Singapore – Former local actor Joshua Ang recently opened up about the traumatic experience his family underwent with their confinement nanny whose apathy and negligence led to their newborn son being confined to the ICU.
On March 3, 2018, the former Mediacorp artiste tied the knot with air stewardess Shannon Low and welcomed their first son on August 4, 2018.
To help with the transition, they hired a confinement nanny that was recommended to them by a friend. Little did they know that their nightmarish experience was about to begin.
It took them ten months to muster up enough courage, and on June 8, actor Joshua Ang revealed everything via a blog post.
After sharing his pride and joy at welcoming little Jed into the world, Joshua Ang started to describe their encounters with the confinement nanny who boasted of her 12 year-experience and being fully booked until the next lunar new year.
The new parents, having heard of her expertise, figured that she would do the job well.
The confinement nanny charged them S$3,000 for 28 days of work, which was “a pretty standard rate,” commented Joshua Ang and so they made their deposit of S$500.
“Since day 1 of working with us, she has never followed our instructions,” wrote Joshua Ang.
The confinement lady never listened to Jed’s parents and insisted on doing things her own way.
She did not even let the parents carry their own baby.
Joshua Ang listed in detail the alarming actions of the nanny which included:
– Ignoring Jed’s cries
– Not using the specially-prepared tonics for Ms. Shannon
– Preparing formula milk and discarding the hard work that Ms. Shannon placed on acquiring breastmilk
– Not freezing the breastmilk which caused it to spoil
– Poking her nose into their private family matters
– Asking Ms Shannon’s mom to buy her skincare products noting that her previous clients did the same
“And all these happened within 4 days of staying with us,” wrote Ang.
The confinement nanny, whom they addressed as “Auntie Xiu Rong,” also overfed Jed.
“Our pediatrician recommended a maximum of 60 ml per feed, but she feeds Jed at least 120-150 ml each time,” he noted.
The reason? Auntie Xiu Rong wanted Jed to be overfed so he can sleep longer and she could get more rest.
On August 8, their real nightmare began.
In the middle of the night, Jed started wheezing abnormally “like a squealing piglet.”
Although Ms. Shannon’s instincts were kicking in and warning her that something was wrong, the confinement nanny merely said, “He’s faking it, he will be okay in a while.”
How could a newborn baby be faking something?
When they decided to bring Jed to the hospital, the auntie said once again that the baby was faking it and that there was no need to bring him to the hospital.
When they got a thermometer and checked Jed’s temperature, the baby was burning at 38.3 degrees, which is dangerous for newborns.
They rushed baby Jed to KK Children’s Emergency Hospital, and from there he was diagnosed with pneumonia from having too much milk in his lungs.
All thanks to the nanny’s overfeeding.
Eight days in the hospital was a truly traumatic experience for the family, with baby Jed being poked with tubes and drips and the parents’ hearts breaking at seeing him in pain.
When they went home in the middle of the ordeal to get some rest, the nanny was unapologetic and unconcerned.
“The confinement meals/drinks were not prepared for Shannon, bottles, and pumps left unwashed,” wrote actor Joshua Ang.
They fired her that night.
They also discovered that the nanny had cut the teat of the bottles with a hole the size of a straw. She was feeding a one-week-old baby with that much milk flow.
“I should have burnt that witch,” wrote Joshua Ang.
Things got worse for baby Jed as he developed an infection caused by the milk and his pneumonia turned to pneumothorax (a hole in his lungs). His chest started bulging and needed his organs to be moved to the left so that doctors could remove the excess air.
However, Jed was a fighter, and he overcame the sickness, to everyone’s relief and delight.
“At the end of the day, all I can say is, never trust anyone with your child. And if you think your instincts are right, it probably is. Never be afraid to voice out and have your confinement nanny do things your way. Don’t think she’s good enough? Fire her,” said Joshua Ang.
-/TISG