Eating After a Tonsillectomy: Safe Foods, and Food to Avoid

Before my tonsillectomy, I prepared a grocery list of all the foods to buy. Here are some ideas that may help you, along with foods to stay away from.

First, you may want to plan to eat a big dinner the night before your surgery. You won't be allowed anything to eat or drink after midnight on the day of surgery, because of the anesthesia. Eat a big steak dinner, or your favorite foods, because you won't be eating foods like that for at least a week or so.

So what kind of food should you add to your grocery list? Let's plan for the next few days.

For the 24 hours after surgery, you probably won't want to look at food, but you will need to drink constantly. Even if you don't want to drink, you must force yourself to drink. It's so important to keep yourself hydrated as much as possible. My doctor recommended at least 16 ounces of fluid every 1-2 hours. That's about 1 bottle of water. Keep water or juice by your bed at all times, and try to stay awake as much as possible so that you can keep drinking fluids. With your pain medication that you're on, it's going to be hard to stay awake, but you just have to fight through it for the first day or two. Drinks to consider buying include lots of water, Gatorade, apple juice, flat Sprite, Slim Fast shakes and Ensure shakes. Do not drink carbonated beverages, because it's going to burn. Also stay away from orange juice, cranberry juice and alcohol. Whatever it takes, get fluids in your body, because you do not want to end up back in the hospital with an IV in your arm because of dehydration.

After 24 hours, you should start eating soft foods to promote healing. Stay away from any dairy products, which can cause the mucus in the back of your throat to thicken, making it very uncomfortable to swallow. Forget all the rumors about ice cream. Yes it's cold and soothing, but it's also a dairy product. Same goes with milk, yogurt and cottage cheese. The thick mucus can even cause you to throw up, which is the last thing you want to do after a tonsillectomy. Instead of ice cream, go for popsicles and frozen fruit bars. Stay away from orange flavored treats, because orange is very acidic and can cause burning in your throat. Keep that in mind with any foods, like tomato sauce, orange juice, Spaghettios, ketchup and more.

Other foods you might want to consider buying include Jell-O (which is very popular among tonsillectomy patients). If you want to save time and effort, buy the individual cups of Jell-O, not the boxed mix that you have to make. Applesauce, over-cooked noodles with butter, pudding, mashed potatoes with gravy, oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, soups (not hot, just warm), pureed foods (which you can do at home) or even certain baby foods. These are only ideas, you should add anything that you feel comfortable eating. Every recovering patient is different. You will want foods that go down easily, and don't require a lot of chewing.

You should absolutely stay away from sharp and rough foods such as toast, potato chips, crusty breads, hard fruits, hard vegetables, meats (if they are whole - you can puree them so they are easy to eat), peanut butter (which can stick to your throat), taco shells, and more. Anything that can make a "crunch" when you bite into it, and anything that needs to be chewed a lot, stay away from it. You don't want to go the emergency room because your throat is bleeding.

During recovery, you'll need to get as many calories as possible into your body. Calories are what helps the healing process. Don't worry about putting lots of butter on your noodles to get them down your throat, and don't worry about eating a bunch of pudding cups throughout the day. You may even want to drink a glass of sugar water just to get calories. Now is not the time to be worrying about dieting and losing weight, your main concern should be healing and getting better as soon as possible. Of course, you are probably going to lose a little bit of weight because your diet is going to change for about 1-2 weeks until you feel better. Add foods to your diet as you start to heal.

Overall, just make sure that you are getting enough fluids and eating foods that you are comfortable with. Only you are going to know what's good for you. Remember to take your pain medicine and antibiotics as directed. It can either be an easy recovery, or a rough recovery, and it's all up to you what your recovery is going to be like. Just take it one day at a time, and by no time, you'll be back on your feet, feeling like yourself again!