Gum

At what point after surgery can we begin chewing sugar free gum?

Well you know, to get that stupid protein taste out of my mouth, I was sucking on sugar free mints right off the bat as long as I didn't chew them and let them melt totally in my mouth.  Now I chew gum and I would tend to think that I would wait until you are on solid food before doing the gum thing because if you accidentally swallowed it at this stage, it could be harmful for you....and painful.  I accidentally swallowed gum a few weeks ago and i freaked out.....but nothing happened.  I was relieved after that.

Thanks for the advice!!! I have never swallowed gum in my entire life so I'm not worried about that! Do you think the juices of the gum would effect my stomach? I am not very hungry but I feel that gum will help me forget that I am not eating anything all day.

So you sucked on sugar free candy right out of surgery and your stomach was fine?

Well you will need to watch your sugar alcohol content of the gum.  You may not be able to tolerate it just yet.  As for the sugar free mints, I didn't have a problem with them at all.  Once they melted down enough till it was almost nothing, I was able to chew them till it WAS nothing and then swallow.  No biggie :)

sipping all the time helps a lot with that.  I think if you don't have any reaction to artificial sweeteners and let the mint or SF candy dissolve to liquid, it should be fine.  But ask your doc to be sure. 

Does anyone else have any experience or input? Anything you could share would be very helpful!

My surgeon let me have a piece right after I passed my leak test. God bless 'im.

Good question!  Today was the first day that the taste in my mouth drove me crazy!  I was wondering about mints!

Hey Heather~

Was the bad taste in your mouth from protein? I had a bad taste in my mouth and I didn't even have my protein yet. It was from the lemon propel.

I assume it's from the protein shakes.  Other than that I've just had fruit punch crystal light and sf jello.