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