3 Simple Steps To Keep Your Baby Comfortable In Diapers

One of the few things we did when we took our baby home from hospital was to buy a bag of diapers. At the time, being first time parents without help from anyone else accept the internet and parenting books, it somehow slipped our minds that we had to prepare diapers for the baby besides the cute little clothes and coordinated bed sheets we bought for baby's room. We didn't know how to use traditional napkins so we relied on diapers from Day 1.

Despite our inexperience, we somehow got it right when it came to diapers. I'd like to share what we did right in this post. 

Our babies wore diapers as newborns right up to when we toilet trained them. They had the occasional rash but it was perfectly fine for them to wear diapers from the time they are a few hours old if you follow the simple steps below.

Here are the 3 simple steps we did to make sure they were comfortable in diapers.

1. Always make sure they are dry

Changing frequently helps keep babies dry. It is important to get the right diaper brand too. Get the snug and dry types. Make sure they're absorbent. However, just because they are absorbent, it does not mean you should leave them on for hours on end. Changing frequently helps keep that little bum free from rash.

2. Clean baby well

Make sure you clean baby's bottom every time your change baby's diaper. Carry wet wipes if you are out so you can do a quick clean if needed. Use a diaper cream if you notice a rash building. Clean baby from front to back. Never wipe from back to front to prevent urinary tract infection.

3. Get a comfortable fitting diaper

Imagine having to wear a diaper 24/7. Finding a comfortable diaper is a must. Try to find a diaper that fits at the waist, the back, the legs and the crotch. Baby should feel comfortable in the diapers, not scratching at the crotch, legs or anywhere else when worn.

Huggies® Dry Pants fulfils some of the things we look for in a diaper. It gently hugs baby's bottom, is ultra-absorbent to keep baby dry and offers a 5-way comfort fit in 5 areas: waist at tummy, waist at back, two legs and crotch. Did you know that Huggies® Dry Pants is inspired by a mum's hug, so your baby feels as comfortable as they do in your embrace?

We also love the ongoing Huggies Hug2Hug contest and video because it reminds us that we should hug our little ones close because they grow up so fast!

In the contest, you can hug your baby and win a prize! 

What are the prizes you stand to win with your hug?

• A family travel voucher worth RM6000
• An iphone 8 
• A photoshoot package for mom and baby
• Huggies Dry Pants Super Jumbo Pack

Go to Huggies Hug2Hug Contest page to find out how to join the contest.

In the video, mum's talk about the joys of hugging their babies. Mummy's hug is the best. Watch the video. Do you feel like hugging your baby after watching it? I know I do, even though they are big babies now. That's the joy of hugging and being a mother.



This post was brought to you by Huggies. Huggies® Dry Pants is inspired by a mum's hug, so your baby feels as comfortable as they do in your embrace.

Common Foot Problems In Children

The following article is brought to you by Sunfeet International. Sunfeet International Rehab Centre offers a range of rehab services and orthotic, prosthetic products. One of their main products is prescription customized orthotic Insoles and shoes. 

Sunfeet International is currently having a back to school promotion for their Sunfeet healthy school shoes range which offer support, stability and comfort for kids who have to be on their feet all day in school.


Common Foot Problems Parents Need To Know

We never really think too much about our feet even though they play such an important role in our daily life allowing us to stand, walk and run freely. Proper foot care is important because problems that go untreated may affect our knees, hips and spine. As parents it is important for us to care for our children's feet and to take notice of any issues they may face but just how do we know if they are having problems with their feet?

Below are some of the common foot problems in children and a short description of what they are.

