Your Diet After The Lap Band Procedure
Once you’ve made the decision to undergo the Lap Band procedure, there is a wide array of information you must absorb to further your results and maintain health both before and after the surgery. An issue that arises quite often before the procedure is, what can I eat in the days after the surgery? Here are the dietary guidelines you should follow after undergoing Lap Band surgery.
Diet During Hospitalization
In addition to water, your post surgery will consist of clear liquids, including gelatin, clear juice, and broth. In time, you will progress to blended and pureed foods. These foods are recommended so that the opening, now limited in width, does not get blocked, which could cause vomiting.
Diet At Home
After your hospital stay, the first and second weeks after surgery you will continue to eat pureed foods in small amounts. During the third week, slowly, you may add soft fruits, vegetables, baked potatoes (no skin), rice, macaroni, noodles, crackers, ready-to-eat corn or rice cereals, and crisp toast. When adding solid foods, CHEW SLOWLY, as not to block the opening to your stomach, possibly causing vomiting.
You can add cheese - sliced, cottage cheese, hard boiled or scrambled eggs, and fish in addition to the pureed foods such as blended meat, yogurt (excluding raspberry or other types containing seeds) in addition to pureed foods and liquids. Once you reach the fourth to sixth weeks after surgery, you may begin to include meats that are ground after cooking, such as chicken, veal, beef, turkey, and pork, to your diet.
Foods To Avoid During The Diet
These foods and your effects with them change from person to person, however these seem to pose the most consistent problems with post lap band surgery patients. These foods include: a) tough meats, hamburger more than any, b) fibrous vegetables such as corn and celery, c) oranges or grapefruit, d) fried foods, e) skins, seeds, or cores of fruits and vegetables, f) bread, g) milk – should be consumed in the form of pudding, yogurt, etc., and h) spicy foods.
