Diet for Pregnant women - Points to be taken care of before getting pregnant

It is a woman's prerogative to carry a baby for a full term of nine months and then give birth to a beautiful bundle of joy. For that a woman should prepare herself mentally and physically. She should start eating good nutrtious food, leave out smoking  or drinking too much coffee.
This holds true for the dads to be also as only the healthy set of parents can bring forward a healthy off spring.

She should see that she doesn't have anaemia and if she has it should be corrected.  Her weight should be in accordance with her height and body mass.
She should start taking folic acid  but only on the advice of the doctor. Once she gets the pregnancy confirmed she should take care of the dietary adjustments made  to nourish the growing foetus and also support the rapid changes that seem to occur in her body.
Usually the weight gain during pregnancy will be 10 - 12 kgs in a woman, and the baby will microscopic  at the start and go up till about 4 kgs at the most, the average for an Indian Baby is about 2.7 - 3.2 kgs.

She should go in for healthy eating , that means  eating a balanced diet and avoiding foods high in fat and sugar, such as cakes and biscuits. Fruit and vegetables can be fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or a glass of juice. Aim for at least five portions a day but always remember feesh ones count the most

Iron rich foods, like pulses red meat, fortified breakfast cereals with or without dried fruit, bread, green vegetables  build up your resources of iron  and get your body ready for pregnancy.

It would be better for you to take citrus fruits which help your body to absorb iron if you have some food, like an orange or lemons and / or vegetables as salads, or a glass of fruit juice with any iron-rich meals.

Diet During Pregnancy - what to eat and what not to eat during pregnancy

Pregnancy is a very important period in a woman's life. She has to accommodate a new individual, who willgrow from a single cell to a miniature human being in just nine months with in her body. Her uterus will have to expand a thousand fold just to accommodate the foetus, with her breasts getting ready at the sametime for lactating the baby.
To accomplish all these there will be a lot of metabolic adjustments made in her body  and for that she will need nutrients.
The would be mother's body will need all the nutrients in the right time, in the right amounts and that too regularly over the period of the 9 months she is carrying the baby, only then she can be expected to bringforth a healthy off spring. There is a direct link between the mother's dietary intake with the health of the new born baby. This one fact makes the mother's diet and nutrition more important in all the aspects of the ante natal care.
Premature babies, low birthweight babies  and still births can be the result if there are defeciencies in the diet of the would be mother. the effects may continue even after the birth causing many more problems like stunted growthpoor IQ and immunity. Even if we try to correct it later it might become very difficult to correct the lag that had occured already, when the baby was in the mother's womb.  
So, please do look after yourself / your daughter / your wife,  and take proper diet , prevent malnutrition in the babies even before they are born. Let it not be the parents mistake that the child suffers after it is born.  See that you take good care of yourself before, during and after childbirth.

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Rice as the first baby's solid food

Babies are breast fed till they are about 4 months and after that it is adivised to feed them juices and semi solid foods. There are many ready made baby foods available over the counter as semi solid and solid foods.
Home made foods are the best which can be given and the foods which our ancestors have provided were always healthy.

We, keralites, usually have a function for the baby when it is 6 months old called "Choroonu", that is feeding baby rice for the first time in its life. We usually have the eldest member of the house like Grandfather or uncle feeding the baby at the temple or at temple. This is also called as Annaprasanam in some places in South India.

After that the baby will be fed a teaspoon now and then. By eight months we will be able to feed rice as the main food for the baby along with mother's milk.
The rice will be cooked very soft and mashed nicely with a spoon or hands. A teaspoon of ghee will be added and mixed well with this paruppu curry. Take papad along with this and feed the baby, you will see the crankiest of babies will have this food gleefully.

Follow the Paruppu Curry recipe here to prepare and feed the baby

Apples - Baby food

An apple a day keeps the doctor away is an old adage. The meaning is that if you can take apples regularly you can develop resistance and immunity towards infections and there by you can avoid going to the doctor.

