Getting Ready for Malaysia

In seven days, we take off for KL for the month of July. There are a few housekeeping chores we’ll need to do before we go: Weatherize the house for the NZ winter, throw out old food in the fridge, ask the neighbors if they can water plants and collect mail…

Packing suitcases is not one of those tasks. You’d think it would be a major one to deal with.

That is because we recently came back from a trip to the U.S. for Baby to visit Grammy and Grandpa and my family and friends. We visited the Deep South, which at this time of year is hot, muggy, humid. In our first week, temperatures regularly cleared 90F/32C or more.

Our suitcases are already packed for warm weather. Temperatures in KL will be roughly similar to the Deep South, and we never unpacked from the last trip. Honestly, why bother if you’re off again in 10 days time? Just never fully unpack, and you’ll have one less thing to worry about. (We do unpack a little to do some laundry, we’re not animals.)

One thing that has been on my mind is making sure Baby’s tummy stays happy between now and arrival. She expanded her palette in the States by eating any avocado in sight, yelling at me for not giving her more black and white cookie, stealing my last bite of Publix sub, and just generally enjoying every food offered — delighting Grammy and Grandpa. Amidst all that, she tolerated all the new foods pretty well.

She had yet to try peanut butter. Satay is served with peanut sauce. And peanut oil is a common cooking oil. It would be good to know ahead of arriving in KL if we will be managing any sort of baby peanut allergy ahead of time.

Now, if your family has a history of peanut allergy, you’d likely follow a different path as recommended by your GP. Our family does not have any known history of peanut allergy.

The American Academy of Pediatrics seems to suggest that if there’s no family history of allergy, there is no reason to delay introducing peanuts. In New Zealand, Plunket (the child well-being program) recommends that babies be introduced to smooth peanut butter at around eight months at the earliest.

So today, we gave Baby some peanut butter on bread and observed her reaction. Luckily, she devoured pb&bread with no adverse reaction. Whew. That is one last thing to worry about, since we can’t really control how street food vendors cook food (peanut oil?) and we’ve been looking forward to introducing Baby to tasty, well-cooked treats while abroad. So bring on the satay!

Photo credit: Ting~/flickrCC

A Kiwi-American family's journey in Kuala Lumpur via food. Written by Tina TM, previously based in Kuala Lumpur. Learn more about this blog.