• Flatfeet is a condition when children's feet do not develop arches when they grow which may be treated by arch support custom made insoles in shoes. Normally flatfoot disappears by age 5. Between age 6-10 a flexible flatfoot which does not go away may require orthotics. Beyond age 10 flatfood may be permanent where long-term use of orthotics may then be required.
• Toe Walking literally means walking on toes. If toe walking is persistent in older kids, it may indicate nervous system problems like cerebral palsy or autism. Stretching exercises or casting of the foot and ankle may be required.
• Pigeon Toes or In-Toeing is the tendency to walk with feet turned inward in an intoeing gait causing children to trip often. Special shoes and braces may sometimes be used to give more support and comfort.
• Bowlegs is an exaggerated outward curve of the legs at the knees giving it the appearance of an archer's bow.
• Knock-Knees is when legs curved inwards at the knees causing the knees to knock together.
• Server's Decease is a not a decease but rather a heel injury. It is a common condition in children aged between 8-12 years old. The condition is common in active kids during growth spurts. Repetitive stress to the heel may cause strain and pain in the heel. If your child is having foot pains, you may be confused on whether there is some issue that needs to be addressed or is it growing up pains.

Before and After Orthotics

What To Do If You Suspect A Problem

Many of the common foot problems go away as they grow. However, some others don't. Early intervention helps. It will also help your peace of mind to get your children's feet evaluated by specialists.

What Do You Call A Doctor Who Specializes In Feet And Other Terms You Should Know

• A Podiatrist is a specialist who studies, gives diagnosis and treatment for problems in foot, ankle and lower extremities
• A Pedorthist is a specialist trained to provide modified footwear and supportive devices for conditions affecting the feet and lower limbs
• Orthotic is a brace used to support or correct the function of movable parts of the body including feet, knee, wrist or neck. Shoe inserts are a form of orthotics used for a range of foot problems. Sunfeet provides affordable and effective Orthotic and Prosthetic solutions. Orthotics can be worn in standard children's shoes or sports shoes. Specialists on board provide professional consultation and correction to mobility training and confidence building for their patients.
• Prosthetics is the custom fitting of artificial limbs to replace a missing body part.
• Physiotherapy helps restore movement and function. Sunfeet provides physiotherapy treatment for Scoliosis, Flat foot, shoulder pain , lower back pain and knee pain
• Scoliosis is a condition that causes the spine to curve sideways.

Sunfeet International Rehabilitation Center is located at Block C, 18, Jalan 19/1 Sekseyn 19, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Malaysian Food Street Resorts World Berhad @ Genting

We were at the Malaysian Food Street Resorts World Berhad @ Genting yesterday. It is a quaint Malaysian styled decor and hawker food eatery or food court at Genting Highlands. Firstly, before you read on, here's a few things you need to know.

• This food court sells non-halal food and it clearly states so
• Apart from drinks and desserts, most food items cost starting from RM20
• You need to buy with card, not cash
• The food court is divided into 5 zones, Kuching, Malacca, Ipoh & Penang, Little India and Petaling Street

One of the things we always felt when in Genting Highlands is the difficulty in finding food PLUS the fact that most food cost a bomb. With the Malaysian Food Street, we now can find food, but it still costs a bomb. 

They say a picture tells a thousand words, so let's have the pictures tell the rest of the story.

When you enter, it is best, you grab a copy of this "map" so you can identify where are the stalls for your favourite Malaysian hawker food. Also in this picture is a card for buying food (which you have to purchase from vending machines located outside the food court as well as inside). You don't pay for your food with cash but with this card. At the end of your meal (or within 7 days if you are not a day tripper, you can refund your balance cash from the refund counters). The little round thingy is a bell. After ordering, you return to your seat and when your bell rings, it means your food is ready. You can then go to the food stall to claim your food by showing your receipt. 

This is the entrance of the Malaysian Food Street. It is at Level 4 of the Sky Avenue, shopping mall. There will be signs so follow those signs till you find it. It is far from the other eateries. When you follow the signs and you reach the eateries, keep on walking according to the directions and going up the escalator till you get there. 

Here's a look at the vending machine located outside the Malaysian Food Street food court. Next to the machine is the map of the stalls. Remember to grab one.

Close up view on how to purchase a new food card from the vending machine

It's packed because we went on Christmas Day.

You will find lots of "authentic" and cute Malaysian decor at the Malaysian Food Street, like the hanging socks and boxer shorts found here.

