Advice after your nerve block for surgery
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Soft Options
If you have problems chewing or swallowing or are unable to eat ordinary solid food for any other reason, it can be difficult to achieve a balanced diet. However, your body still needs just as much nutrition.
This information will give you ideas to enable you to choose as wide a variety of foods as possible.
Preparation Tips
To ensure a soft consistency, foods should be well-cooked and able to be mashed with a fork.
Good Food Guide
Each day, try to follow the advice below:
- Three small meals daily as well as two to three snacks or milky drinks
- Milk, cheese and dairy. Aim for two or three servings a day including at least one pint of full cream milk
- Meat, chicken, fish, well-cooked eggs, beans or lentils. Aim for two servings a day
- Crustless bread, potatoes, rice, pasta or cereal. Base your meals around these foods
- Small portions of fruit and vegetables
- Drink fruit juice if little fruit is eaten
- At least six to eight cups of fluid. Taking drinks after meals, rather than before or with them, may help if you feel full quickly
Examples of Soft Options
The following pages give ideas for soft foods.
Meat and Poultry
- Minced meat and dishes made with mince e.g. cottage pie, bolognaise, moussaka, savoury mince
- Tender pieces of meat in stews and casseroles
- Tender roast meat, cut into small pieces with gravy
- Tinned meats, e.g. corned beef, chopped ham and pork, chicken in white wine sauce
- Chopped ham in parsley sauce
- Tinned sausages and beans
Fish
- Flaked, steamed or poached fish (beware of bones)
- Frozen fish in sauces - “Boil in the Bag”
- Tinned fish - add to white sauce or mayonnaise
- Fish pie
- Fish in batter/breadcrumbs with coating removed
Cheese
- Grated cheese/cottage cheese - try adding to soups, sauces, mashed potato, baked beans, spaghetti in tomato sauce
- Cheese spread
- Cream cheese and other soft cheeses
- Cheese dishes e.g. macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese
Potatoes
- Mashed potato with plenty of butter and milk
- Instant mashed potato
- Jacket potatoes - leave skin and add soft filling e.g. grated or cottage cheese, tuna and mayonnaise, baked beans
Eggs
- Boiled, poached and scrambled egg (cook until yolk is hard)
- Egg dishes e.g. egg custard, omelette, pancakes (sweet and savoury)
Bread and Cereals
- • Porridge and instant cereals e.g. Ready Brek
- • Other breakfast cereals soaked in plenty of cold or hot milk, e.g. Weetabix, Shredded Wheat
- Avoid cereals with added nuts and dried fruit
- Bread (except with added grains and seeds) - remove crusts if necessary
- Soft rolls
- Some suitable sandwich fillings:
- cheese spread
- sandwich spreads
- egg mayonnaise
- corned beef
- smooth peanut butter
- Marmite
- meat and fish paste
- Pasta - dishes such as macaroni cheese, spaghetti in tomato sauce, pasta shells in cream sauce, ravioli, lasagne
- Rice - well cooked, boiled/fried with soft meat or fish
Vegetables
- Cook vegetables well
- Cut into small pieces and mash if necessary
- Suitable vegetables may include:
- mashed swede, parsnips, carrots
- lentils
- baked beans
- mushy peas
Fruit
- Choose soft, ripened varieties of fresh fruit e.g. peaches, pears, nectarines, plums, melon, bananas
- Remove skin, pith and pips and cut into small pieces
- Poaching/stewing fruit softens it and can be served with custard or ice cream
- Tinned fruit (except pineapple) is usually soft
- If you cannot manage fresh fruit, have a glass of pure fruit juice or
- Ribena every day to give you vitamin C
Puddings
- Milk puddings e.g. custard, rice pudding, sago, tapioca, semolina, macaroni (tinned or home-made)
- Blancmange
- Jelly
- Trifle
- •Fromage frais
- Sorbet
- Ice-cream
- Mousses
- Yoghurt
- Angel Delight
If you need your food even softer, try the following:
- Puréeing food using a liquidiser, food processor or hand blender. Most family meals can be pureed successfully provided that extra fluid e.g. gravy, sauce, milk, fruit juice or Bovril is added. Stews, casseroles, most meat with gravy, fish in sauce are all ideal main courses to purée. Vegetables and potato can be added or puréed separately if necessary
- Mashing potatoes, vegetables and soft fruits
- Straining/sieving soups. Some vegetables can be pushed through a sieve
N.B. You may be tempted to try commercial baby foods, but these are expensive and do not provide adequate nourishment for adults.
