My hospital gave me a card stating that I had had gastric sleeve surgery and to allow me to order order reduced portions or from the kids menu. I'm curious if anyone else received something similar and if they have used it. Not that I'm thinking of eating out ANYTIME soon but I was just curious.

Not a common thing in Australia, but if it were I probably wouldn't use for the children's menu - those items are typically full of saturated fats and sugar (unless a fairly healthy restaurant) and i probably wouldn't use it during covid times as restaurants are struggling and I wouldn't expect a reduced price because of a reduced portion.

I typically order the best I can from the standard menu, if I enjoy it I will take the remainder home to use as left overs, if I don't enjoy it, I will generally off load to whomever puts up their hand at the table or just leave it be. The worse I left was a very dry chicken.

My wife and I both had surgery. We haven't sat down at too many restaurants lately but we have done take out from restaurants about 1 time a week. We both split a meal and if there are left overs, save them for later. We still try to eat as close to plan as possible and have had some pretty tasty meals. We did not receive a medical card for the surgery.

I have heard of other practices giving them to those who want them, too.

3 hours ago, Hop_Scotch said:

Not a common thing in Australia, but if it were I probably wouldn't use for the children's menu - those items are typically full of saturated fats and sugar (unless a fairly healthy restaurant) and i probably wouldn't use it during covid times as restaurants are struggling and I wouldn't expect a reduced price because of a reduced portion.

I typically order the best I can from the standard menu, if I enjoy it I will take the remainder home to use as left overs, if I don't enjoy it, I will generally off load to whomever puts up their hand at the table or just leave it be. The worse I left was a very dry chicken.

I agree, I wouldn't order from the kids menu. They typically are not very healthy. I was thinking along the same line of just taking home leftovers or even splitting with my husband. I was just curious about the medical card I was given.

21 minutes ago, mswillis5 said:

My wife and I both had surgery. We haven't sat down at too many restaurants lately but we have done take out from restaurants about 1 time a week. We both split a meal and if there are left overs, save them for later. We still try to eat as close to plan as possible and have had some pretty tasty meals. We did not receive a medical card for the surgery.

I was thinking about splitting meals with my husband as well. That or just save leftovers for future meals.

I got a card like that on amazon That asks to allow you to order off senior menu as well. I think the senior menu would probably be more nutritious than children’s menu. You can also ask to order off the lunch menu. I have done that while on diets. I will probably just order salad when I can eat it.

19 minutes ago, ShoppGirl said:

I got a card like that on Amazon That asks to allow you to order off senior menu as well. I think the senior menu would probably be more nutritious than children’s menu. You can also ask to order off the lunch menu. I have done that while on diets. I will probably just order salad when I can eat it.

That's a good idea also, ordering from senior menu.

4 hours ago, Zury G said:

My hospital gave me a card stating that I had had gastric sleeve surgery and to allow me to order order reduced portions or from the kids menu. I'm curious if anyone else received something similar and if they have used it. Not that I'm thinking of eating out ANYTIME soon but I was just curious.

I have a card, but I never use it. I just order off the kids menu - or an appetizer all the time. Or I share. What I mean by all the time too is like over past year like 6 times hahah. I haven't eaten out much since my surgery in Jan 2020 because COVID-19 and living in California that had nothing open but takeout for a long time.

I've never had a waitstaff person say no you can't order off kids menu yet, but if they did give me a hard time I think I would tell them I have dietary restrictions and ask to speak to the manager if it really became a problem. I tell as few as people as possible about my surgery - it's no one's business our medical condition.

I will be eating out a lot after surgery as I will be traveling for work every week (assuming COVID ever ends). I plan to just eat what I want and leave the rest, or take it back to my room if I have a fridge and microwave. I had a coworker who had had VSG and that's what she did. I didn't know till later that's why she did it and I never thought twice about it. I thought she just didn't eat much. I doubt the waiters even noticed.

I am in agreement with not ordering from the kids' menu. I don't even like chicken fingers and mac and cheese, and it's horrific for your new stomach. Also, I can't think of the last time I went to a restaurant and they had a senior menu, and lunch menus are pretty rare too.

I received one but never had to use it and I recently threw it away.

Most places would let me order just side items instead of appetizers or entrees without a problem.

I have ordered off the children’s menu at Chipotle where it made sense because of portion size vs food type.

I've never considered using such a card.

First, I didn't share my surgery with most family. Nor with co-workers, aside from the CEO. Nor with friends or acquaintances. I certainly am not going to involve random wait staff.

Next, I've never seen people that have had any other surgeries or other medical issues have cards printed up as to why the bearer requires special attention.

Children's meals are typically fried and/or bland foods. Two good reasons I wouldn't order them.

If a restaurant has the same food on the child's meal as on the adults why should I not be able to order the child's meal? I had a surgery that made it physically difficult to eat more than a small volume of food. My spouse chooses small quantities at a meal. We both leave food on the plate. Why should I expect to be allowed the child's meal?

I've never had wait staff tell me I couldn't order a smaller* meal. Or just appetizers. Or nothing. * I didn't order smaller senior size meals until I aged into them.

On the other had, wait staff gets very concerned when I only eat a few bites of whatever. Bearing in mind that I was a 6'4" 500+ pounds man, so it was pretty shocking for them to place a small volume of food before me, then come back and find it was barely touched. After some back and forth they would finally accept that I enjoyed the food and everything was OK. I don't believe a card would have made a significant difference. The tip, however, always put everyone at ease, and then they were sure I enjoyed the meal.

I've heard of it but not many people seem to get those these days. Restaurants aren't obligated to accept them, and like everyone else has said, items on kids' menus are generally awful choices. Early out I'd just get something like soup or shrimp cocktail. To this day, I often just order an appetizer.

The BariatricPal store has these cards, too. They're offered as a free gift option if you spend a certain amount of money.

I have no interest in something like that because I have kept my surgery private. I haven't told a single family member or coworker. I'm definitely not going to divulge it to a server at a restaurant. I haven't actually eaten at a restaurant since my surgery (I've had takeout a few times, but that's easy -- I just save the leftovers), but when I do, I will either order something small like a side salad or just eat a little and take the leftovers home. I have heard that it can get awkward because the restaurant staff worries that you didn't like the food if you don't eat much, but I think most people just say something like, "It's really good, but I'm just not very hungry today." I've seen a lot of diet tips (for non-bariatric patients) suggesting that you ask for a box as soon as you get the meal and pack up half of it to take home as a way to avoid overeating, so you could do that and they wouldn't even be able to see how much you ate.

18 minutes ago, BigSue said:

The BariatricPal Store has these cards, too. They're offered as a free gift option if you spend a certain amount of money.

I have no interest in something like that because I have kept my surgery private. I haven't told a single family member or coworker. I'm definitely not going to divulge it to a server at a restaurant. I haven't actually eaten at a restaurant since my surgery (I've had takeout a few times, but that's easy -- I just save the leftovers), but when I do, I will either order something small like a side salad or just eat a little and take the leftovers home. I have heard that it can get awkward because the restaurant staff worries that you didn't like the food if you don't eat much, but I think most people just say something like, "It's really good, but I'm just not very hungry today." I've seen a lot of diet tips (for non-bariatric patients) suggesting that you ask for a box as soon as you get the meal and pack up half of it to take home as a way to avoid overeating, so you could do that and they wouldn't even be able to see how much you ate.

Good idea asking for a box so they wouldn’t know how much you ate. They also would believe that you like it or you wouldn’t want to bring it home.

I was going to restaurants/bars starting at 3 weeks post op. At first I just had water, then I started to just share (or steal) food from my meal companions. After a while, I didn't want to be restricted to what my companions were eating so would just order an appetizer myself (or entree if nothing interested me on the appetizer menu). If no one at the table wanted to eat what I couldn't finish, then I'd just ask to get it packed up to bring home (or leave it there if it wasn't worth eating further).

Yes, servers would often be concerned if there was plenty of food untouched, which got annoying, but nothing that a "Yes, it was fine" wouldn't put an end to. I didn't feel the need to explain further.

Edited to add: I just remembered I used to bring protein powders everywhere I went during the first couple months. I'd add it to my water.

Edited April 14, 20215 yr by ms.sss