Care for a game of Chinese chess while waiting for your food? Just kidding. This is another decor at one of the stalls

I was so busy taking a picture of the decor, I missed the price to the right of the red sign board. Every stall has their menu items clearly listed with the price on the sign boards.

Googgle Man Penang Char Kuey Teow? I wonder if this is from the sellers who fries Char Kuey Teow while donning goggles?

No googles here though.

More cute decor

Illegal paste on advertisements on walls is a must to complete the Malaysian look, right?

Non-halal with lard and "lap cheong" char kuey teow

Wanton Mee

Prawn Mee

For the price of RM20 per bowl/plate, we expected to taste gold, so the taste was just so so. Better than the food we used to find at Genting previously but pricey for the type of food.

More decor

Notice the old calendar and even old type of fan switches? Plus the toys that are "sold". They are all part of the decor.

Old school toys on "sale" The top of the "shophouse" features old "broken" windows in need of fixing.

Another part I didn't get a picture of was the washing area which was designed like an old hairdressing shop with all its old school glory, make up, hair styling tools etc displayed just above the sink. Cute.

How much did our meal cost us? There were 4 of us. We asked the man how much we should estimate to get our card? He said RM20-RM30 for food add RM20 each makes up RM50 per person. We bought RM150 at the vending machine. Had porridge (RM20), char kuey teow (RM21), prawn mee (RM20), wanton mee (RM20), one cup dragon fruit drink (RM10), one cup watermelon fruits for dessert (RM8). Total damage was RM101 ie RM99 plus RM2 (unreturnable deposit for the card). despite being frugal and sharing the drink and dessert. After the meal, we exchanged our card for balance cash RM49.

Verdict: When it is cold and you get hungry after walking around, the sight of familiar steaming hot, freshly cooked food is always welcoming but like theme parks everywhere, food is always pricey. Decor is very Malaysian and makes you smile.

Parenting Workshops 2018

Education begins at home. Kids thrive when their parents take an active role in supporting them as they grow up. This role should not be left to the maid, the tutor or teacher at school. As parents, we need to guide our children, but who will guide us? We don't have a manual on how to become a good parent.

What we can do is to do a lot of reading, research and we can even attend workshops to update ourselves.

In 2018, Fun Learning Seeds (FLS) is launching a series of parenting topics to empower more parents in their parenting journey. Some of the topics you can look forward to include:

• Different parenting styles for different characters of children
• Effective parenting methods
• How to improve communication with children
• Games and activities which can be done at home to activate children's brain development without spending a single cent
• Brain activation and brain development topics
• How to deal with curious children on the topic of gender and sex
• Children psychology
• 21st century education system
• and many more topics.

"We believe that parent's education is important to guide and coach their children to another level. We learn how to drive before we get our driving license, we learn how to be a professional before we step in the real career world but, we never learn how to be a parent before we become one. Parenting education is for us to learn how to be a good parent to our children, so that they can be someone better in the future. Old school methods are no longer suitable for the newer generation. That is why we encourage parents to get more exposure on their parenting journey, participate in parenting workshops or talks to learn how to guide their children more effectively in the 21st century. 

Many parents think that they don't know how to teach, so they pay experts to teach their children but, is this the best for our children? Both father and mother play a very important role in this journey. More awareness is required. That's why FLS created this series of topics. We are blessed to get experts in children education to lead the sessions. Our first session will be on 27 Jan 2018. "

Details of the January Session

Date: 27 January 2018

Time: 12 pm to 3 pm

Venue: KL
Fee: RM50/couple 

Topics:

1. How To Guide Your Children Without Scolding And Beating 

-Effective parenting methods
-Great bonding between parents and children

( Speaker: Mr Choong Kee Pin, Master in Psychology, retired headmaster)

2. Effective Communication & Coaching
-Understand you and your child's inborn character
-Effective communication ways with different characters
 (Speaker: Mr Jacky Cheng, Master Trainer in Dermatoglyphics Profiling)

More details and registration here: https://goo.gl/b9dFJD

This post was brought to you by Fun Learning Seeds

Melbourne, Australia Self Drive Road Trip - Day Five

Continued from previous....

