Surviving My Twins First Flu

Published on makchic.com on Nov 2013

During the twins’ first month celebration, my greatest fear was of them falling sick from being held in unsanitised hands. I’m not one of ‘those’ mothers but my babies were born small and even at one month old, they were still pretty tiny so I really didn’t want them to fall ill because I wasn’t sure how well they would handle it. Thankfully, they were fine.

My darling husband, however, caught a bug at work and brought it home a few weeks later. We made sure he slept in the room downstairs, wore a mask and didn’t carry the babies. But the universe wanted the babies to catch his flu and so they did. You’d think that I would’ve gone ballistic at my husband but I promise you that I didn’t.

I expected the worst: fussy babies that didn’t sleep and cried all night. But that didn’t happen. They were definitely fussier than normal but they only cried when I used theNoseFrida on them. It’s a wonderful device that you stick into their nose and use a tube to suck out their mucus and phlegm. I’m 100% certain that they slept a lot better because of it. I haven’t used another type of nasal aspirator before but I can guarantee you that the NoseFrida is the best one.

Another thing that helped me was the Euky Bearub Eucalyptus Chest Rub and a humidifier with a few drops of Euky Bear Inhalant. The rub is exactly like Vicks but it’s meant for babies and the inhalant is basically eucalyptus essential oil. The entire room smelt fantastic and the babies definitely breathed better while they slept.

I was cracking my head as to how to give my babies Vitamin C and whether I could start them on extra virgin coconut oil. Then I remembered that whatever I ate goes into my breast milk, so I started popping 1000mg Vitamin C tablets every two to three hours. That was the best thing because the babies could get the Vitamin C and my immune system was boosted because of the crazy amount of Vitamin C in my body.

I’m not too sure how much of this is true but my makcik urut told me that sponge bathing the babies in tamarind (assam jawa) water would also help the babies, especially if they had a fever. Luckily for me, the babies’ flu never developed into a fever but we did the assam water sponge bath for a day and the next day the babies felt heaps better.

Breastfed babies do get sick too but with breastfeeding, mummy’s bodies actually produce antibodies to fight whatever nasties the babies have. It’s also very important to see a doctor if your baby’s fever persists. It really irritates me when I read posts on forums asking for advise on whether they should bring their baby to the doctor. How many doctors are present in the forum? If you’re already considering going to a doctor, go to one because it is always better to be safe than sorry.

I’m the last person when it comes to taking antibiotics or going to a doctor when I’m sick, but with babies, you may want to be extra cautious in the beginning especially when they are still brand new. If they still seem like themselves, energy levels still high and their appetite’s good, chances are there’s probably nothing to worry about.

In a way I really enjoyed the few days of their flu because I got to spoil them a little more. I got to cuddle them more, carry them all day and even snuggle up next to them in bed. Bliss!