One-handed foods?

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  • My friends who have had children before all say the same thing -- the first couple months the baby is new and attached to the momma (and the boob), and food choices are really hard. They tell me horror stories of being so hungry that they eat an entire box of wheat thins (and are still hungry afterwards) because they had nothing "easy" to eat in the house. My friend Lisa is having her second child around the same time I am having my first. We both were on WW together and are trying to figure out "easy one-handed food." Something you can eat while nursing or carrying baby but still are healthy.

    It seems to me that protein and fruits are easy -- grilled chicken cut into strips, string cheese, hard-boiled eggs, apples, and plums. Besides baby carrots and snap peas (which get old fast), what about veggies?

    I make a pretty awesome kale and banana smoothie. Any other ideas?
  • Cucumber, if you don't mind the skin. Eatable like a chocolate bar
    Cherry tomatoes
    Frozen string beans - you can prob pour into bowl and nuke with one hand (but you'll need to leave a strainer/collander in the sink ready.) Brocolli too, and both you could eat with your hands.
    Cottage cheese? Pour in some spices and stir?

    I am sorry I don't have any experience to offer, I'm not a Mom, just looking forward to one day being one. This is a pretty handy post.
  • I've found that after 2 kids I can eat pretty much anything one handed. Try to nurse with a table of some sort within reaching distance, you'll want a place for water and maybe food. The only things I don't eat while nursing are hot foods (just in case of spillage) and really messy stuff (sloppy joes or something.)
    Most of the time, though, I work my meals around baby's eating schedule. I will eat right after he does so that I can do it without nursing. I've never been an on-demand nurser though (past the first few weeks), so that probably makes a difference.
    It's all trial and error, you'll figure out how to make it work!
  • Your friends are right, for the first few weeks at least. Keep a jug of water in your sitting/laying area and just eat whatever's easy. As a first time pregnant woman I worried far too much about particular nutrition in the first few weeks - realistically, you are just too exhausted to care and even on 3FC, you get a full pass to eat whatever's available for the time being, as long as you are eating. Many, if not most, all new moms will decide not to eat at all if it takes any prep work (ie. a blender!!) so keep it very simple. Grocery store sandwiches, paper plates, jugs of milk etc.
  • Paper plates are a necessity those first few weeks. You'll be really glad not to have the extra dishes.
  • Or an MIL who expects you to do all the dishes after she cooks elaborate meals in your house while you're hobbling around after 3 days labour and stiched to the wazoo!

    Sorry, that's for another thread.
  • ^^^ Definitely avoid having Sacha's MIL in your house after labor.

    Dang Sacha, that's really a drag! People are supposed to be uber helpful after a baby, not creating more work.
  • Next time I will let people know about the baby's arrival and tell them bluntly, I'm not doing any work, if you want to come over and see the baby, the mop or dirty laundry is over there. Admission fee!
  • Thank goodness my family near us is quite small (and helpful!)

    The only part of my husband's family who came to see us was his mother and his son from a previous marriage. They visited around 4 weeks post partum so I was 100% healed and did a lot of cooking. My hands were totally free cause grandma held the baby the whole time.

    Each mommy/situation is different but I didn't worry about having one-handed foods. What I did is made a bunch of dishes that froze well or could be thawed and dumped in a crock pot. I stock piled these in the freezer for about a month before my due date. I did take the time to sit down and eat (albeit quickly!) when DD was down for a nap. I felt OK letting her cry for a few minutes while I fed myself.
  • My experience was it really isn't that bad. The first few weeks if your baby isn't feeding they are pretty much asleep. And I didn't even have one free hand while breast feeding, so eating wasn't an option (if I wanted a drink DH was hold it while I sipped if he was home). Be prepared is the best thing, have a glass of water near by (BF at first can make you really thirsty) and have a drink when you swap breasts.

    For food, just make sure you have food you would normally eat in the house, stuff that requires little to no prep. I made sure I had some meals made before I gave birth so I could just pull them out of the freezer but honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought. The mummy hormones kicked in and I found even with little sleep I still had the energy to do what I needed to do.

    One thing I would look out for is stress eating - if you are like me and reach for the chocolate when stressed keep it away. BFing at first can be stressful, the hormones you've got going on etc. I ended up in tears with my first baby quite often in the first couple of weeks from pain and stress (feeling like a failure because BF wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be and I thought I was going to give it up).
  • I agree with jitterfish, the first few weeks are a bit easier in that although you are nursing constantly, usually the babies are so sleepy you can lay them down after nursing no problem. Or get a few carriers too, then you can hold baby hands free (I love my moby wrap). My DD would sleep for a couple of hours easily in a playpen for the first few months, then she realized, "hey, I'd rather sleep in mommy's arms", and it got tougher to lay her down! But eat whatever you normally eat that's easy and you can keep in the fridge. I usually had a big jug of water next to my favourite nursing spot and just snacked throughout the day.
  • I'm still curious to see if #2 will be a sleepy baby. Mine was awake 5am-10pm screaming and slept about 2-3 hours total in a 24 hour period when he was born! I sleep far better now at 10 months with 2 night wakings than I did in the first 6 months combined!
  • Oh Sacha I feel for you! Both mine were/are good sleepers. Both had about a two week period where they hated going to bed at night, they would have big wake periods in the evening, cluster feeding and you couldn't put them down but once they went to sleep they slept well (6+ hours, even all night). I could not imagine having a baby that didn't sleep well.
  • 6 hours! I get 6 hours at a time if I'm lucky now at 10 months, LOL! Well hopefully I put in my dues for this one and get a sleepy one next time.
  • YOU'RE SCARING ME!

    Our very close friends have a bad sleeper. She's still a bad sleeper and she's THREE and she's still a bad sleeper.