Post Pregnancy Receipes ( Pathiya Saapaadu)

Hello friends and moms-to-be, no this thread does not belong to post-pregnancy forum! it's understandable that we'll all get busy soon after birth so i thought why not we share now the special foods that each family gives the new mom:) i mean for the first month or so. here i'll try to recollect what all my mom gave me and later on update whenever something is remembered... do share your thoughts too:) i come from tamilnadu and am a brahmin. don't mistake that i'm mentioning my caste here.
i'm sure each region, state and caste in India have their own diet formulas:) so no offences please!
for the first month the rice is cooked very soft (not like pulao rice). lots of ghee is given to regain the strength lost.
tuvar dal is supposed to be gassy and heat generating so only mung dal in rasam etc.,
koottu ( a medley of dal and vegetables with coconut in general and other seasonings on normal days) is made only with
what we call country vegetables like snake-gourd, ridge-gourd etc., and no coconut. only pepper-cumin seasoning.
no pickles, fried items.
no potatoes and 'english' vegetables like carrot, cauliflower, green beans. spinach is also avoided and introduced slowly after 15 days.
no raw vege salads.
no coffee (sigh), tea
garlic is added (lots) in rasam to facilitate milk flow and also to remove any gas from the body.
no outside food (i broke the rule once and my baby cried coz of tummy ache one whole day).
and apart from food we get some ayurvedic legiyam (like chayavanaprash) to help the uterus contract fast to its original form
and regulate periods... this is had before food every day morning and then a glass of milk.
this is all i can recollect now. looking forward to the practices at your homes:) LATHA

Good start Traveller!!

Though i have ZERO knowledge on this,I am very eager to know about this..

I am also from T.Nadu.Also i hope my mom will also do the same when she comes here for my delivery :)

Take care.
-Cathy

dear friend,
i am north indian.here we believe that in 1st ten days mother can eat anything as this way the baby gets used to variety of food.after 10 days its usually light food like mung dal,ghiya veg etc with lots of pure ghee.also ,we make a sweet dish called pinjari which is given to mother with milk.its very fattening full of fried nuts.
after my 1st delivery i took all the traditionally recommended food.the result was that when i went for my after delivery checkup after 6 weeks my Hb level was low.i had not lost even a kg weight & was suffering from piles.doc got very angry.he put me on low fat ,sugar less diet.also he recommended lots of fruits ,water & spinach soup which till then i was told to avoid by elders of family.
this time round i am not going to follow any traditional food recommendation & will go for wahtever the doc suggests.
to u ladies also i will suggest .follow tradition but do listen to doc also.
love
pragati

dear pragati, i agree with what you say. these days our lifestyle, medical interventions etc., are much advanced than olden days so we don't need to follow these things exactly. my mom infact made lots of changes to my diet combining modern aspects well after checking with my doc. for ex in my mom's time new moms were not given water to drink throughout the day because of the belief that it'll cause water retention. my mil insisted that on my sil and she developed severe urinary infection which her doc said was coz of her less water intake. this is a valuable point from your experience. latha

Good thread traveller.

For first time moms like me, this was very useful information. I am also a tamil brahmin, so i guess most of the things my mom also would be giving me when she comes here.

Everything except ghee is ok with me I dont like ghee at all...But if I resist, everyone will start giving me all the goodness of ghee bonk

I would like to know what are the post pregnancy foods to be taken (I guess they say it as patthiya sapadu in Tamil).

My mom is coming here anways but she has got her visa from Jan 28th.

I am just having some slight feeling that baby might be early, I dont know why but I do have this feeling. I didnt disclose this to my husband or my mom as they might get worried. The midwife said that everything is normal, but somehow its just my feeling.

So, I dont want to ask my mom what are those foods. Anyways if the baby comes early, she will tell it over phone.

Anyways I thought if there are certain groceries required for that for which they have to be got from Indian stores, I might as well do it during the next week.

So can anyone please post the list of foods and their recipes?

hi ,i dont know about the traditional foods ,but you must take a lot of fibre diet ,fruits and vegetables ,lot of milk for calcium .look after yourself ,is this your first baby?take care,humera.

Hi,
Thanks for that quick response. Yes its my first baby

dear ptamil,
u talk to ur baby ,so tell him not to come early.i believe in this & used to tell my 1st baby .he came one day after the expected due date.do it daily.
even,then it is better to be prepared .u can tell ur mom that u want to finish ur shopping early so that u have enough time to spend with her ,so u need to shop.this way u may also learn about some item which only she can get from india.after delivery traditionally ,we r given some herbs which r only available in india.like in north we r given sundh(dry ginger) or gondh etc.
it is better to be fully prepared in the last mth.personally, i had my bags etc packed when i started my 36th week .
love
pragati

Hi pragati,

That seems a good one. I just pray everyday that the baby should be healthy. I am starting my leave from now i.e today was my last working day before the maternity leave and yes packing bags is the top itenary in my to-do list.

I do have made some list for myself, however if you could post what all you packed and how did you categorize them and some arranging tips at home so that even for my mom it would be easier to find things, it would be of great help