It is extremely important for the long term health of your Lap Band that you follow the postoperative diet to the letter. The stomach normally goes through a twisting, wringing type motion when food is eaten. Because it is so important in the immediate postop period to keep the stomach as quite as possible, Dr. Kuri has chosen to have you on a liquid diet for the first 15 days after the surgery. No matter how much you would chew solid food, it is not possible to get it to a liquid enough state for you to avoid producing this motion in your stomach. It is of utmost importance to stay on the liquids as instructed until you may advance to soft, mushy foods. It may be tempting to stray from liquids and/or mushy foods as you begin to feel better, but “just a little bite” can interfere with healing and cause complications. Those complications can include: band slippage, occlusion of the stoma from swelling/irritation, inflammation of the esophagus, and band erosion, to name a few.
The post-op diet includes:
Days 1-4: Clear Liquids only!
Days 5-14: Full Liquids only.
Day 15-29: Soft mushy phase. These are foods that you could chew if you didn’t have teeth.
Day 30: Back to a regular diet. This includes solid foods!
