Advice For New Mums+dads

[Shola]

I just came across an excellent source for any family

The Toronto Parents Guide.

Yeah , of course most of us here at 'Thai Visa' do actually live in the Greater Toronto area.................

[Shola]

I went along to that mum + baby thing at Queen Sirikit Center, nightmare of bustling pregnant ladies and buggy jams but some pretty good discounts, everything from bottles to books, worth the trip, I recommend leaving the little one with a sitter though as its a bit crowded, tomorow is the last day though

[torrenova]

I've got a near 2 month old baby daughter and its been a steep learning curve for both mother and I. I think this thread is a great idea.

We use Mami Poko and have moved from newborn to small and she'll be moving into medium in not too long. She is heading for 6.5kg (she was 3.8kg at birth). Neither mother or father are "large" !

Sudocrem is not available here but we use it, sent over or brought over. I strongly suggest you use contacts who may be coming out for holidays or people here who are going back for a visit etc. or even friends from a forum to fetch these things from Europe, Oz and the USA. I get loads of things brought over and not only baby things, even "treats" fro the "old country".

We use Babi Mild for washing and she's ok with it. Initial clothes I bought in the UK as well as the full Avent range when back before her birth. I've got some clothes from John Lewis that have and never will be used. I suppose someone in her family will be having a baby at some point and they will benefit. Got a load of soft towels from Tesco but backed up with some fleeces and night blankets again from John Lewis as were swatches and some other baby stuff.

Not really getting value out of the carseats and buggy combination and glad that I bought 2nd hand through the bambiweb classifieds. If you haven't got, just buy a car seat and a lightweight folding buggy. No need to spend GBP 500 on the latest stuff as you just don't use it here.

Looking forward to asking some questions and reading your other posts here. Hello to all the mamas and papas out there.

[torrenova]

As well as a reducing amount of breast milk (she much prefers formula) we are using Dumex. Recently they have rebranded (new formula ?) with the term "Natural Shield" but they have really upped the price from about Bt420/450 for 900g to around Bt560 or so. Whatever, the baby likes it, she is thriving, so we'll continue but there are so many varients out there it is so confusing.

She'll take 3oz to 4oz at a time but she's been remarkably good with the nappies on about 5 or 6 per day. Even sleeping is ok a few days a week with the other days being a mixture of constant waking up to very restless in getting off. A little Bebidol for wind etc.

[colino]

can anybody explain to me the benifits of my pregnant wife waffing down cans of sterilized milk , she already drinks the powdered anmums milk , she say's all her family drink this sterilized milk ?? back in the uk we put it on desserts , i'm really confused by this (ps 3-4 cans a day )

thanks

colino

[spot]

can anybody explain to me the benifits of my pregnant wife waffing down cans of sterilized milk , she already drinks the powdered anmums milk , she say's all her family drink this sterilized milk ?? back in the uk we put it on desserts , i'm really confused by this (ps 3-4 cans a day )

thanks

colino

My wife used to drink alot of the sterilised milk when she was pregnant too. Her sister said it was a good idea....Baby was born healthy, so I assume it did no harm.

One thing that does get me is the difference of opinion between what I read on websites i.e. babycentre.co.uk, and the Thai doctors. For example, I read on various sites that the umbilical cord should be kept dry and cleaned with alcohol until it falls off, but the docs at our hospital here said it's OK to wash it as long as it's then cleaned with alcohol.

Another thing was, we were advised to check if the baby is too hot or cold by feeling hands or feet, which goes against all the advice read on websites, which is feel the belly.

Sometimes you don't know who to listen to.

[colino]

Thanks spot for your info

yeah its seems abit confusing to say the least when i was married to an english women the uk doctors told her not to eat liver or eggs but here the doctors say No Problem only thing i'm not that happy about is the doctor has said that my wife should have a ceaseren as the baby will be big. she is only just over 3 months gone , i would prefer to wait until the baby is nearer the due date before they decide

[bkkmei]

Thanks spot for your info

yeah its seems abit confusing to say the least when i was married to an english women the uk doctors told her not to eat liver or eggs but here the doctors say No Problem only thing i'm not that happy about is the doctor has said that my wife should have a ceaseren as the baby will be big. she is only just over 3 months gone , i would prefer to wait until the baby is nearer the due date before they decide

wow, that doesn't sound right... but I'm no expert!

