Eating With an Ostomy

So you’ve gotten surgery and now have a stoma, huh? This is a confusing and scary time, I’m sure, but you won’t be finding any sympathy from me. You’re going to be fine! I’m going to put together a short article on how you can approach eating with your ostomy bag life and how to best handle your day-to-day activities. Just remember to take things slow and be patient with yourself; many of us have had the same questions, fears, and concerns that you are having right now, and we all turned out just fine! Trust me and trust the process. Without further adieu, here are some tips for eating after your ostomy.

The first few weeks after surgery are going to be a little bit different than your normal day-to-day eating habits once you have recovered from surgery. Your body is still very sensitive and you are adