Good food shop for week 1 with a newborn

[fanjobiscuits]

Am creating an online shopping list for week one with our first, whenever they decide to arrive. So when we get back home, we can just click 'go'. What should I put on it? I am thinking healthy tasty and easy to eat. So far I have:

Dates
Cheese
Bread
Chocolate (!)
Milk
Fizzy water
Orange juice
Nice squash
Tinned fruit
Tinned tuna
Peanut butter
Nuts and raisins

What else?!?

[BettyFlutterbly]

Plenty of fruit to make sure you don't get constipated! Someone gave us a huge fruit basket when we were in the hospital and it was so nice and fresh.
Freeze healthy homemade pasta sauces and then you can make huge big bowls of gnochi or pasta with tuna and sauce.

[RNJ3007]

One handed foods - nakd bars, granola bars, bananas, grapes, dried fruit. Cartons of juice, a couple of water bottles with a straw or sports top - one for side table in lounge, one for next to bed, one for changing bag.

We bulk cooked in advance - lasagne, burritos, quiche, pasta bakes, chili, curry and risotto.

After that, the slow cooker was essential as I could add things to in the morning and then stir when I went to get drinks.

This time we'll do the same, plus we bought bulk bags of spelt pasta, brown rice, risotto rice, lentils, spelt pizza bases, tomato purée and pasata for easy meals, and shelf stable soya cream, alpro desserts, stock pots etc for easy meals without much forethought! Couple of weeks before due date will buy and freeze casserole beef, some mince, chicken and roots veggies that I can prep and bag and freeze for easy stews/roast veggies post baby.

I also have friends who have promised me baked goods like home made Danishes and snack bars to keep me going!

[bunchofposy]

Squash! A big bag of nuts and fruit kept me going during breastfeeds too.

[TheFallenNinja]

Nothing that goes off quickly or needs anything more than opening to be edible.

[lightrain]

Agree biscuits and cake for visitors. I appreciated nice ready meals first week post birth, you're knackered so it's nice to nit gave to bother but feel that you're having a little treat by eating 'finest' whatever.

[Chocotrekkie]

Also long life uht milk is great to have in for coffee/tea.

[Chocotrekkie]

Biscuits/ cakes for visitors.

Nice cold drinks for you.

Thermal mug for keeping your drink warmer for longer was a god send for me. You can also ask visitors to make you on their way out.

[Parsnipcake]

I live on filled pasta, quiche, new potatoes and salad, innocent veg pots, various eggs, fruit salad and sushi. I have a graze box a couple of times a week, and I keep one in my changing bag.

[Fakebook]

Definitely apricots and I found snickers really helped boost my energy levels with the chocolate and nuts. I had a stash of nature valley cereal bars in my bedside drawer. Also invest in a jug with a lid for night time thirst. I lived on Ribena for the first month with both babies.

I'd also make and freeze soups and curries and pasta sauces now so you can just boil rice/pasta and defrost from the freezer.

[Sheshelob]

Pâté to fend off anaemia. Get the good stuff, though. My mum got in a load of cheap stuff - think 80s packed lunch, white-bread sandwiches - and it started to smell like cat food to me after three days of eating it.

Fresh, stuffed pasta is also a winner.

And custard creams, of course.

[craftycottontail]

My DS is 6 weeks old - I found the first two weeks normal food wise as DH did all the cooking and could cut up food for me or feed me while I fed DS!

It's week 3 onwards you really need to think about when you don't have extra hands. I'm still figuring out how to make proper meals on my own! But I do sometimes make a packed lunch to stick in the fridge for me at the same time as DH/me making his for work, then at least I have a sandwich I can grab at some point in the day. Sso plenty of bread and sandwich fillings for our shopping list!

[LizTerrine]

Just to clarify - spicy food is fine when breastfeeding! Or if you've one of the rare babies for whom it's not, they will soon let you know :).

[curlew]

Champagne!

[fanjobiscuits]

This is brilliant, thanks all! (and making me hungry!)

[2blessed]

Yogurt, granola, tinned fruit, baked beans, crackers/biscuits for cheese and a drum of vanish for any poo explosions...

[SkiBumMum]

My top tip is fresh chocolate milk. It's packed with protein and calories and gives a massive energy boost fast. DH runs marathons - it is his recovery drink of choice and he made me drink gallons.

Second the one handed thing.

I lost a lot of blood and was anaemic. DM arrived with her slow cooker and pounds of diced beef from her favourite farm shop

YY to chocolate. Bars of plain simple Cadbury's for midnight feasts

Moist Andrex/loo roll is great if you have stiches / helps you feel fresher.

Good luck!

[GeordieCherry]

Cereal bars & bread for toast. Hard to eat cereal one-handed

If you want to go healthier, choose those Nakd bars. Oh, & it's entirely possible (with a large enough mug) to drink a tin on fruit salad

Congratulations too!

[dinkystinky]

Fresh fruit for bf snacks - one handed food and keeps you regular. Dried apricots and dates good for snacking too.

Extra nappies and washing stuff - you'll get through more than you could believe possible in the first couple of weeks.

Pitta bread, houmous, ham, salad bits, dips - all good quick nutritious lunch foods.

[Brugmansia]

I ate huge bowls of yoghurt and muesli - healthy, filling and easy to eat one handed while breast feeding.

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

Make everyone who comes to visit bring you a meal!

[Sunnysummer]

Anything you can eat with a spoon... It's the safest thing when you have a small fragile head permanently attached to your chest, either feeding or asleep :-) I made lots of soups to freeze, but actually preferred things like stews and lasagne, again due to the ease-of-spilling issue. Also, things that are comforting to snack on and feel like a well deserved treat at 5am... I loved nut bars and yoghurt pots. I also ended up buying quite a few BPA-free water bottles, so that I could gulp water no matter where we ended up feeding.

Of course you may be as lucky as my big sis, and have a baby who sleeps calmly in his bassinet 18 hours a day and needs to be woken for feeds, in which case you won't need to worry at all!

Congratulations and good luck

[LadyFlumpalot]

Bananas and strawberries. A smoothie maker or cheapy hand blender if you don't have one. I lived on fruit smoothies and toast for a week.

Chocolate
Tea bags/coffee
Cereal
Ice cream!
Soup
Milk.

Practical stuff

Extra breast pads and industrial strength sanitary towels, you do not want to run out of either in the middle of the night accidentally. Trust me. Cotton wool does not work as an alternative.

[Rockchick1984]

Filled pasta
Lasagne / ready meal pasta bake type things
Slow cooker meals - throw mince and a jar of chilli sauce in first thing, micro rice at tea time (not spicy though if breastfeeding!)
Sandwich filler type things - once DH went back to work he would make buttys for his lunch and also make me some so I didn't need to remember to eat!
Jacket potatoes, can be thrown in the oven and left for ages so no worries about burning them if you are mid fees when they are ready :)

[Xmasbaby11]

Cereal bars
easy savoury meals, eg quiche, jacket potatoes, salad

List is good so far!