I assume your wife has had her dating scan. If the baby is 'big' then would that indicate the baby is perhaps a bit older than originally thought? Or maybe the doc assumes a big baby given foreign-Thai mix?

I think if a doc had suggested a c-section for reason of 'big baby' at 3 months, I would have probably changed docs.

[TanjaB]

Just a quick question: Is Ready-made formula available anywhere in BKK? I am using Wyeth S-26 at the moment. We're going on a long-haul flight in two months time and ready-made formula would mean a little less hassle on the plane. I've had a look around, but could not find any- maybe someone else has had more success?

[nikster]

Thanks spot for your info

yeah its seems abit confusing to say the least when i was married to an english women the uk doctors told her not to eat liver or eggs but here the doctors say No Problem only thing i'm not that happy about is the doctor has said that my wife should have a ceaseren as the baby will be big. she is only just over 3 months gone , i would prefer to wait until the baby is nearer the due date before they decide

Try to go for natural if at all possible. Doctors that recommend C-sec from the outset - and there are quite a few, even in the west! - cannot be trusted. They get some money from the surgery, plus it's a hel_l of a lot easier to plan for a hospital, none of this pesky false labor etc. It's the best... for the hospital.

We were lucky to have a doc who said he was going to go natural if at all possible - the decision to make a C-section should only be done at birth time, you do it when there's danger for the child or mother. That said the most important thing is that the Doctor is behind natural birth because during the hectic hours when a child is due it's very easy for a hospital / Doctor to manipulate things so a C-section happens. You are at their mercy at that hour because it really is for them to decide at that point. It's happened before, even in the west.

Anyway, we had a natural birth it all went well and as a bonus I was able to attend, help my girl push or at least pretend to be useful, and be there for that magic moment of birth which I have to say is like nothing else. I will never forget that.

He's 1 month today and I think 10 nappies / day would be a conservative estimate. We use momy poko which are just fine, but haven't tried anything else. And sometimes during the day we use cotton so he can dry out.

[solo siam]

can anybody explain to me the benifits of my pregnant wife waffing down cans of sterilized milk , she already drinks the powdered anmums milk , she say's all her family drink this sterilized milk ?? back in the uk we put it on desserts , i'm really confused by this (ps 3-4 cans a day )

thanks

colino

Do you mean condensed milk?

Sounds like the equivelant of pregnant ladies scoffing down ice-cream back home to me.

[nikster]

can anybody explain to me the benifits of my pregnant wife waffing down cans of sterilized milk.....

Never question what your pregnant wife wants to eat, or when, or where. Just give it to her.

About nutrition - there's so many stories, it's unbelievable. Everybody seems to have their own diet, and Thai is completely different from western. It's difficult to tell what will be good. We tried to eat calcium, folate (brain development!!), and otherwise just try to eat healthy. A lot of that "mom's milk" from the supermarket also had folate and calcium in it so I went along with it.

Every now and then somebody came along and said "don't eat (random food item), it's unhealthy for the baby!" - we didn't pay attention. Quite often the same food item that was declared pure poison by one person was recommended as healthy by the next. From what I understand about nutritional science is that it's a rapidly changing field in which not many things are well understood.

[nikster]

I have more advice for new parents. After 3 months, we are getting used to the routine.

A carrying cloth works wonders for calming the baby. No matter how bad the crying / drama is, 5 minutes of getting carried around in the cloth and he's either silently observing or falling asleep. I find that brisk walking works best, but don't want to extrapolate too much - I just try to turn alternating sides when walking in the room as I don't want to make his head spin.

We still need one hand to keep him in the cloth but that will change as soon as the neck is a bit more stable, at 4 or 5 months.

For the beginning, the video Happiest baby on the block is also recommended - in it a MD explains why babies cry, why to calm them, and how to calm them. We don't follow this religiously but it was pretty interesting to see, and the explanatory part is certainly spot on. The carry cloth has characteristics that match 3 of the 5 s-es of baby calming: Swaddle, side or stomach position, and swinging. The others are shushing and sucking which also work with the cloth on.

