Eating right before, during and after pregnancy is important. Cloudnine creates a healthy diet as per your specialized nutrition requirements to help you conceive and deliver better. Being well-nourished at the time of conception is a great way to ensure a healthy pregnancy. The doctors at Cloudnine are dedicated to your well-being and provide solution to all of your health related questions. Nutritional imbalances during pregnancy could have an adversarial effect on foetus development. We help you avoid such situations by creating a customized nutrition plan. Also, avoid smoking, alcohol and drugs while planning a pregnancy because development in your baby’s body starts right after conception. We also provide postnatal services to help improve the mother’s milk supply and assist in getting back to shape after pregnancy.
A food aversion is a mere opposite of a craving. Instead of deeply wanting to eat a certain food, you don’t want to eat a particular food or any food at all. Just like cravings, many pregnant women have food aversions or a new sense of repulsion at the very thought of a food that they previously enjoyed.
Certain smells and tastes tend to get repulsive to you. Even a slight whiff or a sniff of it may trigger your nausea and morning sickness to strike while at times it could take tantamount proportions.
Cravings and Aversions can be Unpredictable and often unavoidable too. It is better that you know about these as you tread on your wonderful journey of womanhood to the blessed motherhood!
Most think the culprit behind these reactions to food is hormonal. Progesterone and Estrogen are quite elevated during pregnancy and are probably to blame. Stress can heighten the reactions and improper diet can exacerbate symptoms as well.
Food Aversions and their crazy cousins Cravings disappear or at least subside or get toned down usually by the second trimester. But this is not the last word. For some women, it may continue.
Nausea and food aversions during pregnancy may range from mild to very severe. Aversion is a mild word for such a strong response. They’ll also send you running from foods that contain important baby-friendly nutrients such as Iron, Vitamin B12, Omega 3 Fats, Calcium etc.,
While you only need an additional 300 calories while pregnant, you do need to choose all your calories with ideal combinations of Calorie and nutrient-rich foods. If you have an aversion to certain things, you may need to substitute something else to make sure there are no gaps in your diet. Let us take this with examples –
Can’t drink Milk – substitute with Yoghurt, fresh Curds
Can’t eat Chapattis, at least try broken wheat, germinated wheat powder mixed into porridges or while making soups
Can’t eat Fish or rather started hating Fish/Meats – eat a small fistful of Nuts, try different Dals, legumes such as chick peas, black peas, kidney beans etc., to compensate.
Pica is a condition in which pregnant women get strange cravings for things that aren’t edible. The word “Pica” is Latin for magpie which is a bird notorious for eating almost anything.
“Don’t think you’re going CRAZY if it happens to you”. After all, everything comes with a price.
The exact cause is unknown but it could be one of, or the combination of, different conditions/factors like:
Deficiencies in iron, calcium, zinc, and other nutrients (like thiamine, niacin, vitamins C and D)
Mental or physical illness
Malnutrition and hunger due to an eating disorder or poverty.
Women who experienced Pica in childhood
Loss of appetite
Abdominal pain
Constipation
Diarrhea
Recurrent infections and/or parasitic infestations
Dental injuries
Some women develop a craving for non-food items, like
Clay, limestone, laundry starch, chalk, dirt, burnt matches, stones, charcoal, mothballs, toothpaste, soap, sand, plaster
Ice, cornstarch, coffee grounds, baking soda
Newspapers, toilet paper, cigarette ashes, coal, stones, sponges, paint chips, glue, hair, buttons, etc.
Try to eat a balanced diet with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, protein, carbohydrate and plenty of water – don’t think that I am being impractical in suggesting this one, but where it is possible allow your willpower and discretion to take the upper hand.
Are you one of the blessed candidates going through PICA? – No worries, yield to your craving in moderation and try to eat healthy where and when possible.
Bringing a new life into this world is an exciting experience which requires a close look at your inputs from the nutritional front. Contrary to the old adage “eating for two,” pregnancy doesn’t mean eating twice as much.
Whether you’re completely refuse certain foods or constantly crave others, the choices you make play a vital role in having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Plus, studies show what you eat during pregnancy will influence what your child likes to eat when he or she older.
You don’t need to go on a special diet, but it’s important to eat a variety of different foods every day to get the right balance of nutrients.
This topic can be highly deceiving – since in this interestingly important phase it is not possible to rate one healthy food over the other since all are more or less equally healthy varying in their health benefits. Hence, only a few have been discussed below.
#methi in pregnancy #green methi leaves during pregnancy #curry leaves during pregnancy
#fenugreek leaves during pregnancy #drumstick leaves during pregnancy
Different types of greens as palak, Malabar spinach, Fenugreek/ methi leaves, drumstick leaves, Mint, curry leaves,coriander, amaranth leaves, beet leaves, celery, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower.
