FUSSY EATER - need advice!!!

Hi Naddy,


What i learnt is that your child must understand that she cannot used food to manipulate you. Try not to force then to eat the food no matter how desperate you are. It will make them more resistant to food.

I will suggest to offer her anything and everything even what other parents consider as junk food. Something go into the mouth is better than nothing. My son love soup, so we just go along that line and cook all kinds of soup. Later we found out KFC potato is another choice and he had it at least a few times a week.

Next, if she do not want anything, just act as if you don't care and let her do whatever she wants to do. Try again about half an hour or 1 hour later.

You can also try giving her multi vitamins syrup by adding it to her plain water.

Hope it helps
 


hi smileyface,

my girl is now recovering from the very nasty flu bug. her temperature hit 40 and only came down to 38.5 for 4 days. took her to kk where i weighed her again and found out that she is now 6.6kg!!! she lost 200g in one week and i took months to put that 200g on her!!!!!!! gaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

just now we went to a food centre and she likes the chicken rice. so i kept on feeding her the chicken rice. tomorrow, i'll cook chicken rice and i hope she'll eat more.

but normally for her, what worked today will not work again tomorrow.

but, i no choice lah. i'm still trying to find out what she likes and does not like. so, i'll still cook whatever she wants.

i've also made another appointment with a dietitian. i've actually sworn off the dietitian after seeing her a few months ago but i'm now desperate so i'm hoping for some miracles.

red tulip,
i dont think she's manipulating. she can go for days without food. she only needs milk, and that's breast milk direct from the source. she also likes kfc's whipped potato but only when we give it to her ocassionally. give that to her too often and she'll hate it.

she's on multi vitamins as given by her doctor - poly vysol. she has no problems eating that cos i just (~heh~) stuff it in her mouth every morning.
 
hi naddy,
oh no, u must be v stressful.
but hor chicken rice is cooked using chicken stock. if kid having cough then cannot take chicken or else will worse. y not u cook claypot rice for her? taste v nice also. can use rice cooker cook the claypot rice. i will be cooking that this weekend for my gal also.
can try cheese pasta also.
or simply bread dipped in western mushroom/pumpkin/vege soup....this can buy outside cos i dunno how to cook also. but dun buy can soup lah cos msg a lot.
 
hi smiley,

today my daughter has decided to open her mouth and welcome food into it!!!!!

yes, i made chicken rice.. hmmm? it'll worsen the cough? you mean, chicken in general will worsen cough? my friend once told me only fried chicken will.

she actually ate about 6 bites out of my nutella sandwich in the morning (chocolate - worsen her cough also, hor?).

lunch - about 3 tablespoons of chicken rice, 1/8 of an apple.

teatime - 4 bites out of a fish sandwich i made for myself

dinner - 2 tablespoons of chicken rice

dinner round 2 - garlic bread soaked in cream of asparagus soup + 1 tablespoon of rice+fish

she has never eaten so much! she must have been quite full cos just now, i only needed to breastfeed her for about 5 minutes before she fell asleep.

for all these angmoh soups - it's very easy to make. i refer to my favourite angmoh cooking website - www.videojug.com > food.
for cream of mushroom: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-cream-of-mushroom-soup

cream of asparagus: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-fresh-asparagus-soup

i'm actually a cooking-idiot and am only learning how to cook now. so, i'm totally dependent on reliable recipes which tells me exactly how much of each ingredient to use. that's why i love videojug. everything is explained. they even have those super basic things like how to make chicken stock - it turns out great!! i've thrown away all the other chicken stock that i made before this.

and, i'll try claypot rice. how to cook claypot rice?
 
hi naddy,
glad to hear that ur gal appetite is improving n eating a lot now
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same as my gal....after a major sickness, golden mouth decide to open n eat...hee.. now u dun have to worry anymore..heehee
yes, chicken, egg in general will worsen cough, n in cases of v serious cough, fish also cannot take. left with pork n green vege can take only.

i m also cooking idiot le...
claypot rice i just throw rice in rice cooker and when half cook, i throw in already seasoned meat (can be chicken or pork) and chinese sausage n vege. then wait for rice to be totally cooked. tats all lor
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for the western soup, what type of cream u used huh? i go ntuc see but dunno which type to buy.
 
