Water babies

Almost every star swimmer both in Singapore and abroad seem to attribute the start of their swimming careers to having had asthma and taking up swimming to overcome it.

My kids don't really have asthma but they have apparently, the asthma gene. Packrat has asthma and the twins have it. Evan more than Jordan and I'm praying for Muffin to be the one who takes after me and not predisposed to it.

The asthma gene makes them cough more and makes their coughs develop into a wheezy, phlegmy cough that constricts the airways. It makes them more sensitive to things like dust (Evan had a big swollen eye over the weekend) and the haze. On top of that, they have eczema (Evan, once again more than Jordan). And all this is attributed to the evil asthma gene.

Everyone tells me that swimming helps the lungs and stops the coughs from coming so often. It is such an attractive dream. No cough. No inhalers. No throwing up. No expensive non-generic- still under patent medicine. But there is a catch.

For the kids to swim, they must be well. And that window of opportunity is very small. And often, the swimming leads to them coughing. It could be the least likely thing. Choking on some water has been known to set Evan off on a 2 week cough. A little bit of wind and Jordan's lips turn blue and a runny nose develops. There really isn't a medical reason for it. Well, a western medical reason for it. But it sure seems to play out that way all the time.

But the last weekend, everyone was well. And everyone had been well for a while so we took the opportunity to go to the pool. It was Muffin's first time. He had a lot of fun splashing around but ended up throwing up because he probably ingested some pool water.

The twins seemed to not bother that the water was cold and had fun just splashing about.



Thankfully, it's been 0+3 days and narry a hack in sight. I hope to keep it this way and take them again soon. God knows how much they're bugging me to anyway.

Incidentally, this is my 600th post about my children. I sure am obsessive!

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