You used to be among the 20% of Americans who struggle with acid reflux. Now, you’re in a different group — those who underwent acid reflux surgery to remedy the ongoing heartburn.
Whether your gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) came on the heels of a hiatal hernia, which affects between 55% and 60% of people over age 50, or it was due to some other reason, you’re hoping you get a new lease on your dietary life.
The skilled team at Rockwall Surgical Specialists has extensive experience helping patients to move past debilitating GERD. This month, we share some best practices for eating habits after your acid reflux surgery.
After your acid reflux surgery, which is called a Nissen fundoplication, we want to help you minimize your risks for diarrhea and excess gas. Immediately after your surgery, you’ll be restricted to a liquid diet for the first couple meals. This means — you guessed it — no solid foods.
Instead, you’ll have clear juices, tea, and broth at first; then you’ll transition to a blenderized diet for the next week. After that, you can slowly transition to soft foods for the second week.
Rest assured that our team will give you a comprehensive list of foods you can eat and ones you should avoid during this initial healing phase. That list of dietary no-nos includes foods that cause your digestion to slow or that cause too much gas, such as:
Instead, we have you focus on soft foods and drinks that are long on nutrition and that are easy on your gastrointestinal (GI) system.
We want you to hydrate and drink plenty of water throughout the day as you recover from acid reflux or hiatal hernia surgery. However, you should limit fluid intake when you eat, as the added liquid can expand your stomach — and we don’t want that.
As your diet transitions to soft foods and then to regular foods, we still want you to limit meal size so you’re not overstretching your stomach when you eat. It’s much better to eat smaller portions to keep from overstressing your GI system with large feasts that linger in your GI tract.
For the first month or two after your surgery, we want you to remove bread and solid meats from your diet. These are difficult foods for your body to break down, so you should avoid them until you’ve fully healed, which is about 6 weeks under normal circumstances.
Just like when you were managing your active acid reflux, please don’t eat anything for a couple of hours before bedtime. If you eat right before bed and then go lie down, it can really slow digestion and lead to reflux.
If your acid reflux flared with certain foods before your surgery, we urge you to continue to avoid them. Some common culprits include:
Again, we’ll provide you with a more comprehensive meal plan, especially for early recovery after acid reflux or hiatal hernia surgery. If you have more questions about what to eat and what not to eat after your surgery, we invite you to contact us.
You can call the Rockwall Surgical Specialists team at 972-412-7700 or use our online form to set up an appointment at one of our conveniently located offices in Rockwall, Rowlett, Greenville, Terrell, and Forney, Texas.
