhoea. We did not suspect anything at first as we introduced a small amount of infant formula and we thought it could be the new milk. The other hideous side effect was a damaged backside with itching red nappy rash, which made baby uncomfortable sitting down and her appetite went down by half. Finally a high fever at 39 degrees broke out on Friday. The baby clinic was full and we had no choice but to go straight to KK.
Diagnosis could not determine the true cause of the sickness, and the doctor attributed to a possible viral attack passed on by me (and daddy was sick too). We went home and continued on regular dose of paracetemol. We also had to feed baby Pedialyte, a rehydrating solution to replace water, glucose and electrolytes (salt) back into baby's body.
We came to another major headache. Baby has to be on a total fluid diet due to the diarrhoea, so that means only milk and the Pedialyte solution (which baby hated the taste and hardly drank any). But since i was badly sick too, the breastmilk supply continued to dwindle. Baby has a lactose intolerance and vomits each time we fed infant formula. The only other thing baby could drink was soy milk, which we had tried feeding a hundred times without success as baby is extremely picky about the taste.
If we could pull out our (or the baby's) hair we probably would. Seeing the poor child running a nasty fever, watery stools, hungry, crying but just refusing to drink the soy, any parent would give a million to reverse the situation. I was literally praying on my knees and crying my heart out to the Lord. The hungry baby would rather bite her pillow with pearly tears rolling down those sickly eyes than to drink the soy.
The night passed on so slowly i woke up every other minute to check if the baby was alright. At the first sight of dawn, i made another feed of soy and saying the most desperate prayer, the baby grabbed the bottle and quietly emptied the contents without a single coercion. I guess this is what we know as survival instinct. The poor baby have gone hungry for almost a day and finally ignored her preference and succumbed to her body needs. I was awestrucked and praised my Lord for this miracle!
The high fever persisted through the whole of Saturday, hovering between 38.4 to 38.8 degress. We diligently fed her medicine, then milk, then pat her to sleep, and the entire routine went on for as long as we could remember. I still said my prayers each time we fed her soy and thankfully she was consuming a reasonable amount each time.
As the day breaks on Sunday, the fever finally came down to 37.4, and going forward came back to normal to 36.2. I really do not have the right words to express our relief and joy! Baby was able to make a little play, respond a bit to people, and we almost caught a glimpse of the naughty baby back into action, biting and chewing slowly on her toys.
The dark week past, and today the fever has said bye bye. While the frequency of stools has lessened but we continue to monitor as the consistency is still watery. Baby can start to eat a little cereal and seems to be getting back to usual. However we found that she still can't smile like before. Probably will need a longer recovery period before the true blue cheeky girl is back.
Bet you didn't know everyone calls me 娃娃!