Recent studies have shown that Vitamin K plays an important role in preventing osteoporosis, arthritis, and diabetes: Green Leafy Vegetables being a good source of Vitamin K.
Calcium; magnesium; molybdenum; vitamin K; Riboflavin (B2); Folate; most B vitamins except B12; vitamin A; vitamin C. Phytochemical that is vital to your baby’s skin, bones, eyes, and cell growth.
Rich in fiber, negligible fat and carbohydrates -prevents constipation, improves digestion.
Dark green leafy vegetables and cabbage family provide important nutrients that increase breast milk output.
“Probiotics” has been researched extensively and lots of benefits have been attributed to inclusion of Probiotics in the diet. Even home-set curds can be considered as Probiotic product.
Even to those who prefer a meal plan without milk, in pregnancy, Curd is a safer, better bet. Maintenance of the gut integrity is one of the attributes of Curd.
Food items such as Cottage Cheese made by curdling milk with fresh Curd. Whey water, preparations made with Sour curd called as “Khadi” in Hindi or even Sooji Idly is ways of including Curd in the diet.
A vegetable that became popular in the Roman times, it was used to treat fever, constipation, wounds and skin problems. A storehouse of essential minerals such as Potassium, Magnesium, Iron and Vitamins such as Vitamin A, Folic Acid, Vitamin B6, antioxidants etc. beetroot is widely available in the Indian markets.
Abundant in vitamins and minerals, rich in fiber which helps to prevent constipation.
One pod of date/ day during and after pregnancy will help strengthen the uterine muscles and prevent anemia. It rich in potassium, glycine and threonine that activate Prolactin, the milk hormone.
2 figs in a day help to improve hemoglobin and prevent gestational diabetes and constipation.
A fistful of assorted Nuts such as almonds, apricot, pistachio nuts, walnut, raisins, peanut, cashew nut etc. provides protein, healthy fat, Iron, fiber etc., Can have it in plain / soaked/ sweets / desserts / salads / smoothies or can add in any food.
Different fruits provide different vitamins and prevent many pregnancy associated discomforts such as leg cramps, morning sickness, etc.
They have essential vitamins and minerals and rich source of antioxidants.
The milk and yogurt in smoothies give energy and protein and adds fiber to your diet.
Boosts your energy and rejuvenate the cells in your body, preventing fatigue and tiredness during pregnancy.
It is rich in fiber and acts as a mild laxative regulating the bowel action.
Rich in vitamin C that helping to dilate the blood vessels and maintain normal blood pressure.
Aim to drink at least eight glasses to ten glasses of water a day. This will keep you hydrated, maintain energy levelsand help prevent constipation.
Varied hues are one way of ensuring varied nutrients. Be wise when you shop – be it for looking good or for your food!!!
Congratulations, then, you got to start eating for two… At least, this is what used to be strongly believed. Though “eating for two” is not medically advocated in the current millennium, yet, I can state with conviction that it is an “age old” adage used right royally as “eminent advise” to pregnant women by people across the globe. Pregnancy is by no means a self-attested license to eat for two, rather it is not necessary to eat for two primarily because the growing baby is of miniscule size and is definitely not comparable to the size of the adult. It goes without saying that the needs of this baby cannot be matched with that of the adult. The initial weeks of pregnancy is generally dominated by the most common discomforts such as Nausea, Vomiting, heartburn, acidity etc. which can be of varying intensities. The most prominent feature of going through a discomfort such as one of those mentioned is that the chances of following an appreciable schedule of eating healthy food is not only a challenge but in many cases, can be negligible, impractical too!!
With all this in place it is difficult to draw a route map for healthy eating though the standard recommendation for this trimester would be: eat healthy and drink healthy liquids when you can to the extent you can. “Force feeding” as a dictum of choice is not necessary since it is likely to worsen the scenario, making you vomit food or start hating the thought of even your favorite foods! But, who wants to listen to this truth? Many women get too stressed about not being able to eat, which is purely unnecessary.
Eating for one eighth above the normal needs is what is an ideal choice and this is what is medically recommended too. One eighth more is about 300 Calories more which could be nudged – in through two or three nutritious snacks taken in- between meals.
Good nutrition for a healthy pregnancy happens by including food from all categories – the Energy giving foods from Carbohydrates, Fats; the Protective Foods from Vitamins and Minerals; Body building foods –the Proteins. Though this is the nutritional classification of food groups based on their primordial function, yet, it is difficult to converge the roles in a simplified form. Each food is important to the body. There are overlapping functions between food groups, and in pregnancy all these have to be regarded with a lot of seriousness while planning the daily eating schedule.
