I think it all boiled down to the fact that I was breastfeeding until she was 8.5 months, even with the hassle of pumping at work and taking expressed milk home. Although my milk supply was not impressive, I made sure she had a full feed in the morning, 1 expressed breastmilk feed whilst I was away at work, and 1 full feed before bedtime. If she got hungry in between, she would be supplemented with formula milk. Of course, there as also the inconvenience of having to watch what I eat (nothing spicy, nothing cold).
I must say I enjoyed all aspects of breastfeeding. I miss the closeness most of all, the only reason I stopped breastfeeding was because she grew teeth and started biting. With no direct feed, my supply dwindled even further.
Now 7 months later on full formula and solid food diet, she is constantly down with something. Its either fever from teething or the sniffles or some persistent cough that refuses to go away. I am at wits end. We give her the best formula milk, the same stuff Zoe Tay regularly promotes. We have spent hundreds of dollars on various doctor/hospital visits and get the same advice over and over that I've committed it to memory. I know I needn't worry too much as she remains active and has a good appetite throughout but as a mom, I just want her in the pink of health so I needn't have to keep wiping her tiny nose for fear it would get blistered..
I dropped into a pharmacy one day, not in search of meds, this time to thoroughly comb through the vitamins counter. Everything was new and complicated but 1 packaging caught my immediate attention.
It was like I travelled back in time! Without haste, I paid for it and took it home. I'm now halfway through the 1st bottle and I must say that there has been improvements in her health. A few days after we started her on Cod Liver Oil, her runny nose dried up. For about a week afterwards, she was sniffly only on 2 occasions- when we were in Palawan beach in Sentosa (she was wet & cold?) and when we were having dinner at Mak's Place (definitely freezing in the a/c section).
We mix 1 teaspoon in her first morning milk. She is usually too sleepy to notice the spiked milk but Mom has started giving her direct and she doesn't seem too bothered with the taste. In fact, I'm going to start the whole family on this supplement. Its cheap (S$7) and after doing some basic research online on the product, it seems like nothing bears testimony like a product with a 125 year old shelf life. My mother 'borrowed' some of it when she had a nasty cough and it went away in a day. Its a health supplement, best of all, and I'm a firm believer in Prevention is better than Cure.
They say breast is best but my 2nd option has to be Cod Liver Oil.
**I read that if kids are already on Emulsion that they shouldn't be given multi-vites. Scotts is concentrated in Vit A and an overdose can be fatal. Something to research more on?