A really runny stoma

I have an iliostomy so I don’t know if it works the same, however my go to is a good ol’ potatoe. One of the first things my dietician told me because I too was having extremely runny output. I am also on probiotics & probiotics and they help a tremendous amount. I just hate taking a bunch of medicine that can create “other” complications. I sure hope this helps. Good luck. Let me know. 

Sorry..this was supposed to say “baked potatoe” and “pre-biotics & pro-biotics”.

weird for a colostomy to be watery - ileostomy yes but not usual on colostomy.

anyway, i had the same issue for ages - here's what to do.

1) Take 3 (yes three) loperamide half an hour before a meal - don't take the capsules - open them up and sprinkle into a little yoghurt and eat the yoghurt. - if you are running water then the loperamide doesn't have chance to get in you if the capsule is still around it.

2) eat something stodgy - mashed potatoes with a ton of cheese melted in it is my go to thickener

3) wait till you empty twice

4) if it's still thin and runny then have two more loperamide in yoghurt again

5) after half an hour, have a tin of rice pudding - wait to see what the output is like

6) if still runny - eat half a dozen marchmallows (the huge ones from sainsbury's) and snack on jelly babies

Finally, if you are getting rid of lots of liquid you need to hydrate more than you are. keep off the coffee unless it's decaf and drink 3 bottles a day of lucozade sport drinks ON TOP of what you are drinking normally - if you don't then you may have to be admitted to get a fluid drip in your arm - you are losing a lot!

I'm no expert but this is what works for me - generally speaking i can control the output consistency now.

also note what drugs you are taking - these can have a massive effect - ones such as metformin can make you liquid too.

hope this helps.

Hi,

I have an ileostomy but have hardly any small bowel too so I am prone to a very high output.

My stoma nurses have told me you can’t overdose on loperamide.. I take 4 tablets 4 times a day..check it might be different for a colostomy.. but worth checking.

Do you make sure you eat and drink separately? Because that will help too.

I agree with all the food advice too.

The only other thing I would advise practically is asking to use osto sorb balls .. ask your stoma nurse.  Basically they help thicken your output and have helped my life enormously.. 

Hope this helps a little xx

Dehydration- what a nightmare!

Try to keep to diet rich with suitables - but had to return to hospital 3 days ago after another bout. 

Hospital docs decided to reduce - yes reduce - loperamide from 6 x 2mg pre each meal to TWO.  Three days later we’re back at 8 x2 mg pre each meal and waiting on improvements 

Currently on usual IV supplements also

Plus antibiotics in case some form of bug

Rather soul destroying when the doc has trouble multiplying by 2 to arrive at dose 

Happy days - roll on reversal postulated by surgeon gor June list.  I only have 1.3m ileum so unlikely that diet will do a great deal 

Hello I have an olliostomy and if I eat pasta and potatoes and rice less spice I am good anything else I end up with liquid output which is hard to cope with I suggest you eat stodgy types of foods a it's early days for you don't worry you will get better at figuring out what works for you ... I dropped the emodium completely and happier without them they didn't help me but stodgy foods did also replace sugar and salt loss with cordials and something of a salty snack sometimes not the healthy thing but works to keep you feeling balanced because you need to replace your electrolytes good luck your going to be OK relax x 

My first post, so not aware of any protocols about resuscitating threads:  apologies if I have breached them. I'm a recent ileostomist with a real problem of excessively liquid output, and contradictory experience of what foods/drinks cause or alleviate the problems. Lots of great ideas and evidence about food and medecine here: thanks to all participants. What I don't get, however, is what to drink when plain water and even dioralyte just wash into the bag within minutes, yet the feeling of dehydration is very plain and a bit scary. I'm not much into complementary, Chinese or Ayurvedic medecine, but my body is telling me it wants weak green tea, though nurses etc tend to say stay off all tea and coffee. However there are hundreds of green teas with alleged specialist health benefits: anyone with a bad-tempered stoma been down this road?

hi Vizsla, welcome! I get it wrong where to post too.  Stoma's are all different and it really is trial and error. 

Initially I was losing up to three litres of fluid waste a day which had to be replaced with three litres of fluid. (Not easy). Lucozade SPORT helped replace electrolytes. Eight Imodium a day helped - 2 half an hour before each main meal plus two at night helped. Eating small amounts, often, also helped. I NEVER drink plain water as it goes straight through me like a colander; I add a small amount of juice to the water I drank also help.  I snacked all day on plain biscuits and crisps which helped. Now paragraphing gone mad. 

If you're body is  telling you it wants green tea try it. I often got dehydrated and developed chronic kidney disease. Non of the medical staff could say exactly what caused it - it could have been a number of thing's but getting dehydrated didn't help. As mentioned by other folk Mashed potato, pasta and rice thickened thing's up. Only eat root veg. Bananas and stewed apple were fine. Yoghurt is good. Custard is good. Only mild cheese is good. Ginger biscuits were good for me.

from the posts  I remember in the early days I made sure I ate my meal and after it had a drink. That helped me.

Really helpful, as well as a sobering reminder that things could be, and for other people have been, much worse. Thank you Kath. It's become clear that my current problems have been worsened by catching a nursery-school tummy bug, which is fortunately fading away. Also clear that a forum like this is more useful than many medical professionals: my GP freaked out and wanted me to go straight to A&E, but taking advice on playing with diet and dosages seems to be doing the trick, touch wood.