Question:
It hurts when I eat.
I just started on pureed, soft foods. I eat slowly and am sitting up straight but it hurts when it hits the stomach. Is this normal? Haven't had anything in it but liquids for about 4 weeks. Had my RNY on 2/12/09. Am I not chewing well? Tried fish yesterday and chicken today. — hippylady7211 (posted on March 3, 2009)
March 3, 2009
Try using a baby spoon to make sure your bites are small to start. After a
while you can take bigger bites. Chewing should not be a factor if you are
eating pureed soft foods since it is already smooth. Check with your doctor
if this keeps up. You are watching the sugars and fats in your foods? These
can cause tummy problems.
— trible
March 3, 2009
Oh chicken was hard to eat right away...Don;t give up just completely, but
try it in a week or two...Dense proteins like meats are very hard to adjust
to for some. I had to make my chicken very moist and even soupy with
broth...Almost everything I ate made me feel like you do! But it does get
better and food does get more and more tolerable. Go really slow and very
small bites...You still should be "chewing" even pureed
food...The saliva enzymes will help it "digest" much better in
your mouth. Your stomach acid is mostly gone so that food can sit heavy
until it dumps into your intestines where it meets up with some
acid....SO... Still chew for at least 15-20 bites before you swallow
slowly...and give it time...don't give up on foods, because one day you
can't eat them and the next day you can...So revisit foods after you give
it some time...Hope that helps! Papaya and/or pineapple chewable tablets
also have enzymes that tear apart protein and help you digest food that
doesn't sit well...My Nut told me to get some...It really helps! Tastes
great too!
— .Anita R.
March 3, 2009
I wasn't able to handle dense proteins like chicken and fish at all until
about month 4. My surgeon said if you have trouble with a food, then don't
eat it for a few weeks, then try again - and there are some that never do
well with them. I am 6 months out now and can tolerate maybe a couple oz,
but it takes me 20-30 minutes to get them down now, and I have to take
"VERY" small bites and chew until pureed consistency. Instead of
chicken and fish, I ate fat free refried beans, cottage cheese and
applesauce or some other fruit that was very soft, yogurt - but to this
day, I can still have problems with the dense proteins.
— Wendy M.
March 3, 2009
I learned my lesson eating meats too soon after surgery. I ate some tuna
(no mayo) and could feel it traveling through my system all day. It was an
interesting science experiment but very painful. I'm just lucky it didn't
get stuck! The only time I felt pain was when I ate meat - no matter how
much I chewed it.
— Muggs
March 4, 2009
Eating is not suppose to hurt unless of course you eat too fast or don't
chew well enough. Let me go back to eating too fast. If that happens, it
usually comes back up pretty quickly. Pain also can happen if you eat too
much. You should check with your doctor to make sure there are no other
problems just in case. Start righting down how it feels, the time you ate,
what you ate, how you chewed and of course portion. If you right it down,
you won't get tripped up when the doctor starts asking you questions about
the pain. Make sure you document the pain because our brains tend to
forget once the pain is gone. I hope it gets better and there isn't
anything wrong. Best wishes for you.
— Corina C
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