It's also explained here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1359117/posts

[Boo]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=155547

I have added this link from a thread I started yesterday. It is for the birth to five book given to all preggers women in the UK. This is the 2007 edition so has been updated with all the most recent research & advice for looking after your baby. Very helpful but like all advice, listen & digest but do what you feel is best for your baby

[Moebius87]

Excellent thread!

I have to agree that MamyPoko disposable diapers offer the best "bang-for-buck". While cloth diapers might be the least expensive way to go, the time spent washing them, drying them and folding them all up would be better spent catching a few more hours of sleep. My parents (who raised four of us children) didn't have a choice then, but agree that if we have the means to buy disposable diapers that's the smartest way to go. I'm not sure what kind of an impact these soiled nappies have on the environment because we're talking about a "sh*tload" here.

MamyPoko probably have the best "wet-wipes", which are indispensible when you have clean-ups away from home. We've tried similar products from Johnson & Johnson (which despite claims of being hypoallergenic have way too much "stuff" in them that you can squeeze out a teaspoon full from every single sheet) and from Pigeon (too thin for real messy spills). Our 10-month old boy developed a rash from the J&J product, which quickly cleared up in a day after switching back to the MamyPoko wipes.

As far as laundry detergents go, we use Babi Mild as well. No problems there.

For shampoo and liquid bath soap, we've been using Kodomo and it's great. I think it locks in that "new baby" smell.

We've also learned the hard way that you can't have too many baby bottles. Our biggest problem is that we don't have enough time because our child "power naps". Most of the other babies tend to sleep for at least 2 or 3 hours in a single stretch, but our son does a 10-minute snooze and he's up and at it again for another 5 hours. Some days we get lucky and he naps for an hour. At night, he will sleep for about 2 to 3 hours then he's up either moaning or playing for an hour. That doesn't give us too much time to take care of all the peripheral support activities like washing bottles. I'd recommend having at least a dozen bottles (8 x 8 oz and 4 x 4 oz). I think we now have about 20 bottles of various sizes.

Another thing we learned about bottle nipples is that there are hole sizes. Duh. That bit of information didn't come with the user manual. Apparently baby size and nipple-hole size are directly proportional. Our boy gets to use the large hole for milk formula and the medium hole for water and stuff like apple juice.

While on the subject of washing bottles, the liquid detergent from Babi Mild does the job well.

I would also recommend a bottle sterilizer that can dry the bottles as well. Another great time saver. While on vacation recently, we had to borrow the bottle sterilizer of my sister (who has a 1-year old daughter) and ended up with sterilized bottles that were still wet on the inside. Not a very big deal, but when you go out with and prepare a spare bottle with a measured amount of formula waiting for warm water, the residual moisture leaves you with partially undissolved powder. Not nice.

For baby formula we stuck with Dumex. It's what they were giving our son at the hospital so we decided to stay with it. We learned about this through the sad experience of our neighbor (who has a 16-month old son). She switched formula and her son developed a terrible reaction that induced vomiting and bowel movements that went on for almost a week. Her son lost a lot of weight and took nearly a month to get him back to the pink of health.

I could go on about strollers, walkers, cribs, playpens and car seats, but as a newbie to these forums I don't want to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I'm just a first-time father wanting to share from our adventures in parenthood. Hope these were useful to someone.

— Möe

Edited January 2, 2008 by Moebius87

[Brigante7]

Our baby is less than a week old and we are going through cloth nappies like nobody's business.

I have never seen sudocram over here; is it available?

Is it worth getting some sent from abroad?

Good thread by the way.

Forget Sudocrem, vaseline is far better, we have used vaseline since our son was born, (Almost 7 months) never had a nappy rash ever.

[swain]

MamyPoko is over priced and is pushed heavily by the big box stores such as Big C and Tesco. Try a brand called Tino, its softer, better at keeping my daughter dry. Tesco and Big C carry this brand, but Big C does not carry enough and they are always running out. Tesco seems to be the source as they have always had it in stock when I wanted to buy it. Its crazy they give MamyPoko walls and walls of product space but Tino next to nothing yet it is clearly a better product. Good bang for the buck too as its almost half the price of MamyPoko.

Excellent thread!

