Practical products for family | Gajah Baring Balsamo, Oless Lip balm and thermometer review

As a family with young children, we always have to make sure we have a few practical things in hand. As a doctor, I do believe in certain traditional remedies particularly in remedies that are applied to the skin such as massage oil, essential oil and herbal rubs/creams. Having products with ingredients suitable for the use of the whole family is even more important when we travel to reduce the amount of baggage. I am sure those with children will understand how much luggage our children need for a short 2 days away from home! I have recently received Gajah Baring Balsamo, OLESS lip balm and a cute froggy body thermometer which are good additions to the house.

Gajah Baring Balsamo

This garlic balm is useful for the whole family from babies to the elderly. It can be simply used as a massage oil to moisturise the skin or as a chest rub to relieve nasal congestion while suffering from cold. As our weather has become so unpredictable with sweltering hot sunny day and chilly raining evenings, many have fallen to viral infections. I have just recovered from one but my poor 5 month old has caught the virus from me. Because he's so young, he's not suitable to use cold medications. Therefore, traditional remedies like this garlic balm come in a very timely manner.

Gajah Baring Balsamo contains white garlic, olive oil, vitamin E, sunflower oil and bee wax. It's made of real garlic so it smells exactly like one! Without any added fragrance or artificial colouring that may cause allergies in those with sensitive skin.

I also love how Gajah Baring Balsamo comes in the form of a solid balm because I have way too many stained baggage items due to ointments/creams in the liquid form. When rubbed into the skin/chest gently, it doesn't really give any heaty sensation but it does help to relieve blocked nose. This helps my little boy to sleep better because he could breathe easier and was more comfortable. The other options is nasal irrigation which I find really unpleasant for both parents and children. My boy often chokes when I tried to irrigate his blocked nose which made his all the more irritable.

With every purchase, it now comes with a cute froggy body thermometer like this. I would like a thermometer is an essential item in every home's medicine cabinet. This is particularly because high grade fever can be an indication of serious infection which may require hospital admission.

In young children, they are also prone to having what we call febrile fits-- when body temperature is too high, it can cause convulsion. Even though febrile fits usually do not carry any serious consequences in our children's development and is usually self limiting, it's still better to know the exact body temperature and to lower it using paracetamol or other medications when needed. It can be a real scary sight. To learn more about febrile fit, refer to this RCH article.

If you are interested, you can get a Gajah Baring Balsamo at RM29.90 (excluding postage RM8 West Malaysia, RM12 East Malaysia)

For more information, please refer to the official website
Gajah Baring Balsamo
FB: Gajah Baring HQ (Garlic Balm)
IG: gajahbaring_hq
Distributed by ARS Pure Solution
Contact no.: 0187665694

OLESS lip balm

This is another family friendly product. This lip balm is homemade and safe for children use because the flavour and coluring are food grade. It's exactly like putting strawberry candy directly on the lips. Yums!

OLESS lip balm contains extra virgin olive oil, vitamin E, strawberry flavour and colouring.  These are nourishing ingredients that moisuturise the lips to deal with problems such as cracked lips, dry lips and pigmented lips.

Look at how excited baby Bing is! He has been observing me putting on my coloured lip balm so he immediately knew what to do with this lip balm. Strawberry is also his favorite flavour! I think this lip balm is going to finish in no time.

The price tag is also affordable at only RM10 each (excluding postage RM8 West Malaysia, RM11 East Malaysia).

For more information, please refer to
Official website
FB: Zuraini Muhammad
IG: zmbeauty_hq
Contact No.: 01132484182
Distributed by ZM Beauty

P.S. If you purchase these items during Raya period, you will also get these extra duit Raya packets. I love the design, so elegant :)

The stress through pseudomembranous conjunctivitis

All parents would never want their children to suffer, particularly the very young ones. I would rather be penning down my own experience rather than baby Yi's. After a bit bout of viral cold that affected baby Bing, we started to developed some symptoms. I had conjunctivitis of both my eyes which developed into keratitis. Mr husband had diarrhoea.

But baby Yi fared the worst. He's only 3 months plus. Initially he had hand foot and mouth with rashes everywhere. Luckily he didn't have mouth ulcers, no fever and was still feeding well and happy generally. Just as the rashes faded, the worst happened. I noted a red and teary left eye. Even though I started antibiotic ointment for him immediately, it quickly spreaded to his right eye in a day.

So I nervously referred him to the Opthalmology department. I thought the worst was over when he's diagnosed as uncomplicated conjunctivitis. I diligently applied eye drops and antibiotics for him. He remained his happy self.

The next afternoon, he started to have blood stained tears. But he was still my bubbly baby. As a doctor I was still surprised and worried about him. A visit to the opthalmologist confirmed the presence of pseudomembranous conjunctivitis which required manual removal under his lids.

In another 24hours, he started to refuse opening his eyes. So we were at the waiting room again. Corneal abrasions have started to develop in both his eyes! Even I winced with the foreign body sensation and photophobia with my keratitis. I can only imagine how painful it is for baby Yi.

I spent the whole night holding him in my arms to sleep. Because he was cranky and possibly in pain. The incessant crying and being inconsolable really broke my heart. His voice was hoarse by midnight.

