Cindy Tan

Thank you to Auntie Cindy Tan for supporting me through another confinement! This is my second time engaging Auntie Cindy and she has been the best nanny I’ve got so far. This is my fourth baby so I can compare with the first 2 CL I engaged.

Baby:

Auntie Cindy is very mindful of baby hygiene and always makes sure to wash her hands before handling baby. She also uses a burp cloth when carrying baby. Cleaning and bathing baby is always done with utmost care and patience.

She is also very supportive of breastfeeding and will wake me up for morning feeds to ensure that I am not engorged. After I finish feeding baby, she will help to change diaper and burp baby.

Food:

Auntie Cindy cooks very well and taught my helper how to cook for my family. She is also very thoughtful when she cooks for us as I have 3 young kids (7,5 and 2) and she also considers their what they like to eat and customise her food for them as well as for me. She does this because it would make meal times so much easier for me and I can bf the newborn without worrying about the kids food. Her food is also healthy and suitable for kids!

And my favourite from Auntie Cindy is her apple dom! She cooks this for me every night/alternate night. This is super yummy so please ask her to make this for you if you engage her!

All in, she has been a great help in supporting me while I recover and continue to care for my other 3 kids! The morning she left, I really cried cos I wasn’t sure how I would cope with 4 kids on my own…

Aunty Cindy is super friendly but still professional right from the first phone call gathering details about my living environment, my dietary needs as well as sharing what are some necessities I need to get for baby care.

As baby had to stay in the hospital for phototherapy, aunty spent day 1 prepping the baby room and kitchen as well as going out to buy vegetables, condiments, seasonings for cooking as my household don’t have much of such supplies.

She is loving and gentle with baby. She assisted me a lot in my initial breastfeeding with baby, waking up very early in the morning to pass baby to me to feed and then carrying him back after 30-40mins to change his diapers before the next feed. As I was very tired and even fell sick during the last two weeks of confinement, nanny took the night feedings and baby only sleeps around 4am but she will need to start boiling and preparing things at around 6am.

Aunty Cindy is a good cook!!!!!!!! I’ve posted many of her meals onto my Instagram stories and many friends have responded by saying the food pics make them hungry and her food looks super appetising. She spends time to plate her dishes nicely and I did not mention, I’m vegetarian. Aunty’s cooking can open a vegetarian stall already. I barely had repeating dishes throughout 28 days and I always look forward to meal times. She does search for vegetarian recipes to try out too. And every meal was delicious.

Lastly, as a very blur first time mother, I’m super grateful that aunty shared her own personal stories and gave me lots of encouragement and advice with life and even baby jaundice. I just feel very blessed that my first confinement nanny is dedicated and loving (almost like she’s my mom)

Always going the extra mile to help us out with our chores, teaching us to take care of baby and even how to prepare tonic soups and her green apple DOM.

Highly recommend her even though I have not much prior experience but she’s genuinely passionate and dedicated in being a confinement nanny.

Thank you so much Aunty Cindy! Our family loves you and appreciate all your care and help!!!!

I just ended my confinement with my nanny, Cindy Tan, and I am thankful that I found her from this group (thanks Yvonne Khoo) as she has been such a great help to first time parents. She is very experienced and knowledgeable in caring for both mummy and baby, easygoing, passionate about her job, and went above and beyond in her duties. I will highly recommend mummies to engage her!

Mummy care: I love Cindy’s cooking and looked forward to my meals everyday as her dishes are very healthy, homely, and delicious. She is creative in cooking and could whip up dishes with whatever we have bought for her, and even cooks western food for us so we won’t get sick of Chinese food. Besides breakfast, lunch and dinner, she still prepares other nourishing soups throughout the entire confinement. When she saw that I have bad water retention on the first day, she asked my husband to purchase 赤小豆 and boil for me to drink and it was effective in helping me get rid of my water retention. When she saw my relatives gave me DOM, she used it to cook double boiled soup for me to drink every night and it was very yummy. After cooking dinner everyday, she will also wipe down my cabinets and mop the floor. She is organized and always keeps my kitchen looking neat and tidy. During the last few days when she saw that I still have some leftover meat, she stayed up late on one night to help me marinate all the meats and pack them into smaller servings just so I can easily use them to cook next time. She also willingly shared a lot of tips and recipes on simple dishes I can cook myself when managing baby alone. When she heard that my family loves to eat vinegar pork trotter, she offered to cook extra portions even though there was a lot more preparation and cleaning to do.

She is also very pro-breastfeeding and encourages me to latch my baby frequently. When she saw that I have very little milk initially, she suggested to buy 奶参to add to my red date tea and it really helped me become a slightly oversupply mummy. She also washed my pump parts cleanly and packed them into a container every time I’m done pumping. She even asked us to take out more bottles to store my extra milk and didn’t mind washing more bottles at all.

Baby care: Cindy takes care of my baby very well and treats her like her own baby. She is patient and observant and always share with us why baby is reacting in a certain way (during growth spurts days). I could rest in peace knowing that my baby is being well taken care of, especially when baby was fussing a lot in the initial days. She is good at understanding baby’s needs and gave us suggestions on what to buy and use to help baby feel and sleep better. She also reassures us whenever we have certain concerns about our baby. I trusted her experience and baby grew very well during my confinement. We also tested and found ways to help baby sleep longer at night. During the last week, she encourages us to spend more time with baby at night so baby will get used to our smell and we will not have a hard time when she leaves. Her actions are always to help us transition easily and be ready when she leaves. I am grateful to have learnt many tricks from her and have gained confidence in caring for my baby myself now.