Apples have two types of fibre content soluble and insoluble. Both help in regulating bowels and keep the stomach & abdomen areas free from digestion problems. they firm up the stools and helps the body to clear them without either constipation or diarrhoea.

The nutrients ( Vitamins & Minerals) composition in Apples are:

Vitamin A - 73 IU
Vitamin C - 9 mg
Folate (important during pregnancy) - 4 mcg
Vitamin E - .66 IU
Potassium - 158 mg
Calcium - 9.5 mg
Phosphorus - 9.5 mg
Magnesium - 7 mg
Selenium - .4 mg
The apples also contain small amounts of iron, manganese, copper and zinc.

As Baby's food:

When you choose apples for the baby's use, select fruits which are fresh and firm, no scars or soft portions should be there, no discolourations and should be clear skinned.
Store them in the refrigerator and take them out only when you are ready to use them.

You can give apples steamed, baked or boiled and then pureed in to a paste form.
Feed the baby just like that if the baby is less than 8 months old. If the baby is 8+ then you can add a little bit of butter or essence and make it little more interesting.

When you steam apples for the baby just wash and clean the apples peel, core and cut the apples into slices or chunks. Cook with a little water or in a steamer till they are soft and tender. Mash it well and puree it. Add the remaining water to make the puree to a thinner consistency.

You can bake apples with their jackets, with a little water in the pan. Once cooked peel out the skin and then mash / puree it.

Note:

Apples need to be peeled and cored of the center portion because they will not be able to digest them. There are chances that the skin contains remainder of the used pesticides. So be careful and avoid feeding the skin to the babies at least they are 8 + months old.

Bananas as Baby food

Bananas are the first food which can be given to the baby even when the baby is just about four to six months old.

Bananas are high in nutrients like Potassium, do not mix it with sodium and think it is bad for health. Potassium is not and actually it is said that the regular banana eaters develop resistance to heart diseases.

Bananas help clear stomach problems like ulcers and lessens damage due to ulcers. They have "mucilaginous bulking substances" which help the intestines with protective mucousy lining. They are also easy to digest for a baby as well as elderly persons.

The composition of the nutrients found in bananas are:
VITAMINS:
Vitamin A - 95 IU
Vitamin C - 11 mg
Folate (important during pregnancy) - 22.5 mcg
Vitamin B6 - .7mcg
Niacin - .6 mg
Pantothenic Acid - .31 mg
Vitamin E - .67 IU

MINERALS:
Potassium - 467 mg
Magnesium - 43 mg
Phosphorus - 27 mg
Calcium - 7 mg
Selenium - 1.3 mg
Iron - .4 mg
Also contains some trace amounts of zinc, manganese and copper which are also very helpful to babies in their growth period.
Bananas can be fed to the baby when the baby is just 4 months old. You can puree it up with or without milk or water in the blender and feed the baby in the right consistency as per the baby's ability to take in.

Start just a teaspoon of the food first. Do not give more, let the baby start adjusting to the change in food routine. Even if the baby finishes off the portion, do not give it more at a time.

Baby and solid food

All the babies are same , you might think.. But no.. that is a wrong notion. Each baby differs from the other in the characteristics. Children who are 3-4 months usually will be ready for solid foods but not all. You have to watch if the baby has the tongue thrusting habit. The habit forms when they are born just to prevent choking from any unwanted material put into their mouths.

When the tongue thrust decreases the baby is ready for solid food. Till then you can give pureed fruits and vegetables with breast feeding. If the baby gets up in the night demanding feeds then the baby is going through a growing spurt which usually happens when the baby is around 3 months old.

With this getting up and demanding food and the fact that the tongue thrust also is missing, means baby is ready for solid food. You need not depend upon the over the counter processed baby food. Just get the food ready at home which will be tastier and healthier and the growth of the baby will be complete.

I am planning to add more and more baby care food recipes . Keep watching for more..