I know what some people are thinking, “Aiya, so precious…can hang out with a dog but cannot with people. Dogs more dirty lah”. Long story short, because dogs don’t catch colds, humans do.
When you look at pictures of Liam, he looks strong and healthy right? Yeah, he does and I’m happy for that.
However, he’s still a preterm baby, which means his lungs had not been able to develop fully before getting born. Unfortunately once he’s born, his lung development slows down significantly, to the point that it will be a year before we’re confident he could fight off colds/flu on his own like an ordinary full term baby.
If he were to contract any cold now, not only it is bordering dangerous for him, it could also mean developing asthma when he’s older. That’s why we’re not really into bringing him out although, trust me I really want to get out of our house, go shopping and attend parties (especially children’s parties!).
I mean, we live in a society where people think it’s heroic to go to work when having a cold. People that cough and sneeze without covering their noses/mouths and people that don’t wash their hands regularly. The scariest of all is that most people don’t even know that they are carrying cold viruses until they develop running nose and coughs, by then it’s too late already.
So yeah, don’t give me the stink-eye for keeping my bub in.
Also, dogs don’t smoke. Preemie lungs are incredibly sensitive to cigarette smoke, that should a smoker wants to visit a preemie, he or she would have to shower and change into fresh clothes! That’s because the smoke and chemicals could paralyse the microscopic hair-like structures in immature lungs causing SIDS (Sudden infant death syndrome), asthma and other respiratory issues. In fact, cigarette smokes are as bad for full term babies for the first few years of their lives.
I was a smoker and have quit for almost a year. When I was still smoking, I used to think Malaysia was so awesome cause we could smoke anywhere as long as it’s outdoor or in kopitiams (cheap cafe restaurants with cheap food) and used to pooh pooh parents who were bitchy about wanting to hang out in smoking places. Like, “Hello, if you’re scared of cigarette smokes than don’t hang out here lah wtf”.
Well, now it’s back biting me in the ass cause now I finally understand.
The fact that I can’t eat outdoors to enjoy a breeze or at kopitiams for a few years when Liam’s with us because people could just nonchalantly light up piss me off. I hope Malaysia will be like Singapore or England soon, where smoking bans whether indoors or outdoors are strictly enforced. I hope smoking will be stigmatised in Malaysia, I truly do.
Dogs on the other hand, they bring in faunas, germs and “dirts” that could strengthen his immune system. I’m not making this shit up, it’s been documented since at least year 2002. Here’s another more recent article from Time extolling the virtues of having children with pets (btw dogs are scientifically proven to be better than cats, hehehe).
So I apologise for being anti-social, for being unexcited about visitors and for preferring dogs over people. But I’m not sorry about it.