hi smiley,

the golden mouth is now closed again. haiyaaaahhhh....

for the cream - somewhere near the cheese section of any supermarket, the cream will be there. i normally use emborg cream. it comes in a 200ml green and white box. it tastes like very rich milk. i actually like adding cream to my daughter's porridge cos it makes the porridge taste so much nicer!! heheee... then, if she cant finish it, i'll have no problems finishing the porridge.
 
hi naddy,
my gal last 2 days also golden mouth closed. only manage to coax her eat her porr and rice half a bowl...so sianz. we have so difficult kids. today i ask my mum not to cook porr and rice for her. just let her eat egg sandwich for lunch and mashed potato for dinner. change of taste to see is it she sick of porr n rice. or maybe she is teething so refuse to eat much.

ok. i will go look for the cream to cook the cream of brocolli tomorrow. hopefully she will eat it up
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cream is fattening leh but i think our gals need to fatten up so i will try add to her porr also since surely got left over after cooking soup.

lets jia you jia you....encourage each other.

u sahm or ftwm? i m ftwm... u can msn me anytime
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[email protected] is my msn address
 
hi smiley,

my gal's not eating again. am i surprised? no. i'm just hoping for a miracle from the dietitian lah.

a few days ago, we went out to eat and she seemed to like garlic bread with cream of asparagus. i'm going to cook that tomorrow. the recipe i'll get from videojug, of course. that's my lifesaver!

i'm a sahm. only for this year. i've taken a year off to take care of my daughter.

i've added you to my msn. i'm usually on msn at night.
 
hi smiley!

her appointment was just now.

my daughter's still 6.6kg. sob sob.

the dietitian says she needs about 1000 calories per day. where am i going to find all those calories???!!!!

dietitian also prescribed nutricomp caloric, something to boost her calorie intake. 5g of the powder must be added to 120ml of water. hopefully she'll gain weight lah.

you know, when my daughter eats 4tbsps of rice + 1 tbsp of chicken/fish/meat, that will give her only 180 calories? i hope i wont be so obsessed and start counting calories.

by the way my daughter liked the asparagus soup + bread. i'm so relieved! i'm gonna cook that every week and i hope she wont ever get sick of it.

how did your daughter respond to the broccoli soup?
 
hi naddy,
slowly she will gain weight if she is eating. no need eat a lot actually. i see some other kids drink lesser n eat lesser than my gal yet much more chubbier than her.

1000 calories is A LOT leh. even my gal cant achieve that. my gal oni on 2 solid meal a day n some snack sometime & 3 bottles of milk. but i can see she is gradually gaining wgt with this intake. so i think 1000 calories a day is not necessary. pls dun keep counting how much calories intake ur gal take each day, it will be v v stressful.

ya...cook something she like. i remember last time my gal refuse everything n eat oni bread so everyday i give her bread till she get sick of it then i try other food. it somehow works lor cos she will take bread for maybe a few weeks daily then she reject. but at least she get something on her tummy. then at 1 time she eat oni potato and cheese. then at 1 time oni eat cereal wif jar food.....

my gal ate almost a pc of bread with abt 1/2 small bowl of brocolli soup. still ok lah, not say fantastic but gd enough i feel. heehee...
my expectation not high cos she already improved a lot compared previously. i m thankful to god already.

now daily my mum will cook different type of chinese soup for her and she eat with rice. n she dun like the vege n meat to be mixed in the rice. she take 1 mouth rice with soup and 1 mouth vege/meat like tat,. she prefer this way. u try it out....
 
hi smiley!

just now i took my daughter to the polyclinic for a jab and she has gained 80g in one week!! of course, to other people, this is actually not that much but i'm very, very pleased!

lately, this girl has been opening her mouth more and more frequently. yayyyyyy!!!!

nowadays, i feed her round the clock. i start off with breakfastwhen she wakes up. then i continue feeding her anything and everything write up to about 10 or so when i stop all feeds to prepare her for lunch.

after lunch, i'll continue stuffing all sorts of things that she may like to eat and i'll stop about 1.5 - 2 hours before dinner. after dinner, i'll continue feeding her fruit and rice and anything until her bedtime.

