Do you ever drink with meals?

I'm probably the one that you are referring to as the poster that said it's hard not drinking with meals.  I actually was not a huge drinker with my meals pre op, but I'd at least drink half a glass of water with my food.  Now my hubby is a HUGE drinker with his meals and he says he would have a hard time if he had the surgery to not drink with meals.  

So it's not the drinking with the meals that bothers me as much as just knowing I can't now.  I just feel a little not "normal" when I'm sitting there with my food and don't have a drink sitting there with me, when everyone else has a drink sitting by their plate.  I don't look "normal" anymore in that way and it's a little bothersome still to me, I'm sure I'll get over it one day (hopefully).  

When we go out to eat, I let the waiter/waitress bring me a drink and take little sips before my meal, but not after I start eating.   So I drink right up until I eat, but I like to wait a few minutes since I've drank to start eating anything if I can.  I don't want to stretch out my stoma, like others have mentioned.

It's good you are asking ....aside from the soma streching it causes, It's important to find out all of the reasons for NOT drinking with food. BTW - the problem is not so much with our pouch streching, which many are concerned about,  but of the soma streching, that contributes to weight re-gain.

One that I haven't seen emphasized is the need to keep the food in the pouch as long as possible to break down & extract the nutrient value of our food. Mal-nutrition is a real, lifelong concern for us! Since WLS, we have diminished hydrochloric acid in our stomachs and need to first chew well to start the breakdown process and then keep food in our pouch - manually (i.e dense protein, no fluids etc.). We no longer have the structural mechanism of the pyloric valve to do this for us.

Those who are playing around with fluids & meals may regret it down the road. I do not drink 15 minutes before eating and an hour after. It is just a small sacrifice & part of all the other discipline changes necessary to ensure the healthiest life possible after our radical lifesaving surgery :)
 

This one thing I've had to work hard on - since drinking with meals was such second nature to me pre-op.

I do not drink with meals now (my surgeon allows drinking right up to the first bite and then not for an hour afterward).

The only exceptions I've made in the last 5+ months was when I had something to eat that made my mouth so dry that it was driving me nuts, and one time when the taste was so bad I had to get rid of it.  In both cases I took a mouthful of fluid, held it in my mouth, swished it around and then swallowed. 

Gum is helpful, SF lifesavers are good too.

I don't drink with " real" meals, but have found myself drinking with small snacks lately. I feel this is not in my best interest, and am working on realizing whan I'm doing it.

well this bites. I never knew that drinking with your meals could stretch the stoma no one ever told meat. I still can't eat much at a time. still with in the limits. but i did drink with food. not a lot but i wasn't waiting a full 1/2 hour felt like i needed that cleasner. never occured to me to take a bite of nsa applesauce or something like that. It's off in the beginging i didn't feel like drinking at all unless I was eating of course i resisted the urge. of course i drank when i wasn't eating it's just the only time i felt the urge to drink.
really hope i didn't botch my surgery. but i've lost 148. and still within guidlines of amounts of food.. so maybe if i give it up now .. :D hope.. pray...