His eyes drops round the clock. Have to pry his eyes to install them every 2hours.

I gave him syrup paracetamol and suppository ibuprofen which seemed to help. And I was glad to see his smiling face again the next day. But paracetamol alone is not enough. Once the effect of ibuprofen wore off, he started to wail again. Mind you, regular ibuprofen is not recommended in young children.

I have received yet another worse news the next day in the opthalmologist's office. Both the corneal abrasions have become bigger despite treatment. I read that they should heal within 24-72hours. So we have his right eye patched in hope it will heal faster. I had to put mittens on him because he kept wanting to peel the patch off.

We had to visit the opthalmologist everyday to remove his pseudomembrane and observe how corneal abrasions. And each examination meant heart wrenching and high pitch wailing. Also a teary grandmother outside the waiting room. My heart withered a bit each time just like this neglected plant outside the house.

We went through all these when Mr husband was in the UK for a work related trip. I couldn't get leave because of some administrative reason. I'm just so lucky that my parents are around to help out. Mom did the main bulk of carrying and lulling Yi to sleep during the day.

Pray for us. I hope Yi recovers without any sequelae on his vision. 

The essence of health and youthfulness- clean water

As a doctor, people often ask me the secret of health and youthfulness. It's very simple : healthy diet and exercise. This had been well tested throughout centuries. This is why I really support Jamie Oliver's food revolution. 

Eating well is the foundation of good health. Supplements and detox sessions are expensive plus they don't work and they run the risk of damaging your kidneys and livers. Period. And clean water is the absolute essence to eating well. Unfortunately tap water in Malaysia and Singapore are not fit for consumption prior to boiling or further filtration.

World health organisation places utmost importance in water sanitation. One too many death resulted from consumption of turbid water, especially children suffering from gastroenteritis in under developed countries.


I chanced upon this water filtration company- Cleansui on Facebook. It's a Japanese brand. Hands up who drives a Japanese car here. We absolutely love Japanese products right? As with all other Japanese brands,  cleansui emphasizes on research and technology. This is the technology behind the filtration system.


This is a very easy way to get clean water still rich in minerals without boiling. The product of filtration- clean water! No more crowding your bench top with water bottles.


So you might say there are so many other brands out there. Why choose cleansui? Personally I find the versatility of the products attractive.

There is your standard table top water filter for landed properties. An outdoor filter is optional.

Given that more and more live in high rise buildings,  cleansui also provides an alternative table top water filter that comes with a washable membrane pre-filter.

There's your normal water jug with a filter cartridge changed regularly.


If you think it's too bulky, they have one designed just for individual use. This is great for students or those who work on the go.


There's also a portable version that is good for travelers. Just fit to any tap, then tada clean water! No more worries about water quality anywhere.


For ladies, this filter is just the right one to get the perfect facial cleansing! We often spent thousands on facial treatments or products. But if the water used to clean our face has impurities, all these will go down the drain.

A clean shower for everyone at home :) This also makes sure 99.9% of chlorine in your shower water is removed before use.

                                  


The price is also very attractive. It is comparable to water filters made locally.

So why don't we all just drink bottled water instead? Given that we are all too familiar with funny odor and color in our tap water sometimes. Read this interesting article from the Star- the case for tap or bottled water.


I'm sure you all have made your decision by now. Click this cleansui page and get the right water filters for the health of your family members!

Specialist placement meeting

Here's where everyone meets. Be it masters of internal medicine or mrcp graduates. After completion, we all end up in this meeting room at putrajaya ministry of health to search for our destiny. Cream of the crop with different purpose in life.

Before the meeting, we were required to submit proof of our exam results and rotations completed. Other documents needed were a passport sized photograph. The person in charge matron rohani will then ask us to complete a few forms stating our service history.

For those who have completed at least 3 year Medical officer training will be called for the specialist placement meeting. Then an excel marking sheet was filled in prior to the meeting to determine your score. One is ranked  based on years of service and places served (the more remote, the higher marks ). The higher you rank, the better chance you have to get your placement. Spots are service based, which means unpopular places, ie out of klang valley, have the highest need for new blood. New spots also open up when there are transfers.

Dr letchmann jokingly welcomed us to the fraternity of physicians, stating that diagnosticians are the most important in healthcare. He also told us not to snapshot  the legendary whiteboard which displays our placement and make it viral because it is not final. So sorry guys, no sneak peek.

We were then divided into 4 groups for brief individual interview. Met Dr Chris again. He remembered me as the noisy one from Serdang mrcp mock exam. Straight to the point, I was ranked 20 out of 56. Smacked in the middle. If luck has it, I'll get kuantan because we still have 3 vacancies. Had to put second and third options just in case someone with high marks decide to bump my place. The interview was straight forward and finished in 5mins. We then had to wait for everyone else to be interviewed. Then decision will be made.

Another long torturous wait when bosses are busy placing everyone's name on the board. Managed to meet my ex colleague during housemanship!

For those who are not satisfied with their placement, they can appeal once when they have received their placement letter.

Finally, the legendary white board is filled with names- new life and dream for this new batch of specialist! Good luck everyone.