this method seems to work for her small stomach. and i am SOOOOOOOOO grateful!!


anyway, i wonder if our children are fussy eaters because we dont eat much during our pregnancy? my pregnancy was awful and i had MS til i was about 5 months pregnant. i vomited vitually everything i ate throughout the first 4 months of my pregnancy. after that, things were slighty better but i'll still vomit many times a day until i was about 5+ months. only then did i stop vomiting.

so, you can imagine how poor my appetite was during my pregnancy!

for my next pregnancy,i can only pray that i wont have such severe morning sickness.
 
hi naddy,
glad to hear that ur gal is improving n has gain wgt
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80g in a week is v gd already
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ya...feed ur gal in small amt frequently will help open up her appetite.

my MIL blame me for not eating much during my preg. but its not because i dun wan to eat le but cos i got G.diabetes during preg, i got to control my sugar and carbo intake. i was hungry most of the time yet cant eat those food...i was v miserable tat time. rice can oni eat half a bowl at a meal. if i take fastfood, i can oni eat burger but no fries cos tat means double carbo intake,. n of cos no soft drink, kopi or tea must be kosong. i was so deprive of food tat time. YET ppl still blame me for not eating much n cos my gal to be small size n fussy eater. haiz
 
naddy,
haiz...my gal golden mouth been shut for these 2 days. so sianz. wonder y also...
this time round i wonder how long she wanna strike.
 
at least, you had a reason as to why you needed to control your diet. dont blame yourself. it's definitely not your fault!

my sis also had gestational diabetes but as she was hungry all the time, she only controls her diet on monday and tuesday. because tuesdays she had to prick herself. thankfully, everything turned out okay for her.

for my next pregnancy, i'll just stuff myself with food even if it means i'll vomit everything out 2 minutes later.

anyway, i've managed to feed my daughter at least half a slice of bread soaked in pediasure for bfast. i hope your daughter will start eating again soon!!
 
Hi, I like to join in ....
my girl has a preference for sweet stuff such as cakes, chocolate bread, kueh, etc. She used to be a very good eater, non-stop when come to her favourite sweety. I had no problem feeding fish, meat, vegetable (favourite), porridge, noodles, pasta .... any kind of tasty food. (last time got things to eat, I must hide n eat. Now, she treat food transparent)

Since last year, I noticed she could survive with a 120ml milk/soya bean and plain water for 2 meals then eat half her usual share for dinner. She's more like every meal just 'patronise me' with a 2-3mouth!

Previously, I heat up her food n try feed after an hr or so 'break' when she kept turning/hiding her head-refusing food. My girl is a lazy eater. She swallowed all her food, be it bread, rice, noodles, pasta or kueh EVEN THOUGH she has all her teeth+molars!

I'm sick of feeding her. Ask her self feed, she no interest in food so end up play and mess around.

Thot starve her a meal will make her hungry but didnt work. Teacher suggested i stop liquid as well so she got nothing to rely on. Last time, my mum say like that call gaam jiek or got worms .... must go c doc not?
 
hi trillionire,
how old is ur gal now? when she start this behaviour? at which month?
is her wgt n hgt average?
if she is at average size, then i think no so much of worry. my gal is of smaller size so when she dun eat, i gt v worried,. i alws tell my mum that if she is fat,. i wont care so much...hee
 
hi trillionaire,

i agree with smiley.

what's your daughter's weight? is it within the percentiles? (my daughter is below the 3rd percentile)

how old is your daughter?

anyway, we all understand the frustrations of feeding a fussy eater.

BUT, just now, my daughter ate quite a lot of macaroni + mushroom soup!! it also could be due to the fact that i fed her together with my niece who's 9 months older than her. but, i dont see my niece all the time so tomorrow, she may not eat so much again.
 
hi naddy,
my gal is teething now n she is in great pain that she wake up mid of nite crying. she must be v painful
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affect her eating cos she dun really wanna eat much.

dun worry abt the amt she ate. as long as she is eating can le. its already a great great improvement from before, rite? hee
 
hi smiley,

i cook cream of mushroom. of course, videojug's recipe. i use button mushroom. but i still prefer the result when i used portobello mushroom.

yeah, you're right. she's eating more than before. and i must be grateful for that.

now, i'm also gonna give her ice cream every day. i know it's not a very good food but desperate already. some more, it's hot nowadays, so just as well. but i'm only gonna give her vanilla flavour and hopefully, she will also start to like pediasure vanilla.

trillionaire,

i forgot to add - if you're concerned, go take her to see a doc. it's always best to get professional advice.
 