Finally, we have come to the end of our trip. As the Chinese say, "There is no never ending banquet under the sun" meaning All good things must come to an end. We had to check out of the hotel by 11 am so we went out for a quick walk and tram ride this time to Federation Square, Southbank and Dorklands.

The Melbourne Visitor Center at Federation Square is a good first stop for tourists, not last stop as we did.

Flinders Street Station - a good meeting point for friends

We were treated to a Sunrise in Australia and a Sunset when returning home to KL.

We stayed at a motel, a serviced apartment and a hotel. Each one of them was lovely in its own way. Parkview Motel, Port Campbell was a lovely little motel we could drive right up to our doorway. Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments had all the amenities of home while Holiday Inn Flinders on Melbourne was strategically located near the Southern Cross Station and within walking distance to many attractions and tram stops in the city.

We visited two universities. We met students, workers, other tourists, buskers, living statue performers. We saw kangaroos, a group hopped right across our car at one point, koalas, dingoes, rabbits, birds, penguins, wombats, lots of cows and sheep. We saw old buildings and new ones.

We drove 1000s of km, walked 1000s of steps and it was all worth it. Of course, now we are back, we will have to sleep many hours to recharge our batteries and get back our momentum. It took me hours to record our trip in writing because otherwise, it will fade with memory but it is worthwhile to make that effort. Now I have a record of our memorable family trip that I can search for when details skip me. That's the beauty of a blog. The posts were written with a combination of photos from our mobiles.

Melbourne, Australia Self Drive Road Trip - Day Four

Melbourne is a curious mix of the old with the new

Melbourne skyline from Queen Victoria Market

Day one and two was on Nature. Day three for animals and Day four is on towards the city. We did not exactly plan it this way but that was how it turned out.

On Day Four of our Self Drive Road Trip, we drove from Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments to Melbourne CBD after checking out in the morning. The weather got better and better since we arrived with fear of rain and flooding.



We drove straight to Holiday Inn on Flinders, Melbourne. It was still early so we dropped our baggage, got back into the car and drove to Southern Cross Station nearby to return the car. After that, we went about on foot and on trams.

A Melbourne Tram

Busking in front of Myers

It is easy to walk around Melbourne or to take the trams on the free tram zone or better still take the city circle tram or free tourist tram which comes around every 12 minutes. When you are in the tram it you get to hear recorded info about the attractions in the city, all for free.

Dream Catchers At Victoria's Market

First we walked to Queen Victoria Market, then we went to Melbourne University to visit our niece. We went to walk around the University, look at the lecture rooms, libraries (there are 10, we only looked at 1) and had lunch there. Then we continued walking about the city, visiting Saint Paul's Cathedral, the State Library was splendid.

Melbourne University (Picture from internet)

St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne

We sat around Flinders Station walking people passing by and went to watch the Buskers near Myers. Finally we had dinner at Chinatown before calling it a day and returning to the hotel.

Living Statue Performers in Melbourne

Holiday Inn on Flinders, Melbourne. Photo from hotel website. The room is exactly as shown.

To be continued.....

Melbourne, Australia Self Drive Road Trip - Day Three

Day Three is a day to see animals like this kangaroo

A trip to Australia is not complete without seeing the Koala Bear

Continued from Day Two....

On Day Three of our Melbourne, Australia Self Drive Road Trip, we woke up later at around 8 am, had a nice relaxing breakfast on our apartment balcony watching the birds and the rabbits before we went out to visit Monash to give the kids a taste of what life at the university was like for their dad. After walking around at the halls of residences, lecture halls, nature walk etc, we had lunch at Monash university.

Then we proceeded to drive to Maru Koala and Animal Park. If the days before this was dedicated to nature, Day three is all about animals. The Maru park is rather small and may even seem disappointing at first but not after you get to feed the kangaroos. It is a good place for kids to get acquainted with all the animals from Australia including Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies, Dingoes, Wombats and more. You can get really close to the animals to pat and feed them.

