Tips for Healthy eating-New mom edition

As soon as we deliver a baby our diet needs to change. We moms have to eat balanced diet to fulfill the nutrition requirements. If new mom do not have a proper diet (should eat in every 2 hours) then sugar in the blood reduce and a mom get irritation. Our milk supply gets effected. If this happen on continue basis then a baby also get irritated.

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Disclaimer : I am not professional. I am a mom of twin baby girls. I am sharing my experience. It might help you as a new mom.

When you have a nuclear family. There is no one to take care of you after your first 8 to 10 weeks, when you have to take care of cooking, baby care, home and everything then you have to do proper meal planning. Toss the idea to have everything fresh. Make some preparation with utmost usage of refrigerator so that you can have healthy meal options. Do not freedge anything more than 2 days.

The most important is to have a meal in every 2 hour. Because the little baby is fully depends on you and whenever we feed our stomach get empty and we have to refuel it😀 Don't worry about excess weight. Untill you breastfeed your calories get burned. 

Why lactating mothers get tired ?

Babies are fully depends on a mom for milk. We have to feed our baby earlier 10 to 12 times in a day. After 2 months feeding will be at least 6 to 7 times in a day or as per the baby's requirements. Because of this feeding we mom also need to have energy. We face the deficiency of vitamins. To avoid this a lactating mother need to eat vegetables, fruits, pulses, milk, and meat. 

Without a further ado let's start with the tips. These worked for me. 

1. Protein : It is the most important factor in our meal. For this we have to eat 1 egg. I used to eat 2 boiled egg in the morning with 1 glass of milk. Don't forget to add shatavari powder. Shatavari helps in milk supply. Eat paneer as much as you can. I used to shallow fry it with little bit of haldi, red chilli powder and salt. Tawa fry this paneer cubes till golden color and munch it whenever you feel to eat some snacks item.

2. Cheese : Cheese is one of the source of calcium and protein. You can make egg cheese sandwich or vegetables cheese sandwich. You can make cheese omletee too. It taste yumm.

3. Rice : Without rice our meal is incomplete. I am Maharashtrian and our main staple is rice. Instead of eating plain rice I used to make khichadi. You can make variety of khichadi like moong, masoor, vegetables khichadi. My family love to eat palak khichadi.

4. Amti /dal : Pulses are the source of protein. Have one bowl of dal in your lunch as well as dinner. If you get bored while eating a plain dal try to make variety like palak dal, vegetables sambar, (alu fadade) Maharashtrian dish, vegetables dal, etc.

5. Roti/Chapati /Bhakari : This is the most important part of meal. Try to eat Milet bhakari (BAJRA)Bhakari as much as you can. Bajra helps in milk supply. 

Add soyabean in whole wheat to make it nutritioious. I had 2 chapati/paratha with ghee in breakfast and 2 bhakari in lunch and dinner.

These are the main staples in our diet. We mothers are spending most of the time in taking care of babies. We tend to skip our meal or snacks or eat whatever is available. Or most of the time starve. This happen in nuclear family where no one is there to help you. When we unable to give proper time to cook healthy meal, use following tips. We have ready to eat food options too. No I am not talking about packet food. I am against that because each packet contains preservatives which is not good for our health. We can have nutritious food too. 

How?

1. Always stock up whole wheat bread or multigrain bread. Make a sandwich by using any leftover veggies, leftover chicken or even using boiled egg or egg omelette.

2. Cut onion, carrots, beet, cucumber, tomato and store in airtight container. Whenever you feel hungry just sqizee lemon, add salt, chat masala and your salad is ready. 

Tip : store it for 2, 3 days only. 

3. Have a lemon, orange, kokum juice. Always prepare it and store in fridge.

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4. Cut the fruits like mango, chikoo, banana mix with milk, add some ice cream and your milkshake is ready. If you get bored while drinking a plain milk have this milkshake.

5. Cut the fruits of your choice and store it in airtight container. Make a fruit custard or fruit chat. 

6. Have Methiladdo, gondladdo, peanut jaggary laddo. Eat as much as you can without worrying weight. Your body does required it.

7. Cashew, Almond, dry roasted coconut, kharik (dry dates), or dates mix this and tawa fry with little bit of ghee or without oil and ghee. Eat this fistful at least twice a day.

8. Boil water and use thermas to have lukewarm water. Drink lukewarm water always.

9. Try to have kheer in your diet. Roast vermacili in ghee and prepare it. Store in a fridge. Whenever you want to eat add hot milk and boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Add dry fruits which you already prepared in tip no 7. Your vermicli kheer is ready.

Same way you can make Suji kheer, Carrot kheer and sabudana kheer. Out of this carrot kheer is very good to have milk supply. Grate carrot and fry in ghee. Add milk and jaggary and boil it. Garnish with dry fruit and ilachi powder.

Tip : Try to eat jaggary. Do not eat sugar.

10. Methi rice pancake : Fry fenugreek seed. Mix 1/4part of it with 1 part of rice and grind it from chakki. Your pancake flour is ready. 1 cup of this mixture, with jaggary as per the taste mix well with water and make small pancakes. Have it with your tea, coffee, shrikhand.

Methi (fenugreek) is very good for our waist. We have to consume as much as we can so that we will not have any deficiency.

11. Soup : Try to make a batch of vegetables soup and refrigerate it. Add maximum number of vegetables and keep it in air tight container. Have this soup daily in the evening before dinner. You can make chicken vegetables soup too. 

12. We do have sprout or leafy vegetables in our lunch or dinner. For a change spread this veggies on bread. Spread some sauce and close the bread slice. Toast it in a toaster. Your vegetables toast is ready.

13. Keep whole wheat noodles handy. These takes only 3 minutes to cook. Heat some oil and toss some veggie of your choice with noodles. Add little bit of soya sauce or tomato sauce. And have a hot Hakka noodles at home.

14. Always have chutney in your fridge. Coconut, peanut and sesame chutney. Whenever you feel hungry eat with chapati.

15. Make an egg omelette by using vegetables or cheese. This take hardly 3 to 4 minutes. Eat with whole wheat bread or chapati. Bring a bun for a change. Apply mayo and tomato sauce. Then put some onion, cucumber tomato rings and put the omelet. Your omlete burger is ready.

With these tips you must have to follow some DON'T also🙂

1. Do not have coffee or tea more than 2 cup in a day. It has caffin which is bad for a baby.

2. Do not have colddrink and choclates too. Avoid excess use of chocolates and cold drink.

3. Always pay attention to your food intake and how the baby react. If baby shows any symptoms then stop that food immediately.

4. Do not eat street food or hotel food or any  fast food. These are not healthy to your baby.

5. Do not eat any cold food like ice cream, cucumber , coconut water if your delivery is in rainy or winter season.

6. Do not drink alcohol and do not smoke while you breastfeed your baby. Both are not good for baby and mothers too.

This is it for today. 

Hope you can have variety of food in your meal. You can have healthy food option throughout the day at your home by using these tips. 😊

What is your staple food? What did you eat more in your postpartum period. I love to eat kheer and chicken. What was your favorite? 

'This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla

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