OK, so how long do you wait to drink after eating?

Early out - I waited a very long time.  But, many of my meals WERE LIQUID, so it didn't matter anyway.

Now, five years out, I sip whenever I want, even with meals.  If I waited 90-120 minutes, I would get zero liquids in during the day.

The pouch rules for dummies to me seems ridiculous, but really the amount of time waiting to drink works out to be the same no matter what. What truly bothers me is that my surgeon has recently changed his rule and I'm not sure why. My friend had surgery about 9 months ago and she was given a much different program to follow than I was. It just doesn't make sense. I have been setting a timer for 30 minutes to drink after eating and sometimes I go longer after it rings. Not any longer than a hour though. Thanks for the responses.

I had my surgery 10 and a half years ago in 2002.  The way I understand it is this
hy we don't drink with meals.......

Sometimes understanding WHY we have to do something (or not do something) helps us follow the rules. Here's the low-down:

Before surgery you had the pyloric valve at the bottom of your stomach to keep food in the stomach while is began the digestive process. As food was digested and ready enough to be released into the intestine, the pyloric valve (a trap door really) would open and let a small amount of food out of the stomach and into the intestines. Digestion would continue, the trap door woud open and a bit more food would be released. And on and on... This process can take 2 to 3 hours in a normal stomach.

AFTER RNY we have to mimic this action manually and the only way to keep food in our pouch (which is basically a funnel now with no trap door) we have to eat dense foods and not mix it with liquid. The denser the food, the longer it can stay in the pouch. Food can stay in your pouch for up to 1.5 to 2 hours if you don't drink water. The minute you add water (or any liquid) to the mix, you are creating a "soup" that will quickly empty out of your pouch.

About 40% of the digestive enzymes our food needs to be broken down is contained in our saliva. Our pouch does not produce gastric acid anymore, so the salive enzymes are all we have to work with here... Which is another reason why need to chew, chew, chew really well. Once food gets to the pouch, those digestive enzymes go to work on the food to begin breaking it down (mostly carbohydrates). Our pouch doesn't churn as much as our old stomach used to, but there is still some movement with that well-chewed food. The longer it stays in the pouch, the more it is broken down and prepared for the intestines to do their work of grabbing nutrients from the food. If we wash the food out too quickly, the intestines can not absorb the nutrients from the food we eat because it passes too quickly undigested. (This can also increase the risk of constipation and intestinal blockage.)  

So keep water away from your pouch as long as you can.  You will begin having weight issues again if you do not change this.  Keep bad habits gone and you will never revisit the past. 

My surgeon said liquids not allowed 30 minutes before and 1 hour after meals.