Dumex: You Almost Had Me

Today we brought Emily home. Her jaundice has fallen nicely to about 7.5 and the doctor has ok-ed her discharged. We had been worried we could't go home together as a family.

It really is different at home. We were not prepared at all for Emily's wimps and cries. At the hospital we could just wheel her back to the nursery whenever she starts her wailing. But at home, we had to try to pacify her with the little knowledge we have gathered on our baby. We were truly unprepared.

She had been fed earlier at 9am and by the time we reach home at 1pm she had started to cry for milk. It's day 4 and Meimei has not started to produce milk. And for all the preparations we had ... somehow we didn't think to get a tin of formula milk. So as Emily gave out shrill cries, I rushed out to the nearby shophouses across the main street to find her lunch.

Because we had been planning for total breast feeding, we didn't research on the type of formula milk to give our baby. At the hospital, we gave the nurses utterly clueless looks when they asked if we had a preference on the brand of milk for our baby. When we couldn't come up with a brand, the nurse recommended that they feed Emily with the 'Milk of the Month', which happens to be Dumex Mamil Gold. Ok, I think I've heard of the brand before. So when it came to buying our first tin of milk, this was the brand I seek out as well. No sense to change to another brand if Emily has been taking this for the last couple of days.

I bought a can at Guardian Pharmacy. At $51.90 it's one of the more expensive ones. But no biggie, so long our baby takes to it I'm fine to spend a few extra dollars. I hastily rushed home to find Emily still sobbing. "No worries Daddy's home with milk!" I thought. I quickly opened the top seal on the can and looked ... hmm ok how to mix the milk. Ok, so 1 cup to 30ml of warm water. Sure that's say enough.

Wait, how much is a cup? Eh ... where's the spoon? It doesn't come with one?!! As you can imagine now, I was in a panic. Baby's crying and everyone's stressed. And here I am trying to get her the milk but I can't figure the right proportions! "Ok relax, let's look at the labels ... maybe they specified the volume of a cup. Ok found it, 4.5g." "Let's use the baking spoons, we have one at 5g. That should work?!" So yeah we used it to make our first home made bottle of formula milk for Emily.

Now I think I've not been able to describe adequately the anguish and helplessness, and subsequent anger and contempt on the lack of a spoon. The emotions were so raw that I wanted to throw the whole can down the rubbish chute. Everyone was running around the house trying to sort out all the luggage and stuffs we brought back from the hospital, while trying to calm our tiny one. And the easiest of things like making a bottle of milk became such a shock and hassle simply because it lacked a spoon really turned us all off.

I will never buy Dumex ever again. Wait ... We will never buy Dumex again. My parent-in-laws and friends all took turns to dig through the can with a chopstick for the spoon. Everyone was disgusted that the spoon was no where to be found. Seriously, how did you fail to put a spoon into the can? Is your QC passed by an imbecile? How can I trust that your milk is of good quality if you can't even ensure a spoon is in the can? Are you selling tainted milk like in China? Yeah my friends suggested that we threw it away and get another brand like Nestle NaN, incase it really is a pirated can from one of our neighbouring countries.

Dumex, you almost had me as your loyal customer for the next couple of years. I'm sure you had put in certain marketing budget to supply the hospitals with the milk. Smart move to hook us and our baby on it. And really I wouldn't mind going with your brand. But no, this takes the straw. For all the efforts you have put into selling your brand, you have just thrown all of it down the drain ... at least for one customer. Maybe more, just that folks didn't complain or voice it out. Really ... all I can say is that this was truly silly on your part.