Snacks for hospital bag

[blushingmare]

Anyone have any good tips for snacks for your hospital bag? I don't want to end up only with sweets!

Take a straw to drink through.

Nuts and raisins

Not had baby yet but have Jaffa cakes in mine (only 7 mins to digest a jaffacake, footballers use them to keep energy up at half time without filling up) I was also recommended malt loaf, have hob nobs, jelly babies, isotonic drinks. I probably have enough food for a couple of days and choose stuff I'd probably take to a half marathon with me back in my running days!! I'll probably make sandwiches as well before I head in!

I didnt take snacks as I wasnt allowed to eat in labour.

I took a packet of some 'posh' cereal bars (think they were cherry and dark chocolate)

I took a bottle of lucozade, but as I ended up needing a cs (non emergency) it wasn't really needed.

Those big bottles of water with the sports cap. I was so thirsty in the 24hrs after having DS.

The staff in the hospital I was in were great. I got onto the ward at 11am ish and they brought me some sandwiches and fruit and yoghurt, then later on I told them I was really hungry (later in the evening) and they found me some more sandwiches. I sound like a pig!

IME I wasn't hungry at all during labour but my DH was starving - make sure you take some food for your birthing partner too!

I took straws, lucazade
Glucose tabs
Haribo tangfastic

Best stuff I took was graze snack packs. My dh had had 6 boxes just before the birth so we stashed some away.

Have to admit that apart from the lucazade I didn't eat anything but they were good for when I was up on the ward

Flapjack- quick boost from the sugar and slow release energy from the oats. My friend is a long distance runner and she eats a flapjack before a race, she swears it gives her more energy.
I had mini chedders and pretzels too because they're yummy. Pack enough for you DH/DP/Birthing partner too.

I recommend not including Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Good luck .

It sounds like there's a story behind that recursivemoon...!

Soft grain cereal bars like Nutri-Grain.

Dextrose sweets.

I'm having my first dc (eventually- come on baby!!) so no idea if it's a good thing, but I'm going with what works on triathlons- the main one being coconut water. More hydrating that water or those awful isotonic drinks but doesn't make you want to vomit because it's natural and not full of sugar and yuk.

I had no desire to eat or drink anything during my horrendously long 3 day labour except water.

But I'd advise taking different types of food/drink as you can't be sure what you'll feel like eating/drinking during labour.

Where I had dd, there was plenty provided for the mum, they had ingredients and a blender for making banana smoothies, sandwiches, yoghurts, fruit and obviously provided water. Maybe it'd be worth checking what they provide for you.

So far I've packed 3 bottles of water and 6 flapjacks. I am rubbish.

I just took a packet of biscuits, but I wasn't the least bit interested in eating during labour anyway. I was starving afterwards though.

At ante natal classes we were told not to eat during labour in case of an emergency requiring anaesthetic.

Ur hospital talk bull bunbaker I'd had some of the hospital lunch & a nibble of the afternoon tea. I ended up with emsc under ga in the evening. they just make you drink a small cup of this really vile liquid that's the consistency of gaviscon before they put you under. At the end of the day if you can stomach it u want to keep your energy up. The chances of a general are sliiiiim

My sister was also told to stop eating and drinking anything but water as it was likely she'd have an emcs, which she did end up having. They didn't give a more specific reason for it though.

I didn't take anything with dd and ended up being in labour for 100 years or what felt like 100 years and midwife had to hunt me down some barley sugars which I hated to give me some energy, I kept spitting them out so she had to resort to neat cordial which is foul!! I very regret not taking in some energy boosting snacks and they are top of the list this time... Watching with interest

melliebobs It was nearly 12 years ago, so perhaps things are different now, but that is what I was told.

Take sports cap bottles of lucozade, they are great cos you can drink them at any angle!

For after the birth, you really want things to help soften your poo. Dried apricots and fig rolls, for example, and maybe some squash so you drink lots and lots.

• jelly babies
• flapjacks
• cereal bars
• apples
• bananas
• dextrose sweets
• chocolate
• apricot
• prunes

This isn't just for labour but for the post-natal ward too. After DC1, I was taken up to the ward just after breakfast so there was no food available for another 3 hours & at lunch I discovered you ordered your food 24 hours in advance so I had the meal ordered by the lady who'd been in my bed the day before which was not something I would have ordered. I was starving by the time DP re-appeared at about 4pm, luckily well stocked up with provisions.

Ellas kitchen fruit stage 1 pouches...like smoothies but don't need fridge and can suck out of pouch at any angle

• I took stash of sports top water bottles,2 I put in freezer and grabbed as left house so had cold water for later.cartons of fresh orange I added to ice water later. (ps don't chuck water bottles...1 keep next to bed. so can drink post labour without having to pour jugs in case c s etc; 1 for using to pour water over your bits as you pee to make it hurt less

-malt loaf for midnight snacks pre & post

• friend brought strawberries after yum!
• I instructed visitor they couldn't come unless they brought pizza (but I'd been in a week by then and was sick of nhs meals)

Definitely pack for the post-labour ward too, in case you end up there.

Cereal bars are good, but if you can get some orange juice, fruit etc that helps - hospitals are such dry places, I spent my entire time craving fruit!