Eating After Surgery

My son had his tonsils and adenoids taken out last June. He was 4. The thing that worked best for us is to keep offering popsicles, ice cream, soft foods. Even baby food. I didn't have any trouble with my son after he got them taken out. Thank goodness because I would be in your boat. When she starts to feel better she will eat. Good Luck with your little one. :)

Hi J.. I just wanted to second the suggestion to move off the narcotic pain relievers. Children do really well on plain old tylenol once you are past the first 24 hours after surgery. My son had major surgery last spring involving his hip and mouth. He does not have a high tolerance for pain but once we made it past 24 hours, he preferred plain tylenol. After 2-3 days, he didn't take anything. The narcotics will upset her stomach, suppress appetite and can also cause constipation. It is worth the side effects but you want to stop them as quickly as possible.

Also, keep a close eye on how often she goes potty and how long before she has a bowel movement. If she is not going pee, then she is dehydrated and needs to be seen right away.

One last thing, when my son was five, he had another major surgery---a very hard one. He refused for several days to take anything by mouth. Normally, I would not worry about discipline issues at a traumatic time such as this (particular where there can be fear involved) but after several days in the hospital (and knowing we couldn't go home until he started drinking), we insisted that he drink something before he was allowed to play video games or watch tv. I *hated* to do that but he *had* to drink. He was afraid to drink because his throat hurt. No amount of talking would convince him that drinking might actually soothe his throat. Once we insisted, he saw for himself that drinking helped. We let him choose whatever he wanted (which ended up being hot cocoa) and once he started drinking we praised and made a big fuss. good luck.. . I hope she starts drinking soon. If you need any ideas fora liquid diet (if that is required), I have a huge file I can send to you if you send me a private message with your email addres.. good luck

I wasn't quite 3 when I had my tonsils taken out. I think she will eat when she's ready to. I understand your concern because I was a very tiny child (I didn't weigh 60 lbs until I was 12 or 13). If you really want to try to get her to eat something, maybea little ginger ale or ginger candy might help soothe her tummy. Peppermint tea is good too or you can take a peppermint (like you get form restaurants) and dislove it in some water. Good luck and Happy Easter!

Hi J.,
Is she able to drink chicken broth, you could give it to her in a cup. I've never had mine takin out so I don't know if things go down better warm or cold. If she wont eat anything cold that might be the reason, it might hurt sorry couldn't help much. P.S. you might even try gatorade with ice or just room temperature, W. mom of 4

I agree, stop giving her Demerol if it makes her sick. It's not that great of a trade-off to decrease pain only to get vomiting in its place :( If Tylenol or Ibuprofen isn't strong enough to ease hear pain at this point call the doctor (on-call service if necessary since it's weekend) and have them call in a different pain killer for her. She should be able to eat a little bit of something at this point. I remember my dad bringing me a Steak and Shake strawberry milkshake when I was still in the recovery room! I didn't have too much of a problem eating (drinking) liquids and soft foods for the first few days. You gradually work up to more solid stuff as the pain goes away, but I think she should be able to tolerate some kind of liquids or soft foods now. Once she's off the Demerol and she isn't feeling nauseous I bet she'll ask for some food :)

Is she drinking at all? I would try getting her some nutrition through a yogurt/fruit smoothie or something like that. You may need to make it pretty thin so that it's easy for her to swallow. Good luck!

My son just had his removed on the 14th of march and he is also five, it took him a good week to really eat anything, he went from 42 pounds down to 38 in a week so I would say give her a couple of more days and if she is not eating by then call your doctor. I would also recommend getting some pediasure for her it will help her stop losing weight so much and it will give her all the nutrions she needs. Hope she gets to feeling better.... Blessings J.

Our son had the same surgery last summer when he was five. He too didn't eat hardly anything. Try looking down her throat with a flashlight and you'll see how irritated it is and understand. It really is very painfull for them. I would encourage her to eat, whatever feels good to her and be happy with even one or two bites at each setting. If she likes milk shakes, go out to get them or make them at home, maybe a slushie from sonic, we even went to quicktrip for them. I know you want her to eat, but she won't until she's ready. We really tried to go out and get whatever our son wanted. Good luck, you'll notice a huge difference on day 7.

Quit giving her the pain medicine, if it has been a week and stick to tylenol and motrin.

Hi J.!

My little girl had her tonsils out at age four. Those three weeks were the worst of my life. She was miserable and did not want to eat anything. She also got very constipated, which made matters worse. She will recover, just be patient. I would give her lots of soup, ice cream and shakes. It will probable take about two weeks for her to feel like eating. My daughter, who loves popsickles wouldn't even eat that. I finally had to get tough with my little one and tell her if she wouldn't eat that she would have to go back to the hospital and get an IV. It is a definate possibility if she won't eat. She needs to get some food in her. I promise that this will be a distant memory in no time. My daughter, who is now seven, says that getting her tonsils out was the best experience ever--she obviously doesn't remember it the way I do. HAHA!

my son had his taken out when he was 3 and he didn't eat for a week. they are not going to starve themselves they will eat when they are ready. he would eat ice chips and popsicles. i to would go to tylenol it worked for us.

STOP THE DEMEROL AND PAIN MEDICATION!!! She is probably at a point where the pain is tolerable and doesn't need the medication anymore. If she still does have pain, try the old faithfuls like Tylenol/Motrin first because they won't upset her stomach. The 'big' pain medication is there for 'as needed', so if it's not really needed don't keep using it. Ask your daughter how bad the pain is. Kids are wonderfully resilient and surprise us all the time by how much they
'don't' hurt when we think they do/should. It may take a few days for her appetite to go back to normal as the meds have to get out of her system, but she will start eating again. My daughter had maxiofacial surgery when she was seven for a deviated septum and used the pain meds once the afternoon after surgery and that was it. She blew me away. She said the pain wasn't that bad, there was a little, so we just gave her Tylenol and she was fine. Her Dr said this was usually the case with kids and adults were the ones that were the 'babies about pain'. Anywho, I hope this helps and that she feels much better soon. :-)

My son had his taken out and he wanted to eat 5 hours after surgery. A week later he started to not eat so much anymore because of the scabing this was normal and I just provided him with nutritious liquids or soft foods. Every one is different from what I was told.

Kathy