Question:
How do you feed small kids after surgery?

I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but tonight I suddenly got nervous about how I'm going to feed my children after surgery. I can't very well feed them hot dogs and pb&j until I'm back to normal food. What did some of you end up feeding your kids while your tummy was healing? I'm divorced, so it's not like I have an adult eater here to make cooking a regular size meal worth while. And the kids are 8 and 4 - still really picky - so they aren't going to go for most of my foods. HELP!    — Kathy B. (posted on December 10, 2001)

December 10, 2001
Hello Kathy, I have a 5 and 12 year old, and a husband. I found that no matter what, a lot of food would go to waste,even after on so called "normal foods". ( a lot of those we can't have either.)I have never thrown away so much food before, and I freeze a lot of stuff too. Just starting out, I would get some decent frozen entrees for them,(watch the sodium, etc...)A lot of "children based" meals are high in these.Also, most meat dept. will "break a package" for you, and there are a lot of frozen meats that are frozen so that you can get only 1-2 pieces, with out thawing the whole thing out. Good luck...
   — Marie A.

December 10, 2001
My kids are 12 and 8. When I first came home (after my mom left, who took care of the first week of meals!) I made a lot of meatloaf, potatoes, peas, basic stuff that wasn't too hard to make. Also pasta, like baked rigatoni, because it's easy and, well, because I'm Italian! Plus I would eat a little of the ricotta cheese with some sauce in the early days. If you make a dish like baked rigatoni or lasagna, you can make it well in advance and freeze individual portions, or one meal's worth for your whole family, in those ziplock freezer bags. That way you don't have to worry after surgery. Good luck! I have found that my kids are among my biggest supporters and I bet you'll find the same with yours!
   — Mary Ellen W.