Tips on Confinement Care & Recipes

We have many clients who told us, they want the modern confinement. Sure why not. We are not living in old times now, not like our  great-grandmother times who have to strictly follow the confinement rules because of their environment and weather. Such as no washing of hair, this is because of the cold weather, therefore the rule of no washing hair during confinement period. And why only use boiled water? It is because in the ancient times, people drink and bath from the well. And it is easy to get infection from untreated water.

We have always heard about the saying “Don’t wash your hair during confinement” but here is to an explanation, why it is essential to keep yourself clean and hygienic. Even our confinement nanny disagreed with this saying.

As we stay in a warm and humid tropical Asia country like Singapore, we tend to perspire more and if you do not wash your hair (for the whole of confinement!), you may get dandruffs, inflammation of the scalp or even suffer severe hair loss.

In a normal circumstances, it is perfectly alright to wash your hair and keep yourself clean.

Just a few points to take note of 🙂

  1. You may wash your hair few days (or some who wants to follow the more traditional rules, may do so after a week or 12 days) after the delivery but take note the water must be warm, the ideal temperature would be  40-45°c. There must not be too drastic temperature changes in the room and the bathroom, imagine stepping out of the hot shower into a cold air-con room. That is a big NO-NO! Make sure your windows are closed but with good air flow, to avoid catching a cold.
  2. Confinement nanny will brew the herbal bath 大风草 for you and you can wash your hair using the herbal bath. Confinement nanny may add in few pieces of ginger into the bath water. This is to purge out wind and effectively ‘seal’ the pores from getting the wind inside your body.
  3. Your bathing time must not be too long, and once done, please use a hair dryer to blow dry your hair immediately. This is to prevent headaches and arthritis.
  4. Please do not bath in the early morning when the weather is still cool or at night when the temperature has dropped. This is to prevent dampness from entering the body. The best time to bath is between 2pm and 5pm.

Some mommies will choose to wipe with rice wine, but not many can tolerate the smell. Our suggestion is to keep yourself clean and hygienic, especially during breastfeeding period.

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The benefits of turmeric rice (Recipe by our confinement nanny) 

There are many medicine benefits using turmeric as a spices,
you can even use it in your confinement food.

Turmeric is warm in nature, it can help with blood circulation and expel the wind, it also can help with the womb recovery.
If your appetite is low, turmeric can help to stimulate or increase your appetite.

Ingredients
1 cup of White Rice
Half cup of water
Turmeric powder/half teaspoon of turmeric juice
A pinch of salt
1 stalk of lemongrass
3 leaves of pandan
minced ginger half teaspoon
cooking oil 1 teaspoon


Cooking method:

  1. Coat the wok with some cooking oil. Once it heat up, pour in the minced ginger and fry until fragrant.
  2. Mix the white rice, turmeric powder and salt together, and pour inside the heated wok, stir fry it a little.
  3. Pour the stir-fried rice into the cooking pot, add water and put in lemongrass,pandan leaves and cook as per normal.

There you go, a delicious meal with plenty of health benefits!

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Papaya fish soup for breast milk supply (Recipe by our confinement nanny) 

For milk boosting soup, here is one of the most popular soup – The papaya fish soup.

Why papaya? Why not pineapple or other fruits? Reason is because of the rich enzyme  in papaya, that is especially effective for breastfeeding mums.

Ingredients:
Half green papaya 200g
Fish bone 1/2 kg
Ginger 5 slices
枸杞 a handful
Water 1 cup

Cooking method
1 Heat the frying pan, fry the fish bones till golden brown.
2 Add water into the soup pot, add in the fried fish bones
3 Simmer for 50 minutes till it becomes milky color.
4 Add papaya into the soup and continue to simmer for another 30 minutues.
5 Once its cooked, add 枸杞 to it and enjoy. 

Our confinement nanny also shared what are the food that new mums should avoid during their confinement such as Radish, cabbage, salted vegetables, banana, pineapple, orange and pears should be avoided.

Most importantly, new mums should have a balanced diet full of protein, vitamins and minerals. Do not take too much of a good stuff either. Try to rest as much as possible, let our confinement nanny do the work for you. Enjoy your confinement period, let our confinement nanny pamper you like a Queen. 🙂

This article is brought to you by STAR Confinement Nanny 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

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