Thickening Stoma Output with Porridge Before Appliance Change

just a small tip for anyone who has the dreaded  " STOMA ACTIVE SYNDROME" when trying to change an appliance..we have all been there ..eating marshmellows around 20 mins before you attempt to change the appliance is a very common method to help thicken output thus preventing watery mess when changing.. i would like to give an alternative which has never failed for me in 20 years....here goes....eat a bowl of porridge one hour before you intend to change the appliance.. this is better than marshmellows and should not really fail.. even if there is some output after 1 hour  it will be small amount and NOT watery which is the main proplem..hope this helps  some people out there who dont want to eat marshmellows... also porridge is better for you as well..just a side issue..

I concur.  The porridge seems to totally shut everything down for a good 2 or 3 hours in the morning.

When you say "porridge" do you mean "oatmeal"?? Can it have any sugar and milk on it?  Does the quick cook stuff work well?  I have used the marmellow trick many times and find it works well. I've even used when I had a small leak starting - ate a few marshmellows, waited 15 minutes before I started the flange change.

yes the porridge that can be microwaved is perfect and you can have milk/sugar or any flavouring you like with it... quaker oats porridge or similar is perfect

Are you kidding me? Does that really work? Everytime that I change my appliance I always have some kind of leakage. Heck if eating a few marshmellows or oatmeal in the mornin' works then I will try that. Thanks for the tip!

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  Buy the way ,how many marshmellows do you have to eat?

Words of Encouragement from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

Have almost eliminated liquid output by eating a banana every day. It used to be a real problem, especially at bag-changing time. May not work for everybody. Have to beware of pancaking now!!!!

you would have to eat around4-6 marshmellows  but porridge is waaaaayyyyyy better...i promise you..just try it as i have described above..hope this helps

I love oatmeal but just wondering if Farina would do the same thing?

I've found the "BRAT" diet works well also.. Have either, Bananas, Rice, applesauce,toast. (NOT all at the same time)  All of these nearly stop my output for a couple hrs.

Different foods have worked for me, but not real well.  I always go to bed hungry keeping my output at night to a minimum. I found that very first thing in the morning my intestine is for the most part empty. So I change out in the moring.

One thing I do.  I get everything completely ready, plastic bag to put old wafer and bag in. Clean up stuff for old seal.  Warm paper towels some with soap some just wet.  Razor to shave the area.  Hair dryer to get the area completely dry. New wafer ready.

I have found once I got good at it, placing the Eakin seal on the wafer insted of on the stoma worked better and faster and I got a better seal.  You need a round stoma to pull that one off.



Rick.....

I use the convec flange that can be molded by your fingers no cutting involved, put the eakin ring on the flange and warm the stoma area and flange with  blow dryer works very well for me 4=5= days