From Dawn Till Dusk

Much as I want to understand and keep an open my mind in some old beliefs on childcare, never was I ever been convinced that some unexplainable witchcraft could have caused Nico’s consequent vomiting this morning. Sad to say, I was at work when this untoward incident happened to my poor baby. Gee, it made me so worried and panicking as soon as I received a phone call from Jun (who was about to go to work at that time, but thank God he was still home when the incident happened), alerting me that Nico unexplainably threw up the milk and the Champorado that I prepared for him this morning.

Before I even reasoned what could have caused Nico’s gagging (because I was thinking that nabigla ang tiyan ni Nico sa short intervals ng pag-inom ng milk then to eating Champorado for breakfast), Jun reassured me though that there’s no need for me to worry as he has already remedy the situation. “What did you do then?” I asked. “Wag ka na mag-alala, kinontra ko na yung bales/usog ni Nico”, he said, then elaborating that he boiled the pajama and T-shirt that the poor baby wore before the incident happened. According to Jun, Nico was nausog/nabales daw by our oldie neighbor Aling Sol, whom he said was “malakas ang usog” and that the outright solution was to counter the usog.

Yay, what a fallacy! I want to disagree and explain what could have been the culprit but, as I started to reason that I don’t believe in such falsehood, all he said was “there’s no harm in trying, wala daw naman mawawala kung susunod sa sinasabi ng matatanda”. I don’t want then to prolong a heating debate over the phone so I just didn’t make anymore comments.

But as soon as Jun left, I pursued my intent to give instructions to Nico’s Yaya on what to do. Unfortunately, you know, with the history of Nico’s Yaya being a total pasaway and stubborn (at humihirit pa talaga), she too was close-minded to my instructions as she too believed that my son was witched by our oldie neighbor. “Eh kasi po Ate, talaga naman pong nabales si Nico eh, ang problema po kasi hindi ka naniniwala,” she said. She has been lamenting on so more folktales on childcare but I interrupted and strongly said that I don’t believe in such misleading notions (bakit ba, eh ako kaya ang Nanay nang batang yan, hmmp!). In short, I sermoned her again for the nth time and firmly instructed her to gradually feed Nico with solids and milk because as I see it, my son suffered from indigestion.

By mid-day, after some 30-minute intervals of checking on Nico, the Yaya advised me that Nico gagged for the third time and that she will be heading to Aling Sol to have Nico cured (palalawayan daw) as per instruction of Nico’s Dada. I tried my very best to convince the Yaya as well as Jun to stop their silliness (I was even prodding to go home at that time to personally check on Nico) but I guess, the two were in a connivance, leaving me at no choice but to wait what happens. A few minutes after I called and checked, the Yaya said Nico was already fine as he demanded for another bottle of milk with no more throwing ups. “O kita mo Ate, sabi ko sayo nabales lang si Nico eh,” the Yaya said.

O well, our conversations would never end even if I rebut and say what I know. Because as a Mom, a modern and still-learning Mom if I may say it so specifically, it is my philosophy to base my childcare know-hows on (1) my own child-caring experiences because we parents, the mothers specifically, learn from our own experiences; (2) doctor’s recommendations; (3) some useful childcare readings, and of course, (4) my Mommy instincts. So in short, I just let that conversation be. At least now, I am relieved from worries as my baby’s already fine. But seriously, I intend to explain in length one of these very days (promise, I won’t let this instance pass me by) with Jun and the Yaya that really, there are scientific explanations as to what happened to Nico. At some points perhaps, talagang nagkataon lang na after a few hours of stomach troubles, a child’s biological system naturally finds ways to relieve itself from some gas spasms or dyspepsia or whatever stomach aches there exist, and that it totally has nothing to do with some sort of witchcraft or bales/usog, or whatever they may call it.

Haha, that’s so rude of me calling bales/usog as witchcraft! But really, I find it weird hearing and reading about childcare fallacies and myths. No wonder, a thread at PinoyExchange Forum on such fallacies is equally heating up with conversations regularly. With many Pinoys think the way Yaya and (sadly) Nico’s Dada does, I think I very well know the reasons.