FOOD YOU CAN EAT WITH AN ILEOSTOMY BAG

Hi Ian

Nice to hear from you too, sorry about having your ileostomy done again. I had a twisted bowel in april and I am due to see the specialist next week, my nurse took me of 14 Imodium a day, so now I have to try and do it by diet which has been very difficult, plus trying to balance my normal tablets.

I agree people don't realise the pain we have experienced.

Do you eat lettuce at all? I miss my strawberries terribly, I used to eat them instead of chocolate.

Do you manage with steak okay, I have not had any since my ileostomy.?

Take care.

Pauline

Hi Pauline my apologies for the slow response.

I occasionally eat lettuce but it's no fun picking the strands out of your stoma no matter how much you chew it.

I don't  have any problems with strawberries but if you're worried about the seeds have you thought about making a strawberry smoothie with low fat yoghurt.

I very rarely eat chocolate but I must admit I do occasionally buy packets of mixed nuts which obviously I have to crunch and chew.  I don't have any problems with seeded bread, to be honest I eat much the same as pre Ileostomy including steak both beef and lamb without any problem.

This might be of interest to all reading this:-.

Experts have a lot to say about chewing. One common piece of advice is to chew your food an estimated 32 times before swallowing. It takes fewer chews to break down soft and water-filled food. The goal of chewing is to break down your food so it loses texture.

Chewing 32 times appears to be an average number applied to most bites of food.

Foods that are harder to chew, such as steak and nuts, may require up to 40 chews per mouthful.

Foods like watermelon may require fewer chews to break down — as few as 10 to 15.

Eating most foods is possible providing we all count our chews before swallowing!

Keep up the good work.

Ian

Hi Ian

Thanks for getting back to me about strawberries etc, I will try them blitzed with yoghurt, when I used to diet I had strawberries instead of chocolate.

I get the impression you eat quite a varied diet including nuts which I have been told is a no no, so I have been really

careful but do miss lots of foods, especially seeded bread, but I must say when I had surgery the ileostomy is very very small the size of a 5p so that's why I thought I had to be careful, I do chew lots of times.

By the way I have been to see my specialist regarding my twisted bowel, (in April)he said he wants to do a PET scan first, he explained that if I wanted to have a reversal that sometimes when they re-stitch the bowel it sometimes leak which mean further major surgery which I certainly don't want.  He advised to wait 3 months to see if the bowel carry's on behaving which gives time for the PET results and time to see if the bowel carries on behaving itself.

I may try a few more foods now, can you eat green beans? cabbage?

Thanks

Pauline

Hi Pauline

I do eat every varied diet but I do have to admit I'm not a great vegetable eater, hate to see things like peas, green beans and other vegetables floating out of my bag no matter how much I chew never seem to get them fully mushed up.

My weird experience was staying in a Premium Inn and having an eat all you can breakfast including mushrooms and thought I had chewed everything to death image my horror when fully formed mushrooms started coming out of my bag and some of them were quite large! Never again have I risked eating mushrooms.

Have you joined the Convatec Me+ programme it gives lots of advice and helpful information and they don't push their products unless you ask them.

A good food diary is a must to record what happens when you eat, how it effects you and what you see coming out your bag. Me+ will send copies of their food diary as you need them, they've just sent me a nice gold coloured genuine small radar key and can't wait toilet card both of which I think you can't have too many.

Keep in touch

Ian

Hi Ian

Thanks for your comprehensive reply and I will definitely get to Convatec Me+.

You made me smile when you mentioned mushrooms, that was one thing they told me in hospital never ever to eat as it was like elastic.

Not everyone is a veg lover I know, I am the opposite, I havnt tried garden peas, again I love them, but as I said before strawberries I have missed.

Take care, hope things get easier for you.

Pauline

Hello Bodach,

I'm wondering if making soups passed through a liquidiser would be a good way of ensuring you get the nutrients green vegetables provide without the need to see vegetables floating into your bag.

AEC

AEC

Hi, yes it's an ideal way to get the nutrients out of your green vegetable but can I give you something to ponder on

FRESH or FROZEN

What does fresh vegetable mean how long since they were in the field?

Frozen could be a better option as they are frozen within hours of being picked therefore retaining more of the essential nutrients.

Liquidising fruit into smoothies with low fat yoghurt is another way to get the goodness of fresh fruit either fresh or frozen.

It's one of things I really miss soups with big chunks of vegetables in and so thick it could be cut with knife.

Enjoy.

Ian

Hi Pauline

I had my ileostomy in February, it's taken me a while to get braver with food. I've always been a healthy eater, eating few carbs and loads of fruit, veg and salad and have never been into cakes, biscuits, pies or any other beige food.

Meal times during the first few months were pretty awful for me. I had lost 3 stone in weight between Christmas and my op mid Feb so the nurses and my onc have been pushing all the stodge and enriched foods which has been really difficult (1.5 stone re-gained now, so can relax a bit as I'm comfortably in my height to weight range and BMI).

I have now introduced lots more fruit and veg - green beans are fine, I had a small portion of cabbage on holiday last week and that was ok too. Also fine and regularly eaten: cooked carrots, asparagus (peeled stems), courgettes, peas (chewed lots!) and in pea & ham soup, butternut squash, strawberries,  raspberries, stewed apricots,  watermelon, bananas, skinned peaches and nectarines, peeled apples (raw and stewed), peeled cucumber, tinned tomatoes in sauces, skinned beef tomatoes, beetroot, lettuce..... pretty varied. 

Problems with spinach, eggs, fish ........... although I've found I'm ok in small doses but having scrambled egg for breakfast, crab salad for lunch and sea bass for dinner was a very bad choice on holiday!!! I enjoyed it very much at the time but had a very windy, smelly, ballooning bag for 24 hours. 

I'm on 7 x loperimide 4 times a day and still have occasional watery output, very rarely it gets stodgy but I can't link it with foods. I've had one worrying blockage after I'd eaten a couple of slices of homemade fruit tea bread (made with tea soaked dried fruit), I have had 1/2 slice at a time since without trouble. I've had a few occasions of a swollen but normally active stoma which I'm confused by.

Anyway, that's enough from me, hope it helps you. Keep plugging away trying new foods.

Dawn x

Hi Dawn

Nice to hear from you, sorry for the delay messed up my password.

Your story is really varied and interesting.

I thought I was on a lot of Loperamide 14 a day, are you still on that dosage?

I see you are very adventurous with food such a vegetables, I was instructed not to eat most vegetables and

no pulses beans and peas, but I now eat a small amount of beans. I eat carrots, sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage.

I had my ileostomy over a year ago, but recently had two blockages, had to take myself to A & E, I was there

for 3 days, it cleared up quickly. I have since been taken off Loperamide but now have to eat 6 small meals a day to thicken it up, but my weight keeps going up unfortunately.

My ileostomy is very small so I tend to be cautious so when I saw you ate green beans, garden peas,  beef tomatoes, strawberries It made me think that I should try them.

which I have missed the most fruit wise.  Recently I have tried frozen strawberries, again being cautious because of all the seeds.

I have seen a surgeon recently who wants me to have a PET scan to see if its scar tissue, but don't go back for 3 months.

I will keep trying new foods.

Pauline x