DIET AFTER BOWEL SURGERY - Colorectal Surgery



DIET AFTER BOWEL SURGERY / FOOD FOR THOUGHT

By the time you are discharged from hospital – unless specifically directed by your surgeon, you will be able to eat a normal diet.

Here are some pointers though. Don’t forget your “gut” has had an “upheaval”, and just as you are an individual, so is your bowel.

You need to choose from a well balanced diet – which meets your needs and tolerances.

• Your body needs nourishment to promote healing and provide energy. It still has a lot of work to do.

• Include foods from the 5 food groups.

✓ Breads and cereals

✓ Vegetables

✓ Fruits

✓ Milk and dairy products

✓ Meat, chicken and fish

• While you continue to recover you may not be interested in facing a 3 course meal. Try:

• Six small meals a day

• Serve foods on a bread & butter plate – easier to appreciate

• Space drinks between meals and snacks

• Find your mother’s old cook book – there are some tried and true recipes that may just be the right thing.

• Gradually build back to standard serves.

• Avoid foods that you know from past experience cause problems ie loose bowel motions, odour or cramps, retry them when your appetite is on course and you are feeling confident. Recovery in general has a lot to do with you confidence.

• It is not unusual to find you have lost interest in some foods and drinks, ie tea or coffee. The taste just doesn’t seem the same. Water may need a twist of lemon or a dash of other flavour.

• It is very important that you drink

at least 1.5 – 2 litres of fluid a day.

Not only for your general body

needs but also to assist

bowel and bladder function.

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