Twin tip #2 – Medicine

Disappointing medicine dispenser

Trying to give medicine to a baby can be messy business. There are loads of different medicine droppers on the market and fancy dummy droppers. I’ve tried them all.

Here is a low down of administering medicines to babies and a product review of sorts for medicine droppers.

Medicine dropper #1 Snookums dropper
This worked really well. The dropper is made of plastic and is easy to use and clean.
The only disadvantage of this dropper is that the bulb is made of rubber and is not suitable for microwave sterilising. This is not indicated on the packaging but I found out after ending up with a molten mess which destroyed one of my Tommee Tippee bottles.

Medicine dropper #2 Safety 1st dropper
It looks pretty but is a pain in the ass to use and clean. It is difficult to take apart. My biggest complaint with this dropper however is that you can’t turn it upside down when filled as it leaks when you turn it right side up again.

Medicine dropper #3 Dummy shaped medicine dispenser
At a cost of +R40 I was sure that this was the solution to all our medicinal needs. Sadly I was very much mistaken. It is fiddly to fill and difficult to be accurate with smaller doses. Once it is in baby’s mouth you have about a millisecond to press the plunger and get the meds into baby before they realise there are meds inside and spit out the dummy and refuse to let it pass their lips again. I found the plunger hard to depress. This is a white elephant of the nursery and a complete waste of money.

Medicine dropper #4 The Winner!
By far the easiest way to administer meds are with an ordinary syringe. You can by them for about R1 each at your nearest pharmacy in either 3ml or 5ml. You can accurately measure within 0.1ml and it doesn’t leak.

How to give meds with a syringe:

Hold baby in your lap with their head cradled in your left arm. Let them lie with their head up higher than their body and facing slightly towards you. I like to give my boys their dummy at this point to keep them as calm as possible. You can slide the tip of the syringe between the edge of the dummy and the corner of baby’s mouth and squirt some of the meds in. Larger quantities might require on or two squirts. Rather squirt less in and do it a couple times than squirt all of it in and have baby spit half of it out thus leaving you to try figure out how much they actually drank.

Now with the boys being older and rather wilful I find it helps to skip trying to use a dummy but rather distract them with something new and entertaining (a bunch of keys is always a hit) bring the syringe to their mouth from below their chin and out of their line of sight. Often they will swallow the meds as they play without even the slightest fuss where as if the see the syringe coming they will try bat it away or shake their head. Once it becomes a battle of wills then you have lost and should rather stand up and try again in a minute or two instead of wrestling with a screaming baby.

And finally… whenever possible, give a suppository. It is 100% easier when they are still babies. They don’t seem to mind at all.

Swimming lessons

Swimming Babies

We have started swimming lessons and let me tell you it is such fun.

I was looking for an activity to do with the boys and was contemplating Clamber Club or something like that. I saw a sign of baby swimming lessons on a street pole and thus found Froggie Swim School.

We have been going for 3 weeks now and the boys are loving it. The instructor has a bunch of very clever exercises to build muscle memory and promote pool safety. The boys learn to get into the pool safely, how to hold onto the side of the pool, how to climb out, how to move their arms and kick with their legs.

Angel Nanny goes swimming with us because the boys didn’t react well to being held by a stranger in an unfamiliar environment. Now a few weeks later the boys don’t mind swimming with the instructor.

The instructor is lovely. She has songs that she sings for each exercise and she has a helper who the boys love, he is a green plastic crocodile called Percy.

Tue boys have gone from being rigid and clinging onto me for dear life to actively kicking their legs and moving their arm while laughing and smiling. They have even had their faces under the water without any problems.

The pool is indoors and heated to 33’C which is really comfy. It is almost warm enough to be a bath. LOL

I’m really enjoying the swimming lessons and it is great doing something fun with the boys that they really enjoy.

Trying to figure out how to post a video

This is a video of the boys being little terrors. Don’t you just love how Monkey stops to give Lion Cub a kiss? Aw sweet.

I really love watching the boys interact. It is so true that twins have a built in playmate. I hope they stay best friends for life.

To the person who found my blog by searching…

Photo credit – Something in Common

“Do you think gay and lesbian learners should be allowed to bring same sex partners to a school function such as matric dance?”

Why yes, I do. As a matter of fact I think in this day and age it should really be a non-issue.

I don’t see any reason why a person shouldn’t invite whoever they want to accompany them to school functions. Hell if I had been dating a girl in matric I would have invited her to come to the dance with me. As it stands I didn’t know I was lesbian at that point and instead invited a guy friend, who was an absolute gentleman and ferried my drunk ass all over Joburg. Finally he dropped me at home at 8am and went home with my friend’s male date. I so didn’t expect that.

I do wish that I had figured out that I was lesbian earlier in my life. That said, there were a lot of “lesbian” girls when I was at school who are happily married to guys now, and a lot of “straight” girls who ended up married to girls. Most of the gay guys are still gay with only one exception that I know of.

I definitely think experimenting with gender identity and sexual preference is a natural part of your teenage years. I really don’t think that it matters whether a young adult identifies as any part of the LGBTI spectrum, if they feel happy, comfortable, compelled to share their celebration with another person no matter their gender then good for them.

The rights of the LGBTI communities are constitutionally protected so why not allow these young adults the freedom to explore their identity without judgement or resistance from their school. No amount of discouragement from a school or any other authority figure will stop this natural exploration. All it will accomplish is rebellion.

The perfect baby/toddler lunch – Macaroni cheese-ish

This is a go-to standby when I need a quick and easy dinner for the boys. I cook the tomato sauce in bulk and freeze it in cubes.

The boys love it and it is so easy to make.

Tomato Sauce:

Yield 1 cup

10-15 Roma cherry tomatoes halved
1/2 a small onion chopped
1 small carrot finely grated
1 tablespoon pickled beetroot
Fresh basil
1 clove garlic minced
1 heaped teaspoon of tomato paste

Fry the onion in a little olive oil until just golden, add carrot and garlic and saute until softened. Add tomatoes, beetroot, basil, tomato paste and cover with a lid. Allow to simmer on a low heat until the tomatoes are falling apart.

Liquidise with a hand blender. The carrot and beetroot give it a beautiful neon, bright red colour. You would never believe it is healthy and 100% natural.

Macaroni:

Since my boys are still small and have no teeth I use tubetti pasta which is small toddler bite size pasta. You can really use anything though. There are all sorts of fun shaped pastas for kids.

1/2 cup of pasta
Matchbox size block of mild cheddar or gouda grated

Boil the crap out of the pasta until it is super soft. Drain. Add 2-3 tablespoons of sauce until pasta is well coated. Stir through most of the cheese leaving a little to sprinkle on top.

Et voila! Yummy macaroni cheese with hidden veggies.

This recipe makes enough for my 9 month old twins for 2 meals.