Suggestions for the soft foods stage?

Hi everyone, I hope you don't get tired of repeating the same answers to all of the new folk. Maybe we should just put them all on some sort of page and keep adding to them? 1) Are we supposed to eat about a "half a fingernail" full of the food and chew 20 times? 2) Can we eat a teaspoon full at a time? 3) What are the best foods to start with. I have tried crab meat, chicken leg and thigh with gravy, oatmal and egg salad so far. 4) Also yogurt ant riccotta cheese meals. I read that we can have cheese strings and mac and cheese and hot dogs ( I would buy the soy dogs since they are all protein)? Is this true? 5) Can we wrap up turkey (healthy choice) with cheese or other soft meets? I need to plan some menues to take to work in a couple of weeks and I am stumped?! I am sure things will get better as I get bolder and try new things. 6) I was at King of Prussia Mall with my daughter and was afraid to eat in the restaurant there as I did not know what I could or couldn't eat at this stage. Is it too early to eat our yet? I was going to order the onion soup and eliminate the bread and onions -eating just the cheese and broth but I wasn't sure. Thanks for all your help. Terre G

Hi Terre, Nope, we never get tired of helping out! In answer to your questions....just my humble opinion of course, you will probably run across other ideas than mine. 1.I ate from a baby spoon for all of my puree stage and some of my soft food stage. I did this until I was comfortable again using a larger spoon. I don't think there is any hard and fast rule as to how big your bite is or how many times you chew other than what feels right to YOU. Once again, individual preference rules here and you know what you can handle best. You will occasionally take a bite that's too big or not chew well enough, but you will soon be reminded that you did it and will be more aware the next time you eat lol. 2. See above answer lol 3. For soft foods I tried a little bit of everything, once again what may sit well with me may make you sick. I for instance still have trouble with tuna salad but can eat chicken salad with no problems. lol go figure huh. 4.I found mac and cheese to be abit too gummy for my taste but alot of others have been successful with it. As far as hotdogs go and protein content, check the individual packages. I don't mind soy products at all but soy hotdogs is one I can't stand! Regular hotdogs made me nauseated, I think it was probably more the fat content than anything, fattier foods tend to make me sleepy and slightly nauseated. It will be trial and error. Cheese sticks chewed very well and eaten slowly should be fine. I eat them all the time and have since early on. 5. Yep you can, cheese wrapped in deli meats are one of my favorite easy to grab snacks or meals. 6. I would think the onion soup would have been an ok choice. I found eating out early on to be fairly easy...well, aside from a salad that I got for my first meal out that ended up being a 7 dollar crouton. LOL long story...annnyway, soups are usually a good choice. Stick with ones that have fairly straightforward easy to identify ingredients that way you stand less chance of getting some mystery dumping incident from some odd ingredient in the soup. Chicken based ones are usually a good choice because it's easy to limit how many noodles you may get, the veggies are usually cooked very well and soft plus you get the added bonus of some chicken in there. I also found it helpful not to stress over the protein count in a meal I was eating out. I concerned myself more with having it be something that sat well. Protein content I could make up easily at another meal. Sounds like you're doing great! Linda

Terre, Here are some books that may be helpful to you. They have great recipes for most stages after surgery. ~ Renay ? Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1569244537/qid=1092887636/sr=1 -1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6734947-2259258?v=glance&s=books ? Before & After, Living & Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060567228/qid%3D1092887699/sr%3D11 -1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-6734947-2259258