Archive for April 2007

Apr292007

Why must we wait till baby burps after feeding them?

So after I spent years in medical school, I find out that every mum is naturally born to be very smart. What ever that mother did, somehow there is a reason behind it and it is scientifically proven good for her children. I guess it’s the maternal instinct; God created every mother with this. If you have newborn in the family, probably you will notice some specific things that mother does such as hold the baby when she feed him and then after feeding, she will… sort of massage his back until he burps. Then when she baths the baby, she will not put his whole body into the baby tub. And my ENT professor told us why.

In infants, the Eustachian tube is shorter and wider, and it is more horizontal placed than in adults. The horizontal course of the Eustachian tube permits easy transfer of bacteria from the nose to the middle ear space leading to infection of the middle ear (otitis media). Thus, we should feed the infant with the infant’s head elevated, in order to reduce the risk of milk entering the middle ear space. And infant’s gastrointestinal tract has not reach complete functional development; we must help him massage his back till he burps to ensure that the milk has completely emptied the oral cavity to avoid milk from entering the middle ear through Eustachian tube.

Since newborns will be always lying down and sleeping, it is very difficult to remove water that enters their ear during bath. Infant warm body temperature and moist condition of ear facilitates growth of bacteria and lead to infection. Be very careful when u bath infants, do not let any water get into their ears. Infants they are very vulnerable, their immune system are not well developed like in adults. It’s our job to protect them from those dangerous microorganisms.

Mums are so great~ don’t you think so? Even without any medical knowledge, they know exactly how to protect their babies.

[ Eustachian tube is a narrow tube that connects the middle ear to the nasopharynx. Normally, it opens with every swallow or yawn to act as a pressure-equalizing valve for the middle ear. It also serves to drain the mucus produced by the lining of the middle ear.]

Apr292007

Starting my first step…

Hi, everyone! Well finally the blog owner takes over her responsibility from Yvonne ^^. Sorry! It’s been a busy week for me. Phew~ finally finished ENT (Otorhinolaryngology) cycle, a really tough subject with a lot of things to study + a very strict teacher. He apply “All or None Law” principle in teaching, either u study really hard, go to class fully equipped with knowledge or go to class with insufficient knowledge, let him fail you and come back for additional class. ENT is hard and boring as well… I don’t want to go through these nightmares again, so I studied really hard. Had only 5 hours of sleep per day, missed my daily chat with Yvonne on MSN for a week, missed countless breakfast and dinner as well.

I will start blogging from today onwards. So look forward to my new post and have a nice day! =)

- 38 days more reaching KLIA -

Apr232007

Welcome to my new website!

Hello! This is Yvonne Foong testing out Yuin Yin’s blog. She’s my pretty chi mui who decided one day she’d become famous like me. So here I am helping her achiieve her dream. What’s her dream, you ask? Save the world! Eradicate poverty and hunger. Feed the children! Yup that’s my gila friend studying medicine in Russia because she wants to save lives. Noble or not?