My children are 3 and 6 and I have not shared my lap and plan with them although the 6 year old overhead my husband and I working on the details of daycare drop offs and wanted to know why I had to go to the hospital. We told her I might have an operation to be healthier but it was not for sure and not to worry.

i have a 3.5yr old and a 7month old. my oldest asked me why i keep seeing a doctor. i said "becuz mommy wants to be small, just like you and sissy!" she said "oh" and more to it. thankfully my husband is home all week so he can handle the two of them esp since i cant lift the baby.

My children range from 35 to 7 and honesly the 6 yr old was the easist....and most fun...I showed my younger ones pictures of the band...after I explained I needed to make my bellie smaller...the 35 yr old...wanted to know why at my age I cared about how I looked...I told him it was so much more then looks...now they are all my biggest cheerleaders....

My daughter is 4 and I just kept it simple with her and said "mommy is going to the doctor for surgery and he is going to fix my belly" she asked few questions like will it hurt? I told her I would hv a few boo boos but I would be fine. I am 1week post op and she has been the best doctor ever. She wants to help me with everything. If I tried to bend to pick something up she would say "no mommy ur boo boo" and she is curious bout the incisions so I let her look at them.

Two teenage boys...

Both in very good shape.

Want to make sure, they don't have to keep straight faces when I begin eating like a bird.

I don't have small children, however I do have a 6 almost 7 year old granddaughter. She is very smart, witty for her age. She knows everything there is to know about my surgery. Before I went in for the surgery we sat at the computer and I showed her the 'device' that was going to be placed around my band and how it works. She asked me tons of questions, one was when will it come out. She thought it goes in and comes out, she also asked me will it hurt, etc. I explained everything to her where she would understand.

She is very observant of me, she tells me what she sees getting smaller on my body and points it out. She loves I have more energy and we can play for hours and hours on end.

I had to adjust my entire way of eating with her through this journey. I don't snack with her on chips, doodles, or cakes anymore. It took her awhile to adjust without getting angry. Now, I make many healthy Snacks for us to share and she really likes that because she feels included with eating with me, instead of just watching her eat alone. You would be surprised how much kids love veggies and dips, and even rolled up coldcuts with cream cheese. LOLOL

I really think it depends on how much your child can understand when explaining about this type of surgery. I simply told my granddaughter that Nana needs to get healthy and by doing that I need to eat healthy. She gets that!

I have an 11,8 and 6 year old. I was honest with them from the beggining had them watch vidoes with me and they thought it was the greatest thing. They all eanted to look at my belly whrn i got home. In fact the other day at a little over two months post op my 8 year old asked to look at my scars.