Myths, traditional advice and practices

Well, one and half weeks into Russell's birth, we are getting plenty of traditional practices to follow.

Diet
Mummy cannot eat peanut and seafood.Eat lots of fish , ginger , boiled papaya and fish soup and longan/red date drink.The latter diet plan was ok and daddy Alvin seem to enjoy all of it too. Too bad, no milk supply to be gained from him eating all these.

Washing and dresscode
Mummy must wear warm clothes, not go out in the wind or when it rains. Also not supposed to wash hair for as long as possible. Some say 1 month, some 1 week. Lina being a hygiene freak, couldn't take it after 48hrs. Compromise with thorough drying and blow dry. Mummy also has to bathe with some special herbs to remove wind.
Just heard from a friend that by not wearing slippers and keeping warm, apparently her legs and joints are already weakened. This is only 6 months after birth! She supposedly has occurences of her knees buckling , pain on her wrists. Hm....I got those pain on the wrist too and I ain't the one who gave birth. It was from trying to hold the kid with one hand and curling my palm too long to hold him. Trick is to support him with the arm , not catch him on the palm or wrist. Almost cost me my typing skills. Started carrying him w my wrist straight for 3 days and it has recoved.
Herbal bath for mummy to reduce 'wind'


Temperature
Baby has to be wrapped and apparently minimal exposure to fan or aircon. We only practice the swaddling as it is proven. For the fan, only when he is being changed as he hates it when he is exposed. As for aircon, we think he actually likes it at 25 degrees. Mummy and daddy normally sleeps at 18 degrees so this is a major adjustment.

Did you know that to get your baby to sleep better, you drape an item of clothing from the father turned inside out next to the baby's bed? It cracked me up but when I thought of how it came about, it may make some sense in terms of providing some sense of security to the baby if the clothing has the scent of the father.