What are foamies and how can you avoid them?

"Foamies" are when you vomit up part of your meal (a nasty saliva foamy mix). It happens if you eat too much, eat too fast, or don't chew well enough. Foamies result when your stoma becomes blocked and the body's natural reaction is to produce a slimy foam liquid and copious amounts of it.

After you experience this once or twice, you tend to detect the warning signs and stop before you get to this stage.

I am 6 weeks post op and getting this. I chew well and eat slowly but find that it is happening more often. I spoke to my dietician about this on two occasions and each time she has put me back to the liquid diet. Feel like I am never going to be able to eat solids.

Just had an horrible experience with this last night. I am also 6 weeks post op. I know what I did wrong, ate small cut up pieces of shrimp too fast. I vomited for 6 hours. Still have excess salvia even today. Will not be eating shrimp any time soon!

I had this once it was horrible. Usually now if I eat too much Or too fast. I will start burping a lot. Usually I can stop before either happen now.

There are several times I will put another bite in my mouth and spit it out because I know I had enough.

It's common. I'm 15 months post op and still get them, usually if I forget that I'm not 'normal'. You can avoid them by taking small bites, chew-chew-chew, eat slowly, measure small portions and stick to them, and avoid dry food. Even so you may still have bouts. It's a wake-up call, a reminder, and a deterrent. It helps keep you on track.

I have this constantly. So I went to my surgeon today who did a EDG. My stomach pouch has a very small opening, Tomorrow at 8am I will go in for another EDG where they will inflate a balloon to help open my pouch, I'm hoping this will help cause it's so hard to be on liquids.

I am 8 weeks post op & I have the same issue! i had an endoscopy & they dilated a couple of strictures & i am doing better as long as i don't try to keep up w/ everyone else when eating. when i go out with others its hard because you sometimes forget that you have to eat so slowly & chew so much more but I now know when to stop before it gets bad enough that i get sick. Good luck & I'm sure it will go well & get better!

Hi Everyone.. Thought I would jump as i am also having the same issues.. Sleeved on 8/4/2014.. had to stay in hospital 5 days as the contrast would not go down fast enough..did liquids for 2-3 weeks.. started to go to VERY soft foods.. and I have been dealing with foamies / burps / regurgitating.. spoke to Doc last week - & they prescribed Reglan @ 5mg - 4 x per day.. I am starting on day 5, but I cannot drink anything for HOURS after I eat as it will not go down due to the food / saliva in my esophagus.

Will check in w/ Doc today - but it looks like I will have to have an Endoscopy this week to see if they can dilate the opening to my pouch.. i am hoping that it is nothing more serious than that..

Keeping my fingers crossed.

MM

Hopefully you get some relief w/ the endoscopy! I know it really helped me! It took a couple of weeks afterwards but I'm starting to eat more foods & able to eat more like I should be at this point post op. Good luck!!!!

One thing I learned tonight at the NUT class was that foamies can happen if you eat and then drink without waiting a long enough period. When on full liquids or purée need to wait at least 30 minutes before drinking any liquids. When food is more solid need to wait at least 60 minutes. Not sure if it's the same.

Just Got a great tip from my Doctors assistant.. PINEAPPLE JUICE will assist with cutting down the foam. Take a few sips and it helped me tremendously with the burp foamie i was experiencing.

I 'm still pre-op, but my patient's

Oops, wrong button! Anyway, my patient's handbook addresses this by suggesting that you have a cup of hot water (I'm thinking hot decaf tea) 30 minutes before you eat. The docs there seems seems to feel that this cuts down on "foamies"

Read this earlier, and found it didn't apply to me, well now it does! First night in solid protein is a miss!

I had my first episode of foamies after eating Salmon last night and it's still happening today!