This discussion on healthy eating does not omit the cravings or aversions for foods that pregnant women experience as a part of pregnancy. Especially in households where pregnant women are holding careers, a weekly once or twice “eating-out” is self-prescribed for being on a home kitchen based diet on the other days.
Book an Appointment Right Away with the best Gynecologists near you.“Congratulations” – you have an upgrade in your designation from a loving wife to an unconditionally loving mother for your baby. Can anyone gauge how the journey was?
BIRTHING is a challenging experience to every woman – I am sure every woman will agree with me on this hard-core fact. The pains undergone, the bleeding accompanied after birthing, the tiredness, exhaustion as by-products after the “end product” (the bundle of joy) is out of its shell have adjectives of all kinds for description. It is difficult to strongly define RECOVERY FROM Birthing primarily due to the varied experiences amongst different women during birthing. Threshold to withstand pain is one of the factors that can be considered in explaining this topic. I feel it is just not BIRTHING, it is BIRTHING AND BEYOND!!! This was indeed Cloudnine’s tag line a few years ago!
The BEYOND can be a little scary to think of, if there were complications associated during labour or while birthing. Here are a few instances:
For various reasons, if there is non-progress of labour after a particular stage, it involves an admixture of labour pain and pain after the Caesarean birth – the duo can seem as trio!
If there is a TEAR involved – such as perineal tear, Cervical / Anal / Rectal tear involved, then the recovery involves time.
If there are co-morbid conditions such as Gestational increase in sugars or blood pressure or at times a sordid combination of both, then once again the element of time factor for the corresponding levels to touch normalcy need to be accounted for along with recovery happening in parallel.
For medical reasons, if there i s necessity to admit a new born into the Neonatal Isolation Care Unit or the N-ICU, then, the sequential progress of the baby graduating out of the N-ICU and moving into the mother’s arms, is a pressing factor and many a times depending on the intensity of complication involved in the chances of survival of the baby, it can be one of the key deciding factors, for the woman’s physical level of recovery.
Recovery essentially involves the pace with which a mother’s body is able to bounce back into pre-pregnancy shape and form with special reference to the re-establishment of an appreciable nutritional status, given the loss of blood after a baby’s birth and the sweeping changes that happened through the three trimesters.
Involution of the Uterus to its pre-pregnancy size and shape itself can involve anywhere between 6 to 8 weeks on an average. Healthy sleep and good rest will actually help to quite an extent giving a strong push to the adequacy in nutritional support. Good sleep for seven to eight hours at one stretch can be almost a Utopian dream at that juncture but as the baby grows, the trend is bound to change giving scope for a few more hours of regular/ structured sleep.
Hence in the first few weeks after a baby is born, it is better to sneak some rest whenever the baby is also sleeping. This can be one of the potential ways of averting physical stress. Light exercises by way of walking are ideal to adopt for better digestion, improvement in blood circulation, avoidance of gassy tendencies and also for aiding the involution of the Uterus.
Nutritional support of the right sorts can really boost the pace of recovery and also gradually help in revamping the immunity to a better state.
WEANING is defined as the process of transition from breastfeeding to giving solid foods to babies in a gradual manner. It is also named as Complementary feeding since Breast milk support is not totally tapered.
The million dollar question on what to feed bubs after they cross 6 months is something that requires lot of insight clubbed with knowledge and forethought right from the stage of planning to preparation to feeding the baby.
Trying a new food and also setting a new regime is always a challenging feature for young moms mainly for reasons related to the digestibility of the baby, where variety, nutrition, taste, texture, appearance and ease of preparation have to be considered by and large.
As a general rule, stick to what your traditional foods are rather than something you have been suggested by a neighbor or by some internet site!
Medically a baby doubles its birth weight by the time it is 5 months (muscular, skeletal growth, increase in fat content growth of organ tissues) and triples its birth weight by the end of a year. This growth standard accommodates the fact that babies start expending energy as they start growing after six months through crawling, learning to sit, stand, walk etc. Then, breast milk can no longer be regarded as complete food at this stage since breast milk is not complete and completely enough to accommodate the growing nutrient needs.
The secret behind enabling healthy intake for babies at this stage of 6 months to a year commences with an understanding of the pattern of growth.
WHO recommends that infants start receiving complementary foods at 6 months of age in addition to breast milk, initially 2-3 times a day between 6-8 months, increasing to 3-4 times daily between 9-11 months and 12-24 months with additional nutritious snacks offered 1-2 times per day, as desired.
Book an Appointment Right Away with the best Gynecologists near you.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
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