I have to agree that MamyPoko disposable diapers offer the best "bang-for-buck". While cloth diapers might be the least expensive way to go, the time spent washing them, drying them and folding them all up would be better spent catching a few more hours of sleep. My parents (who raised four of us children) didn't have a choice then, but agree that if we have the means to buy disposable diapers that's the smartest way to go. I'm not sure what kind of an impact these soiled nappies have on the environment because we're talking about a "sh*tload" here.

MamyPoko probably have the best "wet-wipes", which are indispensible when you have clean-ups away from home. We've tried similar products from Johnson & Johnson (which despite claims of being hypoallergenic have way too much "stuff" in them that you can squeeze out a teaspoon full from every single sheet) and from Pigeon (too thin for real messy spills). Our 10-month old boy developed a rash from the J&J product, which quickly cleared up in a day after switching back to the MamyPoko wipes.

As far as laundry detergents go, we use Babi Mild as well. No problems there.

For shampoo and liquid bath soap, we've been using Kodomo and it's great. I think it locks in that "new baby" smell.

We've also learned the hard way that you can't have too many baby bottles. Our biggest problem is that we don't have enough time because our child "power naps". Most of the other babies tend to sleep for at least 2 or 3 hours in a single stretch, but our son does a 10-minute snooze and he's up and at it again for another 5 hours. Some days we get lucky and he naps for an hour. At night, he will sleep for about 2 to 3 hours then he's up either moaning or playing for an hour. That doesn't give us too much time to take care of all the peripheral support activities like washing bottles. I'd recommend having at least a dozen bottles (8 x 8 oz and 4 x 4 oz). I think we now have about 20 bottles of various sizes.

Another thing we learned about bottle nipples is that there are hole sizes. Duh. That bit of information didn't come with the user manual. Apparently baby size and nipple-hole size are directly proportional. Our boy gets to use the large hole for milk formula and the medium hole for water and stuff like apple juice.

While on the subject of washing bottles, the liquid detergent from Babi Mild does the job well.

I would also recommend a bottle sterilizer that can dry the bottles as well. Another great time saver. While on vacation recently, we had to borrow the bottle sterilizer of my sister (who has a 1-year old daughter) and ended up with sterilized bottles that were still wet on the inside. Not a very big deal, but when you go out with and prepare a spare bottle with a measured amount of formula waiting for warm water, the residual moisture leaves you with partially undissolved powder. Not nice.

For baby formula we stuck with Dumex. It's what they were giving our son at the hospital so we decided to stay with it. We learned about this through the sad experience of our neighbor (who has a 16-month old son). She switched formula and her son developed a terrible reaction that induced vomiting and bowel movements that went on for almost a week. Her son lost a lot of weight and took nearly a month to get him back to the pink of health.

I could go on about strollers, walkers, cribs, playpens and car seats, but as a newbie to these forums I don't want to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I'm just a first-time father wanting to share from our adventures in parenthood. Hope these were useful to someone.

— Möe

[bkkmei]

I use Tino baby wipes - they're nice and large.

Will check out the nappies if I see them!

[WEBLEDINK]

i am sorry i am just a proud dad. this is ryan born on jan 12 2007. I am american and his mother is Thai. saw all the cute babies and just had to post. ha ha .. his mother has great ideas and on saving money and helping with the diaper suggestions... hope to post more soon!

[MJo]

Great posts and good information

Does anyone know link or basic list what one should have before baby arrives.

Looking kind of survival guide to first time parents listing down what to buy before birth and what can be purchased later in case the need arises.

Our first one will be due late April and starting to get nervous here

[Boo]

check out the pinned Birth to five years link I posted. It is what is given to all pregnant women in the UK & I have foudn it invaluable.

Also sign up to baby expert or baby centre dot com as they will have all the check lists & survival guides.

Congratulations.

[MJo]

check out the pinned Birth to five years link I posted. It is what is given to all pregnant women in the UK & I have foudn it invaluable.

Also sign up to baby expert or baby centre dot com as they will have all the check lists & survival guides.

Congratulations.

Thanks Boo, will take a look.

[torrenova]

Great posts and good information

Does anyone know link or basic list what one should have before baby arrives.

Looking kind of survival guide to first time parents listing down what to buy before birth and what can be purchased later in case the need arises.

Our first one will be due late April and starting to get nervous here

Congratulations, ours was born in July 2007.

I was in the UK in the April before the birth and brought loads of things back. Some you cannot get in Thailand, some we didn't know where to get but many more were just unnecessary and I hadn't bought a fraction of what the lists and books have in them.

