Self Care - Post Delivery

Do's
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- Drink only luke warm water for few months.
- Boil Carom Seeds (ajwain) and drink that water after straining out the seeds. However, don't use heavy doses of the seed (this might lead to UTI - urinary tract infection). A quarter teaspoon ajwain in a day should be sufficient.
- Consuming walnuts is believed to help in baby's brain development. Consume one walnut daily.
- Try to breast-feed the baby as much as possible. Not only, it is good for baby, but this will also help in regaining your figure.


Dont's
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- Don't use cold water for bathing, washing hands etc. Always use warm water.
- If you've been operated, avoid long sittings for initial few months.
- Don't pick up baby for longer duration.
- Don't rush to workout to regain body shape.
Basically anything strenuous should be avoided for roughly 4-6 months.
Listen to your body; if something hurts, avoid it.

How to get cold water super quick!

Wrap your water bottle in a wet cloth and put it in freezer. Water would be cold super quick.
I have tried this and it worked pretty fast.

Dengue

A couple of weeks ago my wife was diagnosed with Dengue (NS1). She is recovering now and following are the things that we have learnt. This is just my experience and must not be used for jumping to any conclusion without talking to a doctor.

Symptoms:

• High Fever shooting upto 102 degrees. After taking some medicine (Crocin etc.) the fever comes down to 99 degress but doesn't completely go away. The temperature rises again in 6-8 hours.

• Shivering similar to Malaria

• Excruciating pain in bones and joints

• Itching in body accompanied with slight rashes

• Nausea

• Decrease in platelet count 

Treatment: As per doctors, there is no definite treatment for Dengue virus as on today's date. Instead proper monitoring and symptomatic treatment is the only option.

However, we applied following things:

• Blood test for platelet count on daily basis. When the count fell below 1 lakh, we started monitoring the count twice a day.

• Lots of liquid intake. In our case, we gave 2-3 coconut waters, oranges, apples and pomegranates on daily basis. Also as much water as possible.

• Papaya leaf juice. Take one fresh papaya leaf, wash it properly, grind it, filter it, add some water and drink as first thing in the morning. Typically half cup juice should suffice.

• Proper hygiene. The body becomes prone to catching infections, hence it is mandatory to keep everything as clean as possible.

• Although we were trying multiple things, hence its not possible to pin point what helped us, but from what we've heard, papaya leaf juice is the best thing.

• Complete rest.

Avoid:

• Outside food.

• Someone who had suffered from dengue told me that Brufane is as bad as poison in dengue. 

Microwave usage tips

- Avoid operating on an empty microwave

- Use round containers instead of rectangular or square ones. This helps in even cooking

- Microwaves perform better (in terms of efficient cooking) in case of flat base containers

- Use few smaller containers instead of one large container for re-heating food

Electricity saving tips - At Home - Washing Machine

- Try to use washing machine only when it is fully loaded

- If clothes are soaked for sometime before washing, then the washing machine can perform same task in somewhat lesser time. This can cut down the detergent cost also.

- If feasible, use sunlight to dry clothes instead of using the dryer

- If you're using semi-automatic washing machine and using spin shower, then ensure that the water pressure is optimally adjusted. Having water supply at full force would only waste more water. In most of the semi-automatic models, if water is falling in wash-tub also along with dryer, then it is actually wastage (unless you plan to re-use that water for next set of clothes)

- Avoid opening lid of the dryer when in use. Actually, when we open the lid & dryer's timer is still on; the electricity is being wasted. The motor is consuming electricity, but the brakes applied by the lid are just holding the dryer from spinning. It would be much better to turn off the timer (or the entire machine)

Electricity saving tips - At home - AC

- You don't really need the AC at 16 degrees throughout the night. Use an appropriate temperature judiciously. Normally a 25-27 degree setting can suffice. 

- Regular service of AC can save lots of energy as well as electricity bill.

- Using appropriate curtains can also help your AC perform faster & more efficiently.

- If buying a new device like AC or refrigerator, look for star rating on the product.

Electricity saving tips - At home - Refrigerator

- Adjust your refrigerator setting as per the requirement. For e.g., during a normal day, you won't really need to have your refrigerator set at minimum temperature. So select a moderate setting. Minimum setting might be applied on the days when you've some guests visiting your home & there may be frequent demand for cool thirst quenchers.

- Keep multiple water bottles in refrigerator. This way, you won't need to refill water bottles frequently. Refilling, then can be done once in a day. For e.g., if I can manage with just three water bottles, I keep five of them; and refill all of them in the night. This way, the electricity needed for cooling water bottles is required only during night; and since at that time the refrigerator is not being operated by anyone; it happens efficiently.

- Don't keep hot or warm food in refrigerator. Allow the food to come to room temperature first. This would help the compressor in efficient cooling & lesser energy consumption.

- Keep sufficient distance between back of your refrigerator & the wall.

- Whenever going out for some days, empty your refrigerator & switch it off. However, you must ensure that absolutely nothing remains in the refrigerator otherwise you will have to deal with whole lot of mess upon returning.

- If you've kids at home, then you would need to be extra vigilant to ensure that the refrigerator door doesn't stay open. Besides, opening the door every now & then would also reduce the performance & increase the power consumption.