Medical Card say 1/4 cup food

SRKS72 · November 27, 2006

When I left the hospital last week the nurse gave me a medical card to keep in my wallet. He said to show it when eating out to order off the childs menu in the future. It says I can only eat 1/4 of a cup of food. My doctor allowed me to eat start eating pudding, apple sauce, Jello - two times a day and then get my 40-60 protien grams in with my shakes a couple days after surgery. I can eat an entire pudding/apple sauce cup. They are 1/2 cup and I am full until I drink (even an hour later) then I am starving again. My doctor called for my 1 week check today and told me to move on to mushy foods.

I guess my question is, why does it say 1/4 cup on the card?

CCBSTX · November 28, 2006

My guess is that it's made up for gastric bypass patients. My card says the same thing. They do mostly bypass patients. Anyway, for the most part you will be able to eat more than 1/4 cup. It isn't always consistent and depends upon what you eat as well. I can eat about 2 cups right now, but I am not as restricted as I used to be.

Shawn

TamifromAL · November 28, 2006

I've wondered about that, too. You couldn't get in enough nutrition if you stuck with 3 meals of 1/4 c. each. It might work if you eat every 2 hours or so. I eat about 1 to 1-1/2 c. per meal, plus a snack or two.

And that's on the Inamed Lap-band card, so it shouldn't have anything to do with gastric bypass.

Tami

niche · November 28, 2006

i think it's because the actual size of the pouch is 1/4 c. but while you're eating some of the food goes through the stoma allowing you to eat more than the size of the pouch. i think the card just says that to avoid litigation for stretched pouches, slips etc. if someone eats more than they should.

Persimmon · November 29, 2006

Um...cuz somehow whoever gave you that card doesn't understand the difference between RNY patients and bandsters?

Properly restricted bandsters eat between 1 and 1 1/2 cups of food and even that much can make it hard to get into the proper 1200-1500 cal/day range.

3 oz chicken = 1/2 cup. To even just get in the 50-60g Protein you'd need to eat 8-9oz chicken. That would put you under 400 cal/day and not allow for any sort of healthy diet. It's basic math.

Bandsters put on RNY protocols do not do well...without the rearranging that confuses the body (so that it neglects to go into starvation mode because it's busy with other things), weight loss will be poor as will health.

If you blocked off both ends of the pouch, it would be about 1/2 cup in size...but food is always trickling through as we eat. Part of the trick is learning to eat slower than we did pre-op but not so slowly that we allow too much trickling, thus meals should be no longer than 20-30 minutes. Once you're fully healed and back on solids you should be able to eat a proper bandster meal comfortably....discomfort and difficulty aren't the point.

Nancy

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