I decided to trial using ground rolled oats and adding them to my pouch - and SUCCESS!!!
I found that if I put 2 tablespoons of the rolled oats (which I grind in my coffee grinder - I have never ground coffee in it and usually use it to grind up my dried herbs), I get the same results as I did with the ConvaTec Diamonds Gelling Sachets - not only is it a lot cheaper and more affordable, but thickening up my watery ileostomy output, as I am unable to eat solid food, helps to keep the pre-filter of my SenSura Mio two-piece pouches from clogging up within just a few hours; now it lasts at least a few days.
Feeling much happier,
Grace
Sorry I haven't been around, but we have an enormous glut of fruit that needs processing. I discovered that dealing with all my peaches was easiest if I used my food dehydrator. I have also continued dehydrating apples and pears, and after I ended up with large batches, I put them into mylar bags with an oxygen absorber.
I have buckets of fruit that need to be canned - for which I will need my husband's help as I cannot cope with it all on my own - and as his arthritic knee is playing up badly, he can sit with his leg up and peel at the same time!!
I have to do a lot more research online though, as my husband and I are both diabetics, and I have to figure out a way to bottle our apples and pears without sugar!!
Love that you found an inexpensive solution to your liquid output problem!
Hopefully, someone else with a similar problem will find this thread.
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If I was a relative newbie with an ostomy, I have no doubt that this site would be very helpful to me. The members are quick to respond to questions and issues and they are filled with experience. When I joined, I already had a lifetime with an ostomy, so I just regard it as a place to meet and communicate with other folks similarly situated. Either way, it is a good site.
Good point, SusanT.
Perhaps Grace could retitle the post in due course so that when someone in the future searches for the name of the problem - watery output management, for example - Rolled Oats the Solution... then AI and the search criteria will catch it.
:-)
Learn all about skin barrier extenders.
Grace,
Delighted - you never know unless you try - now you have proved it's worth trying an alternative solution in place of an expensive product which now neither the insurance nor the manufacturers need have any overlap with!
Well done you !!
Hug-hug
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ waves ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
BW
Jayne
.............. Note AI summary has already picked up on this - so hopefully the thread will serve for future enquiries :-)) ....................
G-Day Gracie,
I just put this message in your other section.
Try Kitty Litter in your bag. It seems to absorb well for cats; it might just work in your bag. Try it as is or try grinding it. Just a thought—give it a go.
Regards, IGGIE
Living with Your Ostomy | Hollister
Might do that when I have some more time! But yeah - I bet I'm not the only one with output like water..... And it only took me 28 years to figure it out!! Seriously though - I got the idea from a couple of older people here.
G'day Iggie,
We use cheap kitty litter, which is made from natural New Zealand zeolite. I have a feeling that's not the one you are talking about? The stuff is heavy, and although it works during the night when our cats are indoors, I wouldn't want to put it in my pouch!
Hello Gracie Bella.
Congratulations on finding a solution. I am a great believer in DIY experimentation and it's very gratifying when someone finds a simple solution to a long-standing issue.
Best wishes
Bill
Learn more about ostomy accessories, and when to use them.
Ostomy experimentation is the key to solid ostomy management — you know your stoma better than anyone else. Sometimes you can use another person's suggestion intact, and other times you can use it with a tweak. Stomas don't bite, and they are quite resilient. Even when everything is working well, continue to experiment with new products and new approaches — what works today may not work tomorrow.
Gracie, you won because you never gave up. You learned about gelling sachets and saw how beneficial they were, although quite expensive in your country. Next, you sought to duplicate the effect with a cheaper solution. It has been said about genius that it's 2% genius and 98% hard work.
Happy you put in the hard work, Gracie. 😊
It honestly was not hard work. It's a little tricky getting it into my bag, though, but it certainly works.
Thanks!
I was just looking in my pantry and found that I have a packet of xanthan gum - I just googled whether or not it needs heat to thicken stuff up - and found it does not!
So that may be my next experiment. I have read that you only need a very small amount to thicken a liquid, which may be beneficial.
I don't know why medical products have to be more expensive compared to non-medical products....
I eat oat-based food to thicken my output. If I'm making bread, I replace 1/3 of the flour with oats. When I travel or go camping, I bake flapjacks and wrap them individually to keep in a pocket (good slow-release energy food too).
I keep a plastic jar lined with a doggy poo bag and with a couple of scoops of cat litter in it in my car and my travel stuff for emergency emptyings!
There is powdered pectin specifically designed for low- and no-sugar canning. Read the directions and recipes, and apply them to your peaches and other fruit. Back when we had pear trees, we made no-sugar pear jam, pear conserve, pear relish, etc., ad infinitum. If there was a recipe for fruit anything, we used the pears in it! And the low-sugar pectin helped us keep our sugar consumption within limits.
Thank you so much. Can't wait to try this. I have a high-output ileostomy with frequent bouts of liquid output. Question: How often do you add the 2 T of ground oats? Is it just when changing your bag, daily, or as needed? I do eat many of the same foods I did pre-surgery—just in different forms. Not always sure when the liquid output will strike, and I would love to avoid this.
Hi Gracie! You tell the jokes & George gets the punchlines? I hated the splashing poop on my legs, seat, and hands. Changing my wafer was a MESS! Now I eat low-salt beer pretzels (Happy Herbert) as a TV snack & 2 chocolate chip cookies, nightly. Potato chips work, too. All starches thicken your output. 2-3 hours before bedtime, I only sip liquids. Thick output means longer time to sleep, before empty time, and less chance of a messy leak. Remember to SIP! Gulping just fills your pouch faster with liquid. You cannot absorb it. They do make packets of thickening powder with different thickening levels (color coded). Easier to use.
I stopped using rolled oats; it worked, but not as well as xanthan gum.
My ileostomy output is just brown water, and as I cannot eat solid food, all that sloshing around drove me nuts.
When I was adding the ground rolled oats, I'd add 3 tablespoons by taking my pouch off the waver (I now just use 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum) every time I empty my bag.
Rolled oats turn my output into porridge, while the xanthan gum turns it more into a gel-like state.
Hi Rlevineia,
Would if I could, but I cannot eat solid food. My output is just brown water.
My old high output bags by Convatec had an awful habit of the plug coming out and all the contents running onto the floor wherever I was standing; not much fun.....
My stoma therapy nurse changed me over to SenSura Mio extra deep convex with a high output bag which holds approximately 750 ml. Fortunately, the plugs on these pouches are much better designed, and they have put a slit in the pouch fabric so you can put the plug into it, so that it doesn't hang down.
I stopped using rolled oats and am now using a teaspoon of xanthan gum every time I change my bag, which turns it into a gel-like state, so I don't get that splash back effect when I empty my bag and it doesn't completely ruin the toilet!!
Cool! When you said that about the slip in the fabric of your bags, it made me wonder. Sure enough, the Sensura Mio urostomy bags have the same feature. I never noticed it before.