However, if you are unable to prepare food at home, Wiltshire Farm Foods, Oakhouse Foods and Parsley Box offer texture modified ‘ready’ meals.
Extra Tips
- Always sit upright when eating or drinking
- Take your time when eating, do not rush meals
- Take small mouthfuls and chew as well as you can
- Visit your dentist regularly as healthy teeth and well-fitting dentures can only help
- Eat little and often - six small meals a day may be easier to manage than three large ones
- Add plenty of gravy or sauce to meals to make them easier to swallow
- Use herbs, spices and stock cubes to make sure that your meals have plenty of flavour
- Contact your GP if your ability to swallow becomes worse
- A speech and language therapist will be able to advise you on swallowing techniques. Ask your GP or hospital doctor to refer you
Weight Gain
If you have lost weight recently, perhaps due to being unable to chew/swallow well, then it is important to maximise your nutrient intake and particularly aim to take more protein and energy. This can be done by using everyday foods.
Fortified Milk
Add two to four tablespoons of dried milk powder to a pint of fresh whole milk. Keep in the fridge and use as fresh milk in drinks and cooking. Use milk or evaporated milk in place of water in soups, jellies, puddings and bed-time drinks.
Breakfast Cereals
- Use fortified milk
- Sprinkle an extra spoonful of sugar on top
- Add cream, evaporated milk, syrup or honey to porridge
Soups
Add one or more of the following to soups:
- Cream
- Extra meat or pulses e.g. lentils
- Milk powder
- Fortified milk
- Grated cheese
- Soft, cooked rice/pasta
Mashed Potato
Add one or more of the following to mashed potato:
- Butter or margarine
- Cream
- Fortified milk
- Grated cheese
Vegetables
Melt butter or margarine on top of vegetables or sprinkle with grated cheese or chopped hard-boiled egg, add milk-based sauces.
Puddings
Add one or more of the following to puddings:
- Cream
- Ice cream
- Sugar
- Evaporated milk
- Jam
- Honey
- Syrup
Nourishing Drinks
- Whenever you do not feel like eating, have a nourishing drink
- You can also drink these between meals to help you put on some weight
- High protein drinks can be bought from most chemists or supermarkets e.g. Polycal, Meritene and Complan are available in a variety of flavours
- The sweet flavours are nice with ice cream and/or puréed fruit mixed into them
- Try adding your own ingredients such as Crusha Syrup, puréed fruit, mashed banana, ice cream or drinking chocolate to natural/vanilla flavoured drinks
- Remember malted drinks, drinking chocolate and cocoa are nourishing especially if you make them all with milk. Though traditionally bedtime drinks, try taking them between meals occasionally
Sample Meal Plan for a Soft, High Protein, High Energy Diet
Breakfast
Porridge - Make with fortified milk*. Add sugar or honey and purée if necessary
Tea - Add sugar if desired. Use fortified milk*
Mid-morning
Coffee - Use fortified milk*
Banana - Mash with milk and sugar
Lunch
Chicken soup - Sieve if necessary. Add cream or milk powder
Fish in sauce - Flake/purée, if necessary, with extra sauce
Carrots - Mash/purée. Add butter or margarine
Potato - Cream with a little milk, butter or margarine
Yoghurt - Use a full fat yoghurt
Mid-afternoon - Nourishing drink
Evening Meal
Beef casserole - Purée with extra gravy if necessary
Swede - Mash/puree. Add butter or margarine
Potato - Cream with a little milk, butter or margarine
Rice pudding - Make with fortified milk*. Add sugar/jam
Before Bed
Hot chocolate - Use fortified milk*
*See previous pages for fortified milk recipe
Contact us
If you have any queries relating to this information, please contact the Dietetics service.
About this information
Service:
Dietetics
Reference:
DT/058
Approval date:
1 March 2026
Review date:
1 March 2029
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Important note
This page provides general information only. It is developed by clinical staff and is reviewed regularly every 3 years for accuracy. For personal advice about your health, or if you have any concerns, please speak to your doctor.