Soft foods yay! Suggestions?

[Melanie28 22]

I can start soft foods today! I'm a little nervous because I don't want to overdo it. Any suggestions? I also have a couple questions on what qualifies as a soft food? It just seems like such a broad term. Can I do tortillas?! Bagels? I want to stay on track. Help!

[miiasan 370]

your doctor's office probably has a list of foods - I know mine did. Pretty much anything with the consistency of yogurt or cottage cheese. Scrambled eggs, re-fried Beans, etc. I wouldn't do tortillas or Bagels for at least a few more months. Your stomach is still trying to heal from surgery and you don't want something to get stuck. Again, check with your doctor's office - and I think there is probably a thread here somewhere that covers this subject pretty well...

Congrats on getting to the soft food stage. I remember that going on soft foods helped make me feel more normal after shakes for so many weeks.

[JamieLogical 8,727]

Definitely NOT tortillas or Bagels. First of all, those are carbs and you should be steering clear of them in general (not just through the post-op food phases). Second of all, I wasn't allowed any "soft whole grains" until I was in my solid food stage.

For soft foods I was allowed yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken and tuna salad, scrambled eggs, oatmeal with Protein powder, flaky fish, ground or chopped meats, legumes (Beans and lentils), and canned or steamed veggies.

I recall doing a lot of string cheese, shelly's baked ricotta (Google the recipe), scrambled eggs with melted cheese and taco sauce, refried Beans, and Wendy's chili.

[Ryan TN 348]

Soft foods on my list was scrambled eggs, yogurt, refried Beans, stuff with a puree consistancy.

[IncredibleShrinkingMan 437]

Soft foods are different from purees...but sometimes the lines are drawn in different places. Most surgeons who advance you to soft foods more slowly call a wider variety of things purees, like mashed potatoes. Those who let you proceed to soft foods pretty rapidly call more things soft foods that are really just purees. I think that if it moves when you tilt the spoon back and forth, it's a puree, and if not, it's a soft food. Cottage cheese with small curds would probably be a puree under this definition (it is allowed in puree stage by most surgeons), whereas mashed potatoes, unless extremely buttery (obviously don't want that), would be a soft food. eggs are often allowed sooner than they should be...I could have them and many other types of cheeses in puree, but I didn't do that well with them, and I think they are really soft foods. I was also told that as long as I could chew it into a puree, it could count. So anything you are willing to chew 100 times (with the exception of tough meats and stuff), I would say you're good to go. But please double check with your own care team.

[Melanie28 22]

Well I'm starting week 5 and the purée phase was my last phase. The surgeons list says I can have bread, rice, Pasta, crackers. The last two weeks were scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. Idk if maybe I didn't mention how far post op I was. I have my one month follow up next week so maybe I should ask? I'm going to stay safe this week and not go too crazy. But I was pretty excited about rice

[JamieLogical 8,727]

Well I'm starting week 5 and the purée phase was my last phase. The surgeons list says I can have bread, rice, Pasta, crackers. The last two weeks were scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. Idk if maybe I didn't mention how far post op I was. I have my one month follow up next week so maybe I should ask? I'm going to stay safe this week and not go too crazy. But I was pretty excited about rice

I'm 18 months post-op and still don't eat rice. Not because my stomach can't handle it, but because it's a complete waste of space. Same with Pasta. When you need 100 grams of Protein a day and can only eat maybe 3-4 oz. of food at a time, who has room for rice and pasta?