International - Feed yourself, feed your family: good nutrition and healthy cooking for new moms and growing families happy cooking for new moms and growing families

W hen you had just one appetite to satisfy (yours), heeding the I-need-something-to-eat call was fairly simple.

Assuming you took the usual approach, you aimed for three meals a day, snacked here and there, and didnt stress too much about a late lunch, your growling stomach, your partner bringing home take-out Chinese (again), or having nothing in the fridge but a foil packet of ketchup and an apple or two. If your energy dipped at work, perhaps you grabbed coffee (and a handful of chocolates from a colleagues candy dish) and powered through to dinnertime without a snack. Maybe you were the type to let your cupboards run bare like Old Mother Hubbard before you dragged yourself to the store, since you ate most meals out. Maybe you were a foodie who enjoyed showing off occasionally at the stove. Or maybe you were somewhere in between, with most staples on hand and a few reliable recipes up your sleeve. In short, whether you were an ordinary eater or an all-out gourmet, you probably didnt plan your whole life around what and when you ate.

And then, one day, you werent feeding just one person.

Even if you consider yourself to be a fairly healthful eater and you score low on bad habits, motherhoodfrom pregnancy through nursing and beyondcan upend your approach to food and hunger, and your virtuous eating style can go right out the window, along with the pants that no longer fit.

If youre pregnant right now, you already know that eating takes on a new dimension when you have more than your own needs at stake. If youre currently nursing, the same holds true: youre feeding another body now. And if you have a nursling and other hungry folks both large and small in your household who look to you when they get hungry, your responsibilities will weigh even more heavily. Even if you have a helpful partner or older child who can help in the kitchen, you may be feeling that your motherload is harder to carry than a napping baby and an overloaded diaper bag.

But theres no need for guilt, anxiety, or whatever other stressful emotions mealtime may set off in your household. We think there has been way too much of that over the years when it comes to food and eating and being a mother. Now that youve gone from me to family, dont set a place at the table for guilt and its cousins. Instead, we want you to replace it with pleasure: the pleasure of preparing and eating good food for yourself and others, of feeding the ones you love, of joining together to nourish and nurture one another. Thats what Feed Yourself, Feed Your Family is all about.

At La Leche League International (LLLI), our mission is to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother. So how does eating figure into our mission? We think theres a direct link: whether or not youre new to breastfeeding, youre more likely to be successful at it if you take care of yourself by eating well. That includes meeting your nutritional needs as well as your childs at various stages of motherhood, and your desire for good-tasting, healthful, simple-to-prepare food, from snacks to breakfasts, lunches, and dinners (and dessert, too).

If you eat well, your family will, too. Your growing babys nutritional needs are met beautifully by breastfeeding. For older kids and other adults in your household, your commitment to taking care of yourself by eating properly will translate into satisfying family meals or meals for one or two, healthy snacks, quick and easy lunches, special-occasion foods, and treats, as well as a well-stocked kitchen, refrigerator, and pantry. With the appealing and adaptable recipes, nutritional information, and practical tips youll find in the pages that follow, you wont scramble at mealtimes or have to head to the grocery store more than you want to. No more cupboard running barethe only thing you and Old Mother Hubbard will have in common is that youre both moms!

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