Tag: breastfeeding

Healthy Snacks for Insatiable Hunger

| January 3, 2012

I’ve always loved food, ever since I was a baby.

Apparently I devoured so many mashed carrots when I was a young one that my skin colour turned a shade of orange due to the amount of carotene I was ingesting!

The pediatrician had seen it before, my parents could relax knowing it was nothing serious and I would return to my normal shade of skin colour, but they were to stop feeding me such copious amounts of carrots!

I decided I wanted to breastfeed before I had my baby.

I’ve been very lucky with my baby as she took to breastfeeding straight away. What I didn’t know was that breastfeeding would zap so much energy from me and leave me absolutely ravenous for food.

Breastfeeding and nutritious food have been the best things for my post-pregnancy weight loss (and the hours of pram walking we do)!

When you’re breastfeeding your baby it’s so easy to just jump straight for pre-packaged foods to satisfy your rumbling stomach (e.g. crisps, chocolate bars, cakes). You are, after all, sat on your behind for hours as your baby suckles away. You eat these foods and you still feel hungry 5 minutes later. What was the point of that? And you haven’t provided your body with good nutrition, if any nutrition, for you or your breastfeeding baby.

Here are some of the healthy, quick and easy things I eat to provide me with a steady release of energy and to maximise the nutrients I’m putting in to my body:

  • Low-fat cottage cheese on wholegrain bread
  • Carrot sticks with hummus (or cottage cheese)
  • Celery sticks with cottage cheese (or hummus)
  • Scrambled eggs (just melt a little butter in a pan, crack 2 eggs into the pan and stir whilst cooking until fluffy) with wholegrain toast

So what do you need in your shopping bag for the above? The following ingredients can be bought for just over a fiver from your local supermarket, and will provide you with plenty of healthy and varied snacks:

  1. Low-fat cottage cheese
  2. Hummus
  3. Carrots
  4. Celery
  5. Free-range eggs
  6. Wholegrain bread
  7. Butter (you probably already have this in the fridge)!

Is Breastfeeding Best for Babies?

| December 29, 2011

There’s a lot of debate when it comes to feeding and what’s best for your baby.

Exclusive breastfeeding, mixed feeding (breast and formula) or formula feeding?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) published a statement in January 2011 indicating findings show exclusive breastfeeding up to the age of 6 months is best for babies, as it helps to achieve optimal growth, development and health.

This statement on breastfeeding by the WHO is for all babies and not just babies in developing countries.

You can read the WHO’s statement on breastfeeding here.

Pregnant & Not Sleeping?

| December 12, 2011

Someone should have warned me. I’m a complete and utter sucker when it comes to sleep. Without it, I’m cranky and disheveled. With it, I’m sweet as pie and able to conquer the world.

I knew that when the time came and I was holding my baby in my arms, sleep would be a distant memory. But nobody told me it would be taken away before I even had my baby in my arms!

Sleep was confiscated from me when I was feeling huge and dealing with the rush of pregnancy hormones.

Insomnia in the third trimester has to be your body’s way of getting you ready for motherhood, for those days when your baby decides it doesn’t want to nod off to sleepy land.

I found it hard enough not being able to sleep on my stomach, let alone having no chance of sleeping on my back due to the weight of my belly. That only left me with two choices – the left side or the right side. I felt I was being seriously hard done by.

Something had to alleviate the boredom of my two sleeping options, especially with the uncomfortable position these left me in with my ever expanding belly.

I’d heard there were pillows to help take the weight off your belly and distribute it more evenly across your legs. The most popular of these being the DreamGenii Maternity Support Pillowwhich is recommended by midwives and suitable for use during pregnancy and with your baby.

I just had to have it, anything that would buy me more precious sleep was surely worth it’s weight in gold.

And it was. Not only did this genius pillow provide the support my body needed in bed so that I could relax and enjoy a longer slumber, I’ve also used it as a breast-feeding pillow since my baby has been born. Despite being a little pricey for a pillow, it’s been worth it.

I recommend this as an extremely effective sleep-aid when pregnant and as a useful pillow for you and baby in the following months when feeding your baby for the comfort of you both.