I'm a full-time mummy

I came across this tweet pitch looking for bloggers to review products and as usual, I replied the tweeter asking whether they are OK with international bloggers, and my oh my, they are happy to provide me some products of my choice from their website for my review! This is the last of 2 products I get to review from the sponsor. The first was the "Pink Pig Dynamo Torchlight".

Description from the product page:
"If you are fortunate enough to have a 10000 square foot loft space like Pete Waterman, this train set probably isn't for you. For the rest of us mere mortals however, the Train Set in a Tin could be just what we need to indulge our childlike train-driving fantasies. Stored in a lunchbox sized tin, this train set has everything you need to get your own locomotive running in no time at all. Your tender and two carriages come supplied with six curved and eight straight pieces creating a full oval track. Obviously the track pieces can be connected in any configuration you like allowing for a virtually unlimited number of combinations. The train is powered by a single AA battery meaning that there is no need to have a power point nearby.

Constructed in tough plastic, the Train Set in a Tin is suitable for use by children and is ideal for use anywhere, anytime. When you have finished playing with the set, the whole lot packs away neatly into its tin ready for the next time. So whether for use as an executive desktop toy or a way to keep visiting children amused, the Train Set in a Tin fits every would-be locomotive engineer's needs. "

When I saw this product, I was very very intrigued! I mean, a train set in a tin box?! Really?! Now my 3.5 years old boy loves train and I thought what better products to review which I can then pass on to him as a gift, right? Hahaha... so yes, thank God for the generous sponsor for sending this product all the way from UK to me in Malaysia as well for my review! The tin is about 6 inches long and 5 inches wide.

Apart from the 3 carriages that comes with the main train carriage and it has different track pieces to create a full oval train tracks, the cool feature that I like on this train set is that it is powered by a single AA battery. I find it much easier to have products which require batteries that are easy to find and purchase.

Amazing right how tiny are the carriages?!

Of course my boy was thrilled when I took out the train from the tin and started assembling the tracks and all. The AA battery is placed inside the main train carriage, just pull up the red cover and slot in the battery then there's a tiny on/off lever which you can flick on and off. My boy was running around chasing after the train the moment I turned on the train.

Just want to share that one of the train wheels cracked into half on the same day we used it. I managed to put it back together and hold it with the rubberised wheel band. I am sure this is not the sponsor's fault as it can happen to any products. Even if you checked each and every single piece it's hard to tell or predict this will happen.

Nevertheless, it is a great toy and gift idea especially if your child is into trains. Come to think of it, even adults will enjoy this as it is so small in size and easy to carry around. Just dump everything into the tin container and we're good to go and have toys everywhere you go!

You can find this and more Christmas presents ideas for 2012 at http://www.paramountzone.com/christmas-present-ideas.php

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

This is the final month of the year!!!

So let's make December a month to remember!

For today, I'm giving away 10 promo codes for the "Sight Words for Kids" iPad app!

That means 10 lucky worldwide people will get to win this app!

The giveaway will be open for entries from 4th Dec 2012 until 3rd Jan 2013.

This giveaway is sponsored by:

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

I came across this post by Dr. Jack Newman on Facebook about the scoop on jaundice. I'll copy down what he wrote in his post:

"In the first few days after birth, higher than average levels of bilirubin (jaundice) are not caused by breastfeeding or breastmilk. If the baby has higher than average bilirubin, it is because he is not breastfeeding well. Therefore the approach is not to stop breastfeeding and give formula (which will decrease the bilirubin because the baby is now getting more milk-actually too much), but rather to help the mother and baby with breastfeeding. If the baby breastfeeds well, the bilirubin will come down just fine.

 If the baby's jaundice is due to breakdown of red cells (ABO incompatibility, for example), stopping breastfeeding does not make sense either. What has breastfeeding or breastmilk to do with ABO incompatibility? Nothing! Keep breastfeeding. After the first few days, so called breastmilk jaundice is actually normal, if the baby is drinking well, gaining well and otherwise healthy. What is not physiologic is for the baby to be artificially fed and not jaundiced. We have a problem in that we take the artificially fed baby as our model of normal and impose that model on the breastfed baby.

So doctors often tell the mother to stop breastfeeding and put the baby on formula for 2 days (some for even a week, which is the same essentially, for many mothers, stopping altogether). Naturally, the bilirubin comes down, proving that breastmilk is the problem. Except that there was no problem in the first place. Bilirubin is known to be an anti-oxidant and may actually protect babies' cells from damage. If the baby has liver disease, except for some very rare causes such as galactosemia, there is no reason to stop breastfeeding either."

I've had friends being told by their paed to stop BF for 10 days and substitute with formula milk when their baby has jaundice. I was disappointed hearing that despite advising them to continue breastfeeding no matter what.

And yes, I definitely know what I am talking about, my girl had prolonged jaundice for almost 2 months and never did I substitute with formula (in fact, our house still zero speck of formula today at 45 months and counting!) or even considered stopping breastfeeding.

Sure, my one mistake in that incident was caving in to antibiotics (my girl took it for 3 days before we decided to stop it) because we could not reached our pead for a week prior to taking the antibiotics and added on with pressures from friends and family members and the jaundice duration of 2 months, it is definitely affecting our decision making but we stopped it when we finally managed to get to our pead (found out he was involved in an accident)

Lesson learned from our incident:

If your child is active, alert, peeing, pooping, feeding, gaining weight like normal, just continue on breastfeeding and don't cave in to substitutes, stopping breastfeeding or giving antibiotics.

So yeah, like Dr Newman said, "Stand up against medical ignorance. Don't take the commandment to stop breastfeeding lying down. Get more information and educate your doctors."

And yes, if you are reading this and know of any new parents with jaundiced baby and are being told to substitute breastmilk with formula or stop breastfeeding, please direct them to this article by Dr. Newman.