An apple a day keeps the doctor away..

In my young household, it seems to take much more than that! Thankfully, it's been a good month, with nobody falling sick! (*touch wood*)

One thing I definitely was not prepared for when raising a family is falling ill so often. Prior to Chinese New Year, the Lee Family ( maid included) have been battling everything from the Norovirus stomach flu, to chronic coughs to the flu. Our doctor bills for the past six months have crossed the thousand dollar mark. It's mainly the paediatrician's bills which come up to 200-300 dollars each time for both kids. They're always put on the "NEBULISER" - god I am so sick of that machine., and all the medicine that comes along with it. Here's a picture of it- parents of young kids, you'll be seeing lots of it when young kids get cough. They breathe in a mist of medicine and it frees up the phelgm in their lungs.


Angie hates it!


Ally likes it - she likes eating medicine too - might be cough mixture addict

Anyway, the main culprit is Ally. Since she started playschool, she's always bringing back the cough or cold. Because she sleeps in the same room as the maid, the maid gets it soon after. This is followed by Angeline, then me , then finally Mark. Once "last man standing" Mark gets well after the whole 3 week episode, guess who comes back again with something else. Even when her cousin Rachel ( who goes to the same school) falls sick, everyone gets it eventually. We call Ally and Rachel the two ebola (virus)monkeys. When they are sick, both the Lee and Ng ( My brother's) family will be ill.

Honestly, before evryhing stabalised, Mark and I were at our wits end. He even wanted to take her out of school. We were pissed off at the school too for letting sick kids go to school and I even told the teacher to please please monitor and send sick kids home. She said they have a very strict policy but sometimes the parents really have no one to take care of the kids. And what's more, there's always a grey area over whether kids are really sick - they seem fine but have a runny nose and cough. Sometimes, i can understand too - When otherwise well Ally's cough refuses to go away for a week, I have no choice but to send her back to school because all my own wrk is being put on hold to entertain her.. Ally is also so prone to coughs because of her inclination to "junior asthma" so sometimes I give up and send her back since otherwise she'd be at home all the time.

So, anyway, our 1 month of total good health could stem from getting the kids to eat vitamin C and colstrum tablets everyday ( we crush it into Angie's milk, Ally sucks hers), Redoxon Vit C for the adults daily, Echinicea tablets for the adults when anyone in the household seems to be coming down with anything.

For me, I've found twice weekly exercise and sleeping early helps too. Honestly, I've never truely appreciated the importance of exercising for health instead of vanity till I became a mother. It's just awful when I fall sick - the whole family goes awry and I feel terrible , hate to be a weakling. Now, at least I've got a maid, the last time when I fell sick, I still cared for Ally the whole day by myself - waking up in the middle of the night to breastfeed even since we were so adamant against bottles then. NOT funny at all, it's an awful feeling. So, you bet I'm gonna keep myself super well for the family. If anyone has any other tips, please share them here too.