Post cereal expiration (or best before) date

According to Post Food official website, in the FAQ states that due date is in the following format: yymmdd (or 13JN01 means 1st Jan 2013). However, when production/printing is not standardised or updated, you will get confused with the following (see Fig).
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A simple search at Google didn't help to enlighten me about how to read the expiration date. I can't recall when the unopened box was purchased. That complicated the interpretation,  e.g. is the expiration date in 2012 (3 yrs ago! ) or 2015 (just recently).
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My wife suggested we try the cereal and if they are bad, we will know. I didn't want neither her nor me to get poisoning, so I decided to visit the local supermarket to find out.
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At the supermarket, on the box states mmmddyyA## (e.g. SEP122015T01). The alpha numeral (or A##) at the end of the numbering had no informative value to customers and Post Food should just remove/separate them from the best before/expiration date (to avoid confusion).
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Also, Post Food FAQ website need to be updated because the format yymmdd don't apply here.
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Baby belly button from hernia-like to normal (updated)

Previously I was concern about the protrusion (and collapsed region) observed in our baby's belly button. The pediatrician assured us that our baby's umbilical hernia is normal and will recover after several months. We waited for 2 and a half months and indeed the hernia was less obvious (and the region of collapse had also disappeared).

After 3.5 months, our baby's umbilical hernia disappeared.

What we did during the wait (as according to the doctors and nurses) was to allow our baby to exercise the tummy more.

Helpful exercise

• We would gently tickle our baby's belly to induce him to contract his stomach muscles.
• We placed our baby on a rubber mat with the belly facing down so that he can lift up his head and try to kick and move. The main purpose was to train and strengthen his tummy muscle.

It worked! We were worried about persistent hernia but fortunately, it was just normal hernia. For information about persistent hernia, refer to Umbilical hernia by Children Surgery. New hernia service at University Surgical Center, National University Hospital (NUH).

Breakfast for the lil one

I got a sandwich maker/toaster that has a waffle plate to make waffles. I would use the electrical item to make the following.

• Waffles (recipe is available here at All Recipes).

Waffle recipe can be found here at All Recipes.

 
 The best combination to have with waffles would be peanut butter and strawberry/berries jam. Locally, peanut butter and kaya would be a great combination and added with a slice of cheese would make it super.

Kaya recipe can be found here at Rasa Malaysia.

Our favourite peanut butter must be Peter Pan. We used to buy peanut butter from Skippy, which has comparable taste, but the price was slightly higher than Peter Pan (SGD 1.09 higher). We bought them at NTUC FairPrice. NTUC Fairprice site is a good reference for item price and to compare different brands.

• Egg sandwich

 Sometimes, I would make sandwiches and the best combo would be egg sandwich or tuna/sardine mayonnaise sandwiches. A way to get a consistent hard boiled egg can be referred to this site (or other types of boiled eggs; Fine Cooking). I used the 8 min hard boiled egg method. Cooling the eggs in iced water and then peeling them under running tap water helps to remove the shells. To prepare egg sandwich, I would mash the egg with a tea spoonful of salted butter. Adding mayonnaise would add extra flavour (but my kid doesn't fancy mayonnaise nor butter). Adding a cheese slice to the mashed egg and then toast them would add a little saltiness to the product (not to mention calcium for stronger bone).

Hard boiled egg by Fine Cooking.

3 months old cries

Our baby used to be all smiles and then suddenly all cries at 3.5 months old. Our concern was that something was wrong. We thought that it could be fever, stomach discomfort, or shoulder dislocation (paranoid me). The first two possibilities were demonstrated to be remote, whereas the latter physical injury was nil. It seemed that our baby is at the stage where he will start teething. Our baby would still break a smile to us, but whenever he is uncomfortable, he will scream and cry out the most dreaded cries that would leave us with cold sweat.

Teething & Symptoms
BabyCenter provides information about baby's teething. Few indications of teething are as follows:

• Drooling (our baby is doing that)
• Difficulty sleeping (probably due to teething-associated discomfort)
• Likes to bite (when we cleaned his gum, he would nip at our fingers; although he hadn't started biting mummy's nipple). Note that mummies would be the first to know when their babies are teething because they will start biting nipples.
• Cranky (irritated by the discomfort)
• Refused to be fed (probably due to distraction from the discomfort)

We still haven't observed the last indicator.

Other associated symptoms (though it might be inconsistent) would be:

• fever (probably due to infection as teething babies likes to stuff things into their mouth, hence predispose them to infections)
• others (refer to Baby Center)

Means to alleviate symptoms

• Teether (to soothe the "pain" (it's an itch-cum-pain feeling). A refrigerated, cooling teether could help to alleviate the gum discomfort.
• If baby is not comfortable with teether, then using a finger and muslin cloth would be a good idea. Rub it gently around the gum and allow baby to bite (slightly painful) whenever he/she has the urge.
• Apply Bonjela gel to soothe the discomfort.
• We tried Bo Ying Compound (Chinese medicine) to soothe our first baby's discomfort during teething, but after a scare about contaminant that can be harmful to children (reported not long ago in Hong Kong [FDA report]), we dared not try it anymore (though I believe that Singapore scrutiny on its products is of highest stringency compared to other places).
• Carry our baby and soothe him/her with comforting voice/lullaby and attention will help to alleviate their fear and anxiety (of the unknown because teething is our baby's first experience and can be frightening).

 When can my baby eat solid (semi-solid)
 Some said we can give our babies at around 4 months old (we preferred to wait until 6 months).

More adventurous means to alleviate teething discomfort (if in doubt, consult pediatrician before trying the following). I have not tried any of the following. Also, make sure the ingredients are safe for children (e.g. be organic with no pesticides)

• Rubbing the gum with ginger slices, spices, almond (or vanilla) extract, banana, chilled food or plastic utensils, and other solid food (referred to Home Remedies For Life).
• Home-made teething oil (composed of olive oil, coconut oil, and clove bud essential oil; referred in MommyPotamus).
• Teething cream (composed of coconut oil, cocoa butter, clove essential oil; Modern Alternative Mama).