-July 2023 Mummy Jina

Cindy was recommended by MOT Confinement nanny group as a back up nanny for me. My initial nanny cancelled on me and I am glad that we engaged Cindy instead.

She does her ART at void deck before coming up to my home. Upon entering the house, she went to take a shower as she was afraid of bringing in germs. Her standard of hygiene is commendable. I would find her showering every time she finish cooking. As parents we do not have to worry over her level of cleanliness. She would also prefer not to head out to minimise bringing germs back home. But having said that she is okay to accompany baby to polyclinic for checkup with my husband.

I do not have to worry with her way of handling baby. As first time parents, she would share her tricks on how to handle baby such as do not swing the baby when carrying. Or else we would have a hard time when baby is bigger. Instead just pat the baby on the bum. I appreciate that she sets up a routine for baby and we have been continuing till today. Eg baby goes for his evening wipe down/bath at 5-6plus and goes to sleep before waking up for next feed. I’m glad to share that at week 12, my baby sleeps rather well through the night and only wakes up once for a night feeding. Thanks to Cindy for setting it right.

Through her interaction with baby, you can tell that she genuinely likes caring for babies. I like that she is very pro breast feeding. She would always encourage me to latch.

My husband and I enjoy her cooking. Lunch would always be a one dish meal such as bee hoon or noodles. Dinner would be rice with 2 dishes. She would cook soups as well. She would not cook anything you don’t like to eat. She’s very creative and would cook whatever ingredients you buy. I do not enjoy traditional confinement meals and she would not nag and insist on it like some nannies. She would prepare nutritious and lightly seasoned healthy food. Besides that she would prepare tonic drink and soups as well.

Unfortunately, baby was readmitted due to jaundice and I was hospitalised again during confinement. She is knowledgeable about jaundice management and would share how to better care and things to look out for. I had a peace of mind with Cindy and my husband looking after baby despite being in the hospital. I know that baby is in good hands.

Also, my husband gotten covid during confinement. Without Cindy’s help, I’m not sure how would I have been able to care for baby on my own accord given my condition of de quervain/mama’s hand.

Cindy was very nice to accommodate my request for a one week extension. I required extra help and wanted to recuperate with more tonics. At her last week, she would request for parents to take over night feeding so that we would not be so lost after she leave. She would step in to assist at night when we require help. Of course, you are able to decline this and have her care for baby entirely instead. In the

Morning she would take over and we can rest after that. I’m so glad that we have followed her advice. Because baby seems to become an entirely different person during night and it is indeed challenging for first time parents.

Overall, I would highly recommend Cindy. She is easy to get along with. She is well trained and I do not need to worry with her caring for baby. We enjoyed her companionship for the 5 weeks. I would engage her again if I do have a second baby.

Sharing my review of Auntie Cindy:

My best nanny so far! We just had our third baby and managed to engage Auntie Cindy. She is very pleasant and accommodating.

Baby: she takes very good care of baby and is very careful in bathing and cleaning baby. Also very hygienic in handling baby’s milk bottles and helps me to store sterilised bottles in a separate container. She is supportive of breastfeeding and will wake me up at night to feed baby. Then she will take over the diaper changes and is careful to use warm water to clean baby’s bum. In addition, she also makes sure to close the windows and door, and turns off the fans when changing baby’s diaper or bathing.

Cleanliness: Auntie is very hygienic in handling baby and our food. She also takes very good care of my kitchen and appliances (we moved in 5 days before she came to our house so everything was brand new). She will mop the kitchen after cooking and even wipe down the exterior of cabinets and fridge at the end of the day. She is also very careful when handling my pump parts and ensures they are kept in a separate clean container properly.

Food: Auntie’s food is towards the healthy cooking side and I don’t have much sauces for her to use to cook. Yet she manages to whip up wonderful dishes that are nutritious for me.

Others: I have 2 other children under 5 and she willingly cooks for them and even makes breakfast for them when she sees that I’m busy latching my baby. She is very observant and will take care to cook dishes that my children like to eat. My elder son doesn’t eat eggs so she always ensures there’s another protein dish for him. And my younger son loves her steamed eggs so she always makes that for him. She also always steams a fish for the kids because she knows they love to eat it. When cooking for my husband, she also consulted my mum and me on his food preference and portion size to make sure she cooks enough for us to eat. Her cooking tends to be on the healthy and soupy side which is to my personal liking.

Auntie is not fussy about the food she eats and only requests for vegetables to be bought for her. She doesn’t request for anything else and is very easy going.

She is so kind to even help me pack up the kids toys when she notices that they are all over the floor. And she will even make sure to keep the common toilet dry after others use it as she knows my kids always run in to wash their hands and she is worried that they may fall down. Another point worth noting is that she will take note of what is in my fridge, like ripe fruits, and even wash and cut for my family to eat.

I’m so happy to have auntie for my third confinement and she really made this confinement a very pleasant and memorable one. I feel like she is part of my family and hope she can come visit us anytime she wants!