Minimizing the stoma output

Due to colon cancer, I had a colostomy May 2023. Since then I've been living with my Idiot, the stoma.

All this time I've been trying to figure out what to eat and what not to eat to make the output amount as small as possible "continuously and permanently". Some things work, of course, clearly better than others. For example, white fish made in the oven in a closed casserole or wrapped in aluminium foil seems to get consumed almost totally by the body thus keeping the amount of output small. Great. What else, please?

I understand that this is probably very, very individual, but it would be wonderful to hear real life stories from people who are and have been fighting with and learning this same thing. I've been reading a lot and talking with some medical staff and all kinds of AI bots, but now I would greatly appreciate hearing real stories from real people with real experiences with trying to limit their stoma output to a minimum by carefully and cleverly choosing what to eat.

Chewing thoroughly and patiently is, of course, what I am doing. As is eating just a little at a time. Etc. So what to eat, not how to eat.

What to drink, I am not too interested in, either. That is the clear and easy side of the story. Understood and controlled well enough, that is. But what to eat to achieve what I am after?

Thank you ever so much, my friends. 🙂

George

P.S. This has probably been discussed here already in the past, but I did not find anything helpful. Thanks for your patience, everyone

What is the reason you want to limit the amount of your output continuously and permanently? Are you having trouble emptying your pouch or having leaks, or afraid you will find yourself in an embarrassing situation when you are out and about? When I want to slow my output I take Imodium. Very curious about your reason. Different foods can increase or decrease your output, but it depends on how much of your colon is left.

I agree with Hugo, why would you want to slow it down.

As you said the fish was totally digested, well so is steak. If you try the Carnivore diet which is just meat your body will totally digest it, but again WHY?

Are you to lazy to empty your bag or is there some other reason?

IGGIE

Have to agree with my brothers above in their curiosity as to why trying to limit out put.??

When people complain about high output with an ileostomy, we suggest immodium. The same for people with colostomy. You have a colostomy which my understanding is a bit thicker output, but not everyday. There is a term " irrigation" used. Have u heard of it? Some who irrigate, takes them 1 or 2 days " to go".

Rarely do we hear of colostomy folks trying to minimize their output.

More details are needed.

I've had a sigmoid colostomy for 3 years. At first I was very careful about food choice. But not now. I can eat a feast... then... little exits my stoma. Other times I eat a light meal, and boom! Experience lots of output. No rhyme or reason. Occasionally I'll go 2 days with nothing sliding out. Used to concern me. But that's the way my stoma behaves. I use a Hollister 2 piece system. Their bags can securely hold alot of poop. Works for me cuz I'm lazy.

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Hi G,

Not sure why everyone is so confused by wanting to reduce output.......seems pretty simple to me and I'd love to decrease mine as much as possible too. But you have to be careful about doing so. You can certainly get on a 'low residue' diet to reduce what the body has to get rid of, but your output isn't only composed of what's left from what you've eaten and you need some of the things you eat but can't digest. Your output of course consists of any undigested food, but it also contains gut bacteria as well as dead cells from your intestine's lining that is constantly recycling itself........and water.

You need the fiber (you can't digest) to add bulk to your stool, otherwise it'll be liquidy. It's also really important for maintaining a healthy gut microbiome. No food you eat, other than sugar, is 100% completely absorbed, so there's no magic foods you can eat that will produce no output, but even if there were.......as I just described...you'd still have output. You also don't want to be on a 'low residue' diet long-term.....as no fiber will hurt your gut biome and then you'll be in really deep shit.......pun intended.

What would be better is if you kept a food diary and figured out WHEN to eat WHAT and then worked around that, rather than trying to always have low output.

;O)