Morning Smileyface and Telly

Girl getting thinner. 9/06 she was heading for XL diaper now L fits nicely!

Next wk, think I shld bring her c doc. Dont want to hold her mouth open to feed but if leave her being choosey/eat little no good. Last yr got tell doc, he said she looked ok.

Didnt measure her height regularly but for a 4+ child, she's about the same height (even taller den her peers - got give multi-vit & Calcium tab.

I dont want to be viewed by doc for over kan jiong thus hv not raised this issue to doc this yr.
 
Hello smiley
These few days allow girl to climb in n out of her chair. She was happy to walk around kitchen (explore, touch here touch there) aft a mouth's feed. I sat at my chair, didnt follow/chase her. If she didnt continue to come back for food, I call it a meal. Only problem, after every meal got to mop kitchen!! Otherwise, xiaoqiang will appear.

weight ... dont know ley, still on L diaper. Temporarily problem 'solve'
 
Hi, my girl 25 mths old, is also a fussy eater.

Just to share... what I usually do is ... I'll add a bit of those food that she enjoys(like pork floss, gerber star puffs, fish ball, egg), on each scoop of her porridge/rice to feed her. Once she sees that, it's much easier to get her to open her mouth to eat. And of course, most of the time she need her favourite TV programmes on too.
 
hi moon,
me also. me on her fav vcd and i also add pork floss to her porr but i mixed it all up in her porr so she cant see it. i dun wan her to see it cos next time she sure ask for it....haha
 
heehee ... my DD sometimess even reject her favourites eg sweety stuff.

Noticed ever since sch taught her to choose between 2 items, she ended up choosey!

eat cum TV prog, my hubby cant wait to 'pull my ears' for displaying/allowing bad examples!!
 
trillionire,
no choice le. if i dun on vcd for her. she will jump up n down n cant sit down. eh...she v active gal. she cant sit down still for 5mins one.
 
understand understand ..... that's y I allow DD walk around in kitchen to eat even thou hubby screaming!

she's also the hyperactive n cant sit still kind - I know my neigbour had to feed her grandson at the playground, always c her with a bowl n chasing grandson, I dont want such life ley!
 
hi smiley and trillionaire!

it was only about 2 weeks ago that i allowed my daughter to roam free when i was feeding her and it worked wonders in boosting her appetite!!!!!!

i've been reading all those stupid parenting books and they kept on talking about how impt it is to make sure that the child sits down and eat blah blah blah.. bullsh!t ah. if i had not listened to them, perhaps my daughter would not be below the 3rd percentile. hehe.

i have not resorted to using the tv yet. if her appetite dips further, i may use that but that will be my ultimate final weapon so must keep it away from her for now.
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of cos if DD can sit down and eat and w/o TV tats be the best....BUT if too active and cant sit still, i would resort to anything just to feed that bowl of food into her tummy. hahaha
but no no to feeding in playground...its too tiring and what if rainy season? hahaa
 
hi smiley,

how's your gal?

mine is eating a bit more than what she normally eats. she's down with runny nose again but it doesnt seem to affect her appetite. i hope her cold will go away soon.

i dunno what her weight is now cos my weighing scale is not very accurate. i just hope she will hit 8kg by october. then, she will be exactly on the 3rd percentile. and after that, steadily increase her weight.
 
hi naddy,
my gal is teething on n off recently so affect her nite sleep a lot. poor gal...must be feeling v painful in her gum.
so far appetite still ok thou milk intake reduce a bit but her solid intake is increasing.
her wgt also increasing but not says a lot lah.
now she is at 9.5kg at 18mo exactly. i hope she can hit 10kgs by oct....which will put her at 32.5percentile.

jia you...jia you
 
My 15mths son is an extremely fussy eater! Ever since i started solids when he's 6mths, feeding time has always been traumatic on me.

