Rectal Prolapse. What is that?

     Yes. When the first time I heard about it, that's the same question I asked.
Why am I asking that? My daughter had this problem.

     According to wikipedia, Rectal Prolapse is a medical condition wherein the walls of the rectum protrude through the anus and hence become visible outside the body. Sounds scary right?
When it happens to our daughter and we had no idea what's that, we were freaked out!
    
     My daughter has her 1st prolapse a few months ago. That time, it came out and went in very fast when my wife saw it. We didn't really wory about it.

     A few weeks later, it happened again. My daughter refused to stand up from potty. We felt something amiss. We lifted her up from potty, and saw the prolapse. She thought the 'something' was her stool. We were traumatized, as we do not know what was it and why keep happening. I was carrying my daughter and wanted to put her down on the bed. My daughter kept crying and refused to lie down. After half an hour of carrying and coaxing, the prolapse went it. Immediately we went to consult our family doctor. The doctor wrote a referral letter for us to consult specialist.
 
    We went to consult Paed Surgeon, that's when we first heard about rectal prolapse. He said it was due to constipation. But our daughter pass motion everyday. He pointed out that she has hard stool. Hard stool causes her to strain when there is bowel movement. After straining too much, rectum become loose and prolapse happens. He prescribed Fybogel (fibre) and Lactus (laxation).
We suspected it was her formula milk that cause hard stool. We switched to fresh milk.

   The following week, it became worse!

The prolapse lasted for one hour before went in, as we didn't know how to reduce it. And subsequently, it happens daily!! We went to consult another Paed surgeon. He also didn't give us any concrete solution, except reassured us that it is nothing major and it is curable by solving the hard stool.

   We still worry...

We searched high and low for information and worry why our daughter has such uncommon problem.
Read a lot of medical articles about it. We suspect it was due to cow's milk. Formula milk contains cow's milk too.  Although formula milk has a lot of nutrients, but it doesn't contain fibre. It might cause constipation!

We decided to stop fresh milk and reduce my daughter formula milk intake as well. Give her a lot of food rich in fibre. It helps. At least it didn't happen for the past few weeks.

    As it is an uncommon medical condition, there are limited information about it. Do take care of your kid's constipation problem and give them food rich in fibre. Prepare a healthy diet for your kids. 

     Today I would like to share an interesting book, 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School: Real-World Antidotes to Feel-Good Education.
     I first came across someone talking about this book in a forum and I find some the rules are very useful for the kids and even for adults.
     My favourite rule is
          #1 Life is not fair. Get used to it.
According to the book, it is said that the average teenager uses this phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. I guess most parents are tired of hearing it from their kids. And I believe some of the parents themselves also complain about it. It is so true that, we can't control the unfairness of the world. What we need to teach our kids is that, What they can control is the way you react. Some kids are born with silverspoon, some are born with talents while some are born to be normal. The kids have to learn to accept it and cherish what they have.
   In fact, most of the rules are so true, and are very useful for the parents and the kids.
          #2 The real world won't care as much as your school does about your self-esteem. It will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

         #5 No matter what your daddy says, you are not a princess....

        #17 Your parents weren't as boring before you were born as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, driving you around, saving for your education, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. 
        
       I feel the rules though quite cruel, but it is so true. If the parents keep protecting their kids and treat them like prince/princess, it is very difficult for them to grow up and independent.
What do you think?

     Facebook is Evil..


      Yes. I am talking about the social networking site which most of us use. A report in Wall Street Journal found that the phenomenal amount of personal information shared by Facebook members might be sold extensively to marketers, advertisers and data collectors.
       It is estimated there are 500 millions users in Facebook. And there are hundred thousands of applications in Facebook. When you connect to any of the application, you agreed to share your information with them. I am sure many of us are familiar with FarmVille, Pet Society, Bejeweled, Mafia War, etc. These are some of the most popular games in Facebook. Once you connect to those apps, your personal IDs and profile will be shared to them.


     I also got a shock when I went to one of the website. I just need to supply some basic information without password, I can see whatever I have posted in Facebook - photos, status, comments,.. I still wonder how on earth that website able to get such information.

     When you put your photo, your profile, personal information on the internet, you will need to bear the risk of exposing your privacy. Although it is the website or company's responsibility to protect your privacy, you yourself have to be careful as well.

     Most of the kids nowadays have accounts in multiple social networking websites like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc. It is worrying that their privacy might be compromised. Kids might unknowingly exposed their identity to strangers. So, as parents, I guess it is important to guide your kids.


Some of the tips that you can advice your kids:
     1. Do not post your latest status too clearly or the things you going to do, e.g. "Going to watch movie at Cineleisure tomorrow".
      2. Do not know actual name or spell your name in full.
      3. Do not 'connect' to unknown apps in Facebook.
      4. Remove/Delete the apps if you are not using anymore.
      5. Try to befriend with your kids in Facebook. This will help you to know what have they posted or how frequent they use Facebook.

     As a parents, you will have monitor, guide and protect your kids and their privacy. If you have any tips, feel free to share.

     This month and next are the tough time for many students. There are year end exams and other important assessment like PSLE for primary 6 students,  O-Level, A-Level in Singapore, PMR and SPM in Malaysia.

It is the busiest month for the parents too.


     Nowadays some of the parents are more nervous than the students! The parents will stay up late to do last minutes preparation with the kids, take week off to teach their kids and some even quit their job to prepare the kids.

   On top of that, Singapore newspaper reported that $820 millions was spent on private tuition in 2008. This is not something new. The students are burdened with tuition classes after school. Students have to attend tuition in English, Maths, Chinese, almost all subjects, every week. Imagine if one subject requires 2 hours per week, it will be 6 hours per week! Reported in another article that in 100 students polled in 2008, only 3 students do not have any tuition at all.

    This is worrying!

 
     Are the parents spending too much on the kids' tuition? Are we burdening the kids with too much tuition classes, enrichment classes on top of their school?

    With the highly competitive society, most parents think it is necessary!
Most parents are not hoping their children to be high flier or high-income earner. They just want their children to have a competitive edge and able to find a decent job. According to NUS admission statistic, there are 25984 undergraduates enrolled for 2009/2010. This is just one university, there are three local universities. There are about 60000 per year! Not to mention, graduates from overseas universities!

     Will you want your kids to be left out??

     Raising kids required a lot of love, patience and money. In Singapore, it is said that you will need about SGD350k to raise one child from baby till he/she can become independent.

     Scary??!?!

      Not quite! I believe it is quite true. In fact I think it is slightly underestimate.
To give you a rough estimate, here are some breakdown of the costs (for a middle income family):

Milk Powder 1.8kg for 2 years	$50 x 24 (months) = $1200
Meal for child till 22 years old excluding meal for first two years	$20 (per day) x 365 x 20 (years) =$146,000
Both parents working, babysitter or childcare, kindergarten service required	$600 x 12 (months) x 4 (years) = $28,800
Primary and Secondary School Tuition Fee, Enrichment classes	$700 x 12 (months) x 12 (years) = $100,800
University Tuition Fee (without subsidy/scholarship), Business in National University of Singapore	$26,490 x 4 (years) = $105,960

Based on the above assumption, it is about SGD382k. I haven't include other expenses like clothes, transportation, entertainment,.. and inflation!

     Want to be a Singapore millionaire? Get yourself 3 kids!