Babycare Festival 2-4 Mar 07

Come join us at the BabyCare Festival at Suntec Singapore ! Moms in Mind's booth will be right next to the Nursing Room.

What BabyCare Festival 2007

When 2 - 4 March 2007
TimeFri & Sat, 11am – 9pm;Sun, 11am – 8pm


Where Suntec Singapore Hall 401
Booth: H11 & H12

To See where Our Booth is:
*Click* on MAP below:


We will have special buys and fabulous new nursingwear styles and even new products at the Festival!

More Details at:
http://www.family.sg/editorial/article.aspx?id=453&sc=23&grp

Visit our BLOG for More Updates on Promotions & Events @ the Fair :
http://momsinmind.blogspot.com/ (*click* on Link Text).

Bra Special

Your favourite padded nursing bra is at a Special S$30 for this Babycare Festival ! Most comfortable, stylish & easy-to-use! Grab yours at this babyfair !

Breastfeeding Help

If you expect to give birth during this time, do be prepared and know where to get help. It would also be good for currently breastfeeding mothers to be prepared. Many hospital Lactation Consultants may be on leave during this period as well. Have other Counselling Hotline numbers and Lactation consultants Mobile or Pager numbers handy so that you can get help if need be. Here’s a List that would be us eful for you:

Mrs Doris Fok at 9-6387660
National University Hospital 6772 5955

KK Women's & Children's Hospital: Ms Cynthia Pang 96310687 / 63948232
KKH Ask-a-Nurse -- 1900-5568773

Mt Alvernia Hospital: Sr Kang 98399477 / 6347 6641

Joyful Parenting Tel: 6488 0286
Breastfeeding Mothers' Support Group 63393558

Thomson Medical Centre 91193502

Older "Baby"

Some friends or relatives may have misconceived ideas about older babies who are still breastfeeding. This often results from not having seen or been around such babies - more of a case of “lack of information”. They would find it strange to see a walking and talking “baby” playing happily and then running to Mummy to nurse. Think of the situation as a learning experience FOR THEM. On your end, it is your baby and your life, and you have continued breastfeeding because of the bonding and your belief & observations of the benefits.

Continue to trust in your beliefs!

Well-Wishers

It is so common for friends and relatives to share their thoughts and experiences when you visit them with your baby.

They are often well-meaning, but may hurt your feeling though, especially if these remarks come unexpected. Do go Prepared for such situations and take a non-personal approach to this remarks. Try not to take these remarks as a form of an “attack” on your parenting choices. Rehearse some non-commital responses like “I'll think about it” or “That's the way the baby likes it” or “The doctor ordered it, and you'd get on with your visit with fewer thorns in your family relationships.

To avoid less fussiness and less criticisms, try to watch your baby's signals so that you breastfeed your baby BEFORE the baby is so extremely hungry and is bawling his heart out. He will then draw quite a fair bit of “Unwanted Criticism” from all the relatives! And it would take a much longer time to pacify than if you had not put off trying to breastfeed him when he was still calm.

Do try to plan your visiting around your baby's naptimes. Some babies are great with travelling, s ome are not. So do watch your baby's cues. If he becomes fussy, request to sneak away to a another room for some mommy-time. Or pop him in the baby sling for some down-time. A walk outside your relative's house or their garden may help too.

Have fun and enjoy your baby! The upside of the Chinese New Year holidays will also be that your baby would receive lots of attention, lots of “hong baos” and might be so excited over all the colourful festivities.

Nursing in Front of Others

During the Chinese New Year Period, it would be inevitable for you to meet up and have reunion and gatherings with family, relatives & friends. What to do if baby wants to nurse?

If you're uncomfortable with nursing among them, do ask if there is a room you can use. If that is too awkward, try to create your own private space by either going to a corner of a sofa where there are fewer people around, or turning to the wall or window to latch baby on.



If it is during a dinner at a restaurant (or even at home), you might find it that the table, being at you waist and sometimes chest level, does provide some measure of "privacy". Basically, the table blocks you and baby nursing. Just bend down a little to latch baby on, straightening your body up only after baby is nursing comfortably.

It would certainly be easier if you are wearing nursing-accesible clothes.

Do visit the Link to this Article below for a full description on how to nurse in public or at least in front of others:

Article: How to Nurse Discreetly in Public

Resistance

With the abundance of Bak Kwa, Pineapple tarts, prawn rolls, love letters, and loads of other new year goodies, getting a sore throat and being heaty is not unusual. Do remember to keep hydrated, and keep up your Vitamin C intake.

For those who are tired out, do try the very traditional confinement drink. It's great for your energy level and thus great for your milk supply as well. Red Dates Tea! You can boil up and pot and drink it cold too!


RED DATES TEA
(Helps revitalise general health. Drink as often as you like - It's Tasty!)
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/eggs.html

8 red dates
50g black beans, pan-fried without oil
20g Dong Sum / "dangshen" (codonopsis pilosula)
4 slices old ginger

Rinse all the herbs. Put them in a crockpot and fill it ¾ full with HOT water. Boil for 2 hours.

For me, I usually just put all the ingredients in the crockpot the night before, filling it with normal tap water. By morning, there will already be a nice big pot of fragrant Red Dates Tea to drink for the whole day.

Keeping up with Baby

Following on with our posts yesterday on being busy with New Year preparations; one great way to keep up with baby is to carry baby in a sling.


With baby in the sling, you can have baby close to you. Baby will fuss less. You can talk about what you are doing and baby will learn more this way by sharing in your duties. You will be less inclined to put off breastfeeding your baby as he is close with you. You will also find it easier to be out & about with baby in a sling.




To learn more about using the sling, do take a look at our Instructional pages:
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/demo.html

Do also take a look at photos of other parents - Moms & Dads, and even siblings, carrying babies in our sling!
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/slingphotos.html

Happy Holidays!

The holidays are a frantic time for us, especially one as busy as Chinese New year! There's new clothes to put out, Hongbaos to prepare, the house to clean up & decorate, food & goodies to stock up on ... our To-Do list would probably be endless! With young children around, the tasks can be quite challenging.

In the midst of such tight schedules, the one important thing is: Don't put off breastfeeding your baby! Very often during busy festive periods, breastfeeding moms try to do just one more last thing before feeding baby. Before you know it, baby is tired and has fallen asleep, or baby could be so distressed and is not willing to nurse properly. Another common occurence in our family setup could be, the grandmothers or maids may see that you are too busy to breastfeed baby, and they would simply take baby away and give baby a bottle. All this will affect your milk supply and baby's well-being. Remember, Supply = Demand. Breastfeeding regularly & frequently is the key to maintaining your supply.

And don't forget yourself! Get some rest when you can, and tank up on water and vitamin C to keep your resistance during this busy period.