Personally, I'd invest in the following:

Get a decent cot. It will last for a long time and is worth the money. A cot bed would be ideal and would last for several years but I have never seen them made in Thailand or available.

Get a Moses basket ( http://www.johnlewis.com/Baby/Sleeping/Sle...roductType.aspx ) or similar. For the first few weeks and perhaps months, this is invaluable.

Initially the baby won't wear clothes so don't fret on this one. I bought loads of John Lewis stuff and the baby was too big for some of the smallest stuff ! Tesco and Carrefour and even BigC have more than adequate baby clothes at various prices.

Muslin swatches like this http://www.johnlewis.com/230451393/Product.aspx are invaluable and you will use them at least for a couple of years and heavily for the first 12 months. You can't really have enough and I think we probably had 30 or more and could get through 6 to 10 a day on "bad" days.

Get a few of these http://www.johnlewis.com/230480269/Product.aspx where the baby can sleep but the body can breathe.

After a while sleepsuits like this http://www.johnlewis.com/787/Product.aspx with the feet enclosed are a good thing. You can get them in Thailand in at least one of Carrefour or Tesco.

Get a plastic mat for changing the nappy. Invaluable for accidents, which will happen !

The main thing I would get is a set of bottles, teats and a microwave sterilizer. I particularly like the Avent range http://www.johnlewis.com/230418414/Product.aspx Don't bother with a heater to keep milk warm, there is no need and you'll not use it. The microwave sterilizer http://www.johnlewis.com/230420124/Product.aspx is a god send and worth 100 times the money paid. Make sure you have enough bottles, more is good ! Don't buy the massive set things as they have loads of things you'll never need.

Best of luck come April.

[MJo]

Thanks Torrenova,

We got most of it together, mainly Avant bottles, sterilizer etc. Went to Queen Sirikit for the baby/mother fare and got most of it in one go. I also believe they had some promo prices there as well. Car seat and cot is bought as hundres of other small things but muslin swatches i have totally forgotten. Moses basket seems like a good idea as well, will take a look when picking up those swatches later today.

[GOWER]

Torrenova

did you get Moses basket here in the uk and take it with you, if so,

did you have it has hand luggage ?

as ive been looking everywhere in surin to find one, without any luck, now that im in the uk now for another 6 weeks, until i go back to thailand to see my baby girl , 8 weeks old. im thinking about taking 1 back with me

[torrenova]

Torrenova

did you get Moses basket here in the uk and take it with you, if so,

did you have it has hand luggage ?

as ive been looking everywhere in surin to find one, without any luck, now that im in the uk now for another 6 weeks, until i go back to thailand to see my baby girl , 8 weeks old. im thinking about taking 1 back with me

Sorry for not getting back sooner.

I did bring it with me. Firstly, I had not seen one in Pattaya at the time and as you are holding by the handles from the first days after birth, I wanted one I could trust. So I bought it in John Lewis as I did with many things. I remember it seemed expensive but it was worth it. Some examples http://www.johnlewis.com/Baby/Sleeping/Sle...roductType.aspx

However, if she is 8 weeks already and you are not going to go back for another 6 weeks, she'll be nigh on 4 months old and we moved quite quickly onto the Maxi Cosi car seat http://www.maxi-cosi.com/maxicosi/producti...;language=gb-en which comes out and can be used as a baby carrier. It then clips into certain pushchairs. Good until 9/12 months then you need a bigger seat but the pushchair will have one. In hindsight, I'd have bought a better pushchair set up.

http://www.johnlewis.com/Baby/Travelling/T...roductType.aspx

http://www.johnlewis.com/230519061/Product.aspx

You really will get narked with Thai crap pushchairs as they are so difficult to get up and down and though the UK ones are expensive, they are cheaper bought in the UK usually and I found buying this one then that one a false economy and I should have initially just bit the bullet and spent the money. Seemed a lot of bills coming in at that time though (new house, car, baby !) so I was understandably looking to economise where I could. Looking back it was foolish.

Car seats, crap selection in Thailand and not much choice with brands in most places, even expensive places. If doing it again, I'd go with the Maxi Cosi, the 3 wheel pushchair and think how I'm going to get a decent 1yr to 3yr+ car seat in 6-9 month's time.

I also bought a plastic bath but they do have them in Thailand. What they didn't have or I did not see was this, a bath chair http://www.johnlewis.com/230475122/Product.aspx

Get one of these as well but they have them in every BigC ot Tesco type store for about Bt600 http://www.johnlewis.com/230494662/Product.aspx

Best of luck but get it touch with anything. You'll find nothing much in Surin just as there is nothing in Buriram !

[MJo]

This is also bit late but maybe someone will find it usefull.

I got the moses basket from Central Department store in Bangkok. They have mothercare section and i believe it is all imported from UK. At least the prices indicate that as they are not cheap. However you can join as a member and get discounts and free stuff with promotions. It is proper one and best purchase i did together with avent bottle sterilizer. The basket is great, good quality and we have been using it as a bed for the little one (now 7 weeks old) and seems she will fit into it still couple of months.

For car seat & push chair again i found that Central has good selection. Bought Chicco one which is euro certified (propably also imported from UK as imperial measurements used in stickers etc) and comes with base that can be fixed to the car with isofix or seat belts. So you can carry the baby around in the car seat and it's just one "click" to fix to the base in car. The set also included Chicco pushchair where the car seat integrates, found this handy as there is no need to take the baby out of the car seat when shopping. Just loosen the belts and that's it. It also has some suspension and is extremely light to push around. The suspension i found usefull as all department stores are full of small steps and electric cables etc that you run over. Overall very happy with the kit. And once she is too big for the car seat we can still continue using the push chair basicly as long as she needs one. I did some research on the chicco car seats in the net and they seemed as safe as other main brands to me.

<Edit: the car seat can be also used without the "base", just fix the seat with seatbelts. Handy when traveling with car that is not your own where you have fixed the base as it is not that convenient to remove and fix again especially if you use the isofix>

Central or was it Paragon also had those kind of fabric bath seats where the baby can confortably and safely lie down in the bath instead of you holding it in your arm which is tricky sometimes.

Basickly i found that you can get everything here locally, as some of it is imported it costs bit more here. Might be much more for people from uk as the rates are terrible at the moment.

Also take a look Britbaby pages HERE from there i believe you can find the same as in uk if that's what you are after.

Edited June 10, 2009 by MJo

[johnnymoretti]

We us Mamy Poko diapers for newborns. Here's a great money saving tip:

You would think that buying in the big packages gives you a better price per diaper. NOT!

At Big C, I bought the smaller pack (I think its the 24-pack) for 199 baht. It was cheaper per diaper than the hefty large packs that carry about 84.

Do the math and save money!!

[twentythreemc]

The Wife, myself and our 8 month old baby are coming over to visit the relatives from the UK.

Any advice would be good for the type of food that would be available for our youngster for example we use SMA 2 for his bottles of milk over here but what are the equivalent thai products? What other kinds of food would you all recommend for an infant of this age ?

And are these foods available in the vicinity of Suvanabhum because we will need them when we get of the aircraft?

As you can probably guess this our first time over with the baby.

Cheers 23

[johnnymoretti]

The Wife, myself and our 8 month old baby are coming over to visit the relatives from the UK.

Any advice would be good for the type of food that would be available for our youngster for example we use SMA 2 for his bottles of milk over here but what are the equivalent thai products? What other kinds of food would you all recommend for an infant of this age ?

And are these foods available in the vicinity of Suvanabhum because we will need them when we get of the aircraft?

As you can probably guess this our first time over with the baby.

Cheers 23

Just for the record, Thailand is PRO formula and most widely ANTI breastfeeding. The big companies win through lack of education and corruption in the hospitals (profit-takingin private hospitals is rampant).

But to answer your question: Yes, SMA products are sold in Thailand. So are other brands. You can generally get them at any Big C or Lotus shopping center. You may have to ask the taxi driver to take you to the closest one to the airport. I recommend taking the "Limo" service (silver cars and kiosk is inside airport, not at taxi stand). Cost is more, but the ride is safer for family and baby.

Other recommendations for food for infants: Breastmilk. Buy a pump and give your baby what's really need that isn't in formula. My wife is pumping now...

Good luck. BTW, why not put some in zip-lock bags and ask for bottled water from flight attendant and bring from home??