Chinese Version
01-25-2022， Tuesday， Above frozen point sunny

In the past, when we mentioned “Waipo (grandma)” at home, we knew it was referring to my mother.

After hearing from me that his granddaughter was pregnant, my father immediately said to me: “Congratulations on becoming a Waipo.” I still remember my father’s joyful voice.

Now, I became a Waipo.

Although my grandson is a long way from calling me Waipo, my daughter already calls me Waipo now. Hearing “Waipo”, my new title, I felt some sadness: my daughter is a mother, I am really old; I also experienced joy: like my mother, I became a Waipo now.

My mother always paid great attention to health-related things. In the 1990s, there was no internet, so newspapers were the only source of news for ordinary people, and overseas letters were the only form of communication between my parents in China and myself in the USA. My mother often sent newspaper clippings about health in her letters to me to remind me to pay attention to my health. I clearly remember the first time I read “sub-health” from a newspaper clipping sent to me in one of my parents’ oversee letters, my mother just became a Waipo and I was still working on my PhD studyies.

In 2017, my daughter was already in her 20s: “Today, I talked with my daughter who was jet lagged in Germany for a long time. I told her that all the letters sent by her Waipo to me in the USA always reminded me to take care of my health many years ago. In the early 1990s, the Internet was not common, and there were still great differences between China and the United States, your Waipo couldn’t guide my way in my life, but her exhortation to take care of my body has blessed me to this day. I told my daughter again, now I also am carrying Waipo’s spirit. Every time I chat with you, I remind you to take care of your health. Hope this won’t be annoying to you. ”

In 2022, after my mother passed away for more than three years, I became a Waipo. As a Waipo, carrying on my mother’s spirit, I am recording and sharing of a grandma’s “Old-talking” about health. However, the massive on-line information at the lift of my finger, I think i am sharing of grandma’s “New-talking” about health.

Diet during Confinement after Giving Birth

I have been trying to encourage my daughter to have traditional Chinese diet during her confinement after giving birth, such as drinking old-hen soup and eating sesame oil fried meat, but she refused to follow my suggestion. To find allies to support my advice, I consulted a medical expert, but the expert didn’t think a special richer diet is necessary during confinement. I also asked one of my alumina who became a mother recently about her Chinese dishes during her confinement, she shared a photo of her dishes and told me that the dishes during her confinement were really ordinary. The expert and the new mother became my daughter’s allies instead of mine.

Now I don’t make special food during my daughter’s confinement after giving birth.

New Born Baby and Furry Pets

I remembered one of my friend said: “I had a cat I gave away before my son was born, as I was afraid of my son will allergy to the fur.” Because I was little worried Kara may cause our baby’s allergy, I researched online and found a 2017 study “employed a large subsample of 746 infants from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development Study (CHILD) cohort, whose mothers were enrolled during pregnancy between 2009 and 2012. Participating mothers were asked to report on household pet ownership at recruitment during the second or third trimester and 3 months postpartum.” This study concluded that “The impact of pet ownership varies under different birth scenarios; however, in common, exposure to pets increased the abundance of two bacteria, Ruminococcus and Oscillospira, which have been negatively associated with childhood atopy and obesity.”

Some parents also shared that their pediatricians say babies who live with pets have a lower chance of being allergic to pets.

Back to our Kara, hearing baby crying the first time, she was very curious and rushed to the site to watch the baby. After that, baby’s crying no longer interested her, and Kara stays in her own comfortable zone, never even bothering with the baby.

Now I learnt that a new born baby living under the same roof as a dog or cat is fine.

Little Episodes

1. 01-02-2022, CZ, one of my alumina showed the only photo of the dishes in her confinement after giving birth and said the dishes were really ordinary.

2. 2017′s study of “furry pets influences the gut microbiota of infants” origin and screen shot: