For those with small kids under 5

My surgery is in a week. I have not canceled and now believe I will go through with it. I am seeing changes in clothes and shoes just from my preop diet and am excited to just have a new life with no inhibitions from fat. So that being said. I have a 4 year old daughter, we are verry close. I haven't told  her what I'm about to do. Not that she will have opinion but just in case I feel I should say something. What did you moms and dads do???

My son will be 5 next month and I don't plan on getting into any specifics, I'll just say that my tummy is broken and needs to be fixed.  If he asks for more details, I'll just explain that it's too big and I need it to be smaller so I can be healthy.  When he starts noticing the change in my appearence, then I'll explain that my broken tummy was what was making my fat... now that it's fixed, I'm getting skinny

 I like this response. A broken tummy is something a four or five year old can understand.

I told my 4 year old the exact same thing. He understoodd that perfectly enough. And Honestly I dont even think he's noticed that iv lost 96 pounds so far. Good Luck

My surgery is friday. I have a 16 year old and a 16 month old. (No that isn't a typo LOL.) I told my teen that "I needed to do this, and all surgeries have risk. However, I have done lots of research and the risk is minimal. Also, in the long run I believe that this will be a wonderful change for me AND for my kids." Of course, that isn't a 4 year old convo. Maybe just tell her that you are about to go spend the night in the hospital because you love her so much and they will help you to accomplish a more active/healthy lifestyle so that you can keep up with and be with her as long as possible.

My daughters were 5 and 1 when I had the surgery.  I told the 5 yo that I was going to have surgery on my stomach so that I could be healthy.  She didn't really ask specifics except for things like how long I will be gone and if I would call her every day I was away (I was going to Mexico and was gone for 5 days).  After the surgery when I was on a liquid diet she asked more questions about what they did and at that point I just explained that I was having health problems from eating too much food and being overweight and the MD made my stomach smaller so I could get healthy.  She never really asked for more detail than that. 

 I had surgery last Thursday and my son is 5. I told him that a special Dr. was going to help me make my body work better so I could run and play like him. We discussed that his body works perfectly but that mommies needs some extra help. So far he seems to have done very well...he frequently says things like "that has protien in it right?" :)
Good luck!

I am 2 weeks post-op and I have a 5 & 9 year old.  I told my 9 year old everything and he totally gets it, and is completely supportive and keeps me on my toes with the doctors rules (ie: don't pick things up over 10lbs, no sugar, etc.).  I didn't tell my 5 year old the details, I didn't feel like he would completely understand and didn't want to stress him out about the hospital.  I just told him I had a doctors appointment and the doctor was going to fix my tummy.  He took that bait, line and sinker.  He is well aware of the incisions on my tummy and gives me kisses there daily (I love it).  My suggestion would be, keep it simple.  BEST OF LUCK to you and HAPPY VSG life! 

I have a 5 year old and a 2.5 year old, and they didn't ask much. They came to visit me in the hospital too. I just told them that mommy had an owie so they had to be gentle with me. My 5 year old was holding my hand, walking me to the bathroom for the first few days after I got home to help out. He hasn't really noticed me losing or eating less, though when I was on liquids he kept trying to feed me stuff!

Thank you ladies for responding. I've decided I'm going to tell her I have to go to the hostipital for something and I will spend the night there but she will come see me that night. I am beyond nervous. Just trying to stay positive.