Nourishing yourself is essential for caring for your newborn—here’s how to make it happen

When a newborn enters your home, ensuring adequate feeding becomes the primary focus. New parents find themselves consumed with tracking feeds and diaper counts, particularly during those intense early weeks when these metrics dominate household conversation and concern.

However, here’s the critical reality that often gets overlooked: maintaining your own nutrition is essential for sustaining the energy required to change diapers, respond to middle-of-the-night wake-ups, and remain composed during extended crying sessions. This need becomes even more pressing for breastfeeding parents, whose bodies burn approximately 500 additional calories daily to produce milk.

The challenge is real: How do you maintain adequate nutrition when you have less time than ever to plan, shop for, and prepare meals? These strategies will help you secure good food even when your arms are constantly full of newborn.

Preparation Before Baby Arrives

Request Meals Instead of More Baby Items

Friends and family naturally want to celebrate your baby’s arrival with gifts, often purchasing more items than you actually need. Redirect their generosity toward practical support by requesting prepared meals for your freezer instead of another outfit or blanket.

“This approach works particularly well for baby showers, especially if this isn’t your first child and you already have adequate baby gear,” explains Jennifer House, a Calgary-based registered dietitian nutritionist specializing in prenatal and postpartum nutrition.

Invest in Essential Equipment

Anne Bergman, owner of The Kitchen Director—a Toronto consulting service helping people develop confident meal preparation skills—recommends three critical purchases for expectant parents: “A stand-up freezer if your space permits, a large capacity slow cooker, and a hands-free phone headset.” The headset proves invaluable for keeping your hands available while stirring pots or feeding your baby.

Double Recipes and Freeze Strategically

Doubling recipes requires only marginally more preparation time than cooking single portions, notes House. Since you likely won’t be sharing sit-down meals together during the newborn phase, Bergman suggests using silicone muffin pans to freeze individual servings. “Once frozen, the portions resemble hockey pucks and easily release from the silicone. Store your hockey pucks in labeled freezer bags for convenient future use.”

Schedule Meal Assembly Dates

Take advantage of meal assembly services that eliminate hours of chopping and preparation while still providing homemade quality. Services like SupperWorks in Ontario, What’s For Dinner in Victoria, or Dashing Dishes in Calgary allow you to prepare multiple freezer meals in a single session.

Ann-Marie Burton of Burlington, Ontario, visited SupperWorks before her third baby arrived. “As a busy mother, knowing I had simple, healthy dinners ready in the freezer provided tremendous relief. The SupperWorks experience proved much more efficient than attempting advance preparation at home,” says Burton, founder of momstown.ca, a popular national network of online and in-person mothers’ groups.

Arrange Grocery Delivery

“Plan for grocery deliveries during the first month after your baby arrives, either through a commercial service or through willing friends and family,” suggests Bergman. Regardless of how many casseroles fill your freezer, you’ll still require fresh produce, dairy products, and other perishables.

Maintaining Your Nutrition After Baby Arrives

Stock One-Handed Foods

Prioritize foods you can consume while feeding or holding your baby. House recommends trail mix, fresh fruit, peeled hard-boiled eggs, whole-grain crackers, pre-portioned cheese, yogurt cups, whole grain muffins, and oatmeal cookies. These options provide nutrition without requiring you to set down your baby.

Incorporate Protein in Every Meal

Protein-rich foods provide sustained energy—a significant advantage when you’re rocking a fussy baby for extended periods. Include eggs, legumes, meat, fish, nuts, yogurt, and milk regularly throughout your day.

Embrace Simplicity

There’s absolutely nothing inadequate about dinner consisting of scrambled eggs with cheese on whole-grain toast accompanied by raw vegetables, House emphasizes. For breakfast, blend a smoothie you can drink while holding your baby.

Bergman recommends quick soups assembled from low-sodium store-bought broth combined with whatever ingredients you have available. Don’t overlook pantry staples—you can create nutritious meals using canned beans, pasta, jarred sauces, and frozen vegetables.

Direct Visitors to Kitchen Tasks

Guests genuinely want to help, Bergman observes, so overcome any hesitation about directing them to the kitchen. Your baby’s admirers can wash and slice fruit, prep vegetables for dinner, or simply handle dishwasher duties while you focus on your newborn.

Keep Healthy Snacks Visible and Accessible

Create several “nursing stations” throughout your home with water bottles and non-perishable snacks within easy reach. Dehydration and hunger can intensify fatigue and affect milk production, so make consuming adequate fluids and calories as effortless as possible.

Use Your Slow Cooker Strategically

A slow cooker becomes your best friend during the newborn phase. Load ingredients in the morning during a calm moment, and return hours later to a complete meal requiring zero additional effort. Many recipes require minimal preparation and produce multiple servings.

Accept Takeout as a Valid Strategy

While home-prepared food typically offers superior nutrition and value, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with occasionally ordering meals. In fact, scheduling a regular weekly or biweekly takeout night provides an evening free from cooking and cleanup to anticipate.

Special Considerations for Breastfeeding Parents

Increase Caloric Intake Appropriately

Breastfeeding requires significant additional calories—typically 450-500 beyond your pre-pregnancy needs. Don’t restrict calories or attempt weight loss during the early postpartum period. Your body needs adequate fuel to produce milk and recover from childbirth.

Stay Hydrated

Milk production requires substantial fluid intake. Keep water bottles in every location where you typically nurse. Many parents find that the letdown reflex triggers thirst, so having water immediately available prevents dehydration.

Choose Nutrient-Dense Foods

Focus on foods providing maximum nutrition relative to portion size. Nuts, seeds, avocados, eggs, whole grains, fatty fish, and colorful produce offer concentrated vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats that support both your recovery and milk production.

Monitor Your Energy Levels

Persistent exhaustion beyond typical new-parent fatigue may indicate inadequate caloric intake or nutritional deficiencies. If you’re struggling with energy despite reasonable sleep opportunities, consult your healthcare provider about your diet and consider whether supplements might help.

Creating Sustainable Eating Patterns

The newborn phase is temporary, but establishing sustainable eating patterns now prevents poor habits from becoming entrenched. While convenience matters during this period, maintaining some structure around meals helps normalize eating patterns as your baby grows.

Try to eat at relatively consistent times each day, even if meal duration and formality vary. This rhythm helps regulate your metabolism and energy levels while establishing a foundation for eventual family mealtimes.

When to Seek Additional Support

If you’re struggling to eat adequately, feel overwhelmed by meal planning, or notice concerning weight changes, reach out for professional guidance. Registered dietitians specializing in postpartum nutrition can provide personalized strategies that work for your specific situation.

Remember that nourishing yourself isn’t selfish—it’s essential for your health and your capacity to care for your baby. The oxygen mask principle applies: you must take care of your own needs before you can effectively meet someone else’s needs.

Your baby requires a healthy, energized parent more than they need you to be perfect or self-sacrificing to the point of depletion. Give yourself permission to prioritize your nutrition, accept help, and recognize that feeding yourself well is feeding your baby well.