He'll slap/hit off my hand/spoon away each single time i tried to feed him. If i managed to avoid his "attacks" and place the spoon to his mouth, he'll shut his lips very tightly. I hv to on the tv or surprise him with new toys to be able to slip one spoonful in his mouth. I'm really at a loss coz my patience is really running out. Every feeding session can take at least 1.5hr for just 2tsp of porriage!

My mum came over recently and saw wat happen and she ask me to give milk if he dun want solid. So i just give milk now whenever he refuse solids and he can drink 240ml of milk. This shows tat he IS hungry rite? But why won't he open his mouth and eat? I change diff food daily like porriage, mee sua, pasta, chee cheong fan, kway tiao, noodles and macaroni but end up he dun wan to eat.

When he went for his vaccination, the pd will say he's very skinny so i told him that ds refuse to eat. The pd ask me to give him milk if he refuse to eat. My ds is now learning to walk so if just give milk, is it enough?

Can anyone help or give any suggestions pls?
 
Both my 5 year old gal and 17 mths boy are fussy eaters! My gal only started eating more as she got older and even then, i will not say that it is a lot more. She does like fast food though eg fries, shakes and chicken rice. Otherwise, its milk all the way.

My 17 mths boy ate very well till one month ago when he suddenly decided not to eat his porridge anymore and since then it has been difficult to feed him anything. Worse, this one dun take in any water or juice apart from green tea. he will take tiny bites of bread but it does not amt to the quantity sufficient to consider a meal. so its milk all the way for him too. my mum say to add cereal to their milk so that they will be fuller.

Everytime they eat anything, i get very happy and I'm very envious of other mummies whose children feed and eat well.

I tried cooking various food but its very discouraging when you try and try but nothing works. For now, I'm just happy that their milk intake is good (better than nothing) and i hope one day they will realise the wonders of food.
 
hi charmaine and soko,

take heart. you are not alone. my daughter is a fussy eater.

there are good days and bad days. there will be days when she enjoys her food tremendously and there are days when she will have two little mouthfuls and refuse any more. i've already resorted to force-feeding which works ocassionally.

i used to scour recipe books for recipes and cook all sorts of things for her. to no avail. i'll end up eating everything up myself.

she's on pediasure at night. i'm not too comfortable giving her pediasure all the time because pediasure is not milk. it is corn starch plus a lot of other stuff. so, she's pn regular milk in the day when she's at my mom's palce and on pediasure at night when she's home with us.

i see pediasure as my life-saver. ever since she's on pediasure, my neighbours commented that they can see her cheeks.

BUT, she doesnt drink much each time. at 26 months, she's drinking about 6 ounces each time. she drinks milk about 4-5 times a day.
 
hi naddy,

ya ya ya, whatever i cooked will end up in my tummy most of the time! my gal was on pediasure all the time till my PD said tat its the heatiest milk in the market and tats when we changed to just once a day. otherwise, she is on grow.
hmmm....maybe i shld give my boy a daily pediasure too.....
 
So happy to read this thread and find mommies with same situation. Only diff is my 15MO is not skinny, doc says he takes milk well. For that I'm very thankful.

However, I constantly agonized over wat to feed him to make eating more pleasurable and upset wen nothing works. Sometimes he vomits, other times he clamps shut his mouth, do the look sideway, downwards, backwards...anywhere but forward.

The pressure from my mom and mil who keep asking wen can he eat doesn't help. I'm green with envy of seeing other kids his age eating tablefood outside...I'll stare & stare then wonder why my son is not like them. ~sigh

He eats mainly cereal and porridge but hard time feeding him. Still have to blend/mash food very finely. Coarse or textured he will gag and vomit...like he has difficulty swallowing. Cannot and will not eat bread or baby biscuits.

hmmm....thread not active since last year. Can we keep it alive and hopefully mommies can update/share if their child's eating has improved with age either naturally or by doing something that work?
 