After that, we drove to Phillip Island for lunch ahead of the tour groups. It was really nice and easy, no rush as we had pre booked online Penguin Plus tickets. Since it was still early, we walked around the shops before heading to The Nobbies. The Nobbies has splendid views you won't forget. After that we went on to wait for the sun to set to watch the Penguins Parade.

View from the Nobbies viewing platform

We got the front row seats on the platform. Next to that is the Underground Viewing. Picture is from the internet as we were not allowed to take photos.

We got superb front row seats for our Penguin Plus tickets to watch the Penguins waddle right pass us (close enough to touch) because we were early before the tour buses came. I think this is much better than the more expensive Underground Viewing tickets which can be stuffy and other than being able to see the penguins at eye level, the Underground Viewing ticket holders will miss seeing the Penguins come out from the sea. However, in Winter, you will probably feel nice and warm in there while the others freeze outdoors. It is very cold at night. Fortunately for us, the sun was out and the weather was good all day during the day time and it was not very windy. Even then, it was cold.

It was simply amazing and awesome to watch the penguins return to their home. They number by the thousands. Too bad we could not take any photos.

Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments picture from internet

After the Penguin Parade, we had to drive back to Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments. One and a half hours of night driving with roads that were mostly not lighted which can be challenging for tired tourists. We managed to grab a late McDonald's dinner along the route back before reaching the apartments around 11 pm.

We saw lots of beautiful scenery on Days 1 and 2 and animals on Day 3. What will we do on Day 4?

Melbourne, Australia Self Drive Road Trip - Day Two

After a long day driving on Day 1, we woke up at 7 am on Day Two. That would be 4 am on our local time. After a simple and quick cup noodle breakfast, we started driving to the Balconies at Grampians National Park. We were still worried about the weather as the bad weather warning continued to be in the news.

The Balconies at Grampians, Australia

Similar to the first day, the drizzle came on and off in time for  us to visit the planned attractions according to our itinerary. We got to visit the Balconies at the Grampians National Park and nearby Mackenzie falls. Climbing down the falls was not a problem but climbing up is a bit challenging for the unfit like yours truly.

Mackenzie Falls, Australia

We dropped by Halls Gap to have more fish and chips for lunch before driving to Ballarat.

At the Halls, Gap, The Fish and Chips Family pack was wrapped in a big package.
You can sit by the sidewalk or the park to eat it. It was welcome on a cold day.

On Day 2, we drove another 516 km approximately, another 6 1/2 hours of driving by estimate but it was probably another half hour to 45 minutes more because we came to a road closed sign with no clear directions for an alternate route. We had to drive on unpaved roads through farms to get back on the main road. Phew!

Road Closed Ahead!

Most of the roads inland was very straight with lots of farm animals grazing on both sides of the roads. 

We wanted to visit the Sovereign Hill at Ballarat but of course, it was too late as it was near closing time by the time we got there around 3pm. So we visited the rest room instead before driving off to our booked accommodation at Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments. We picked this place because of its proximity to Monash University which we wanted to visit.

According to the website, the reception closes at 6.30 pm. We arrived at 6 pm to find a notice on the reception desk that read "We are closed at 5 pm today".

Fortunately we had our data roaming and was able to call for assistance. We were directed to key in a preset code at a box located just outside the reception area to retrieve our apartment key. What a relief! The apartment was very new, very clean and had all amenities including dishwasher, toaster, microwave, conventional oven and cooker with pots and  pans and cutlery and plates, iron, clothes washing machine and dryer.

Campus Clayton Service Apartments photo from website

We had access key for the indoor car park but we were told we could park at the visitors bay which was convenient for us so we did just that.  How good it was to do a load of dirty laundry. Washing powder for clothes and dishes and sponges for washing dishes with dish cloth were all provided. The apartment overlooked a field where we had breakfast of peanut butter toast and Milo for two days while watching the rabbits and birds in the field. Tranquil and quiet. Nice after all our rushing around.

Immediately upon checking in, we went out to visit a friend so that the kids could see how people in Melbourne lived. We went out for dinner with our friend, went to buy some grocery supplies before heading back to rest.

We see lots of animals on Day Three...