Hi there, I have a 32 months old son who's a VERY fussy eater. He's slightly less fussy when he's in school, as in he'll eat finish that plate of rice etc. But when he's at home with us, he will only eat max 10 spoonfuls of rice before vomitting/shutting his mouth up. So during the weekends when he's home with us, he drink mainly milk cos' he loves it. Really headache cos' I see my niece who's coming to 18months eating to happily & heartily. I also collect recipes which I think will temp his appetite etc but no avail. often times, I have to resort to blackmail/threats (switch off the tv etc) to make him eat that 2-3 more mouthfuls.

Sigh... Hopefully, my son will outgrow it soon.
 
hi bss!

are u from the kk thread? i've stopped going there cos no time to keep regularly updated. (spending all the free time i have on the marketplace - my poor wallet!!)

anyway, what's your son's weight? is he within the acceptable range?

if your son is vomiting the food out, that means, his tummy most probably is full already.

my daughter is also like that - if she eats too much, she will vomit EVERYTHING out. but, the good thing is, she's no longer as fussy an eater as she was last time.

once she says she doesnt want to eat
anymore, i will stop feeding her. no point forcing her to eat another 2-3 more spoonfuls if everything's going to be vomited out.

as for eating when they are in school - my daughter also has no problems eating in school. i think some of our kids are social eaters. the school is a miraculous place. i put my daughter in school to help her eat and take her daytime naps. and she does both with no problem at all!
 
HI Naddy,
Yup, I'm from the KK thread! Long time no 'see' you.
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Anyway, the thread is gone so I'm not really active in any thread. Juz gave birth to my 2nd son in June. So yeah, I'm also quite bz in the marketplace... hehehe

My eldest son is within the acceptable range, he's 14.2kg now. He's not really vomiting any food out but just that he will stop after eating a few mouthfuls. He really LOVES his milk more than solids.

Like your daughter, in school, he has no problem eating and sleeping by himself. He's also eating more solids than last time (due to school) but I guess not as much as his peers lah. Esp during weekends when we're at home, practically whole day he can drink milk only. Eat a few bites of food here and there then after that, ask for milk.

Really headache man. Just wondering how to make him eat more cos' he can only get so much nutrients from milk. IS your daughter on Pediasure or Karihome? Thinking of feeding him Pediasure 1-2 times a day so that at least he meets his daily requirements.
 
sabrina, you're here too?? hahaa!!

bss, congratulations on your #2! me too. i gave birth to my #2 in february this year.
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well, since your son is within the acceptable weight range, maybe you can just leave things be?

but i do believe in giving our kids all the nutrition they can get from the natural sources lah. for example, the goodness of omega 3 should come from the fish she eats and not some additional supplement in the milk.

so, whatever that he eats, make sure it's nutritious stuff and not junk like fries and all that.

my daughter was on pediasure but ever since she starts eating normally (which happened when she started going to school), i've cut out pediasure from her diet. according to the packaging on pediasure, it can be used as a complete nutritional replacement (or something like that which means it can be used to replace meals).
 
HI Sabrina!
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How's your 2 princesses? Saw you put up their pics on FB. They look so cute!!

Naddy, congrats! Your #2 is a prince or a princess? hahaha.. it's quite difficult to make sure that he's not eating junk esp when I dun cook. But I guess i'll try during these 4months (3 months left to be exact) to cook more nutritious stuff for him lah.
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naddy, got a second "bun in the oven"? Congrats!!! To be pregnant is quite exciting actually! I'm thinking about having a 3rd one.... hmmm...

eh, u got fb? if u have, add me [email protected]



BS_S, thanks for your complements!
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My girls are good!
 
bss, my #2 is a princess. how about you?

if i can cook, so can everyone else. it's quite easy trying out the recipes you see on videojug. that website has not failed me before.

sabrina, i've given birth laaa.. as much as i love kids, i dont think i can handle a third pregnancy. u are considering a third?? WOWWW!
 


HI Naddy, my #2 is a boy.
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Sorry dont quite get what you mean by videojug? you have the link? Maybe I check it out myself? TIA!!

Sabrina, wow!! you want to have a 3rd one ah? Now that I have the 2nd one, i think it's enough.. hehehe... You're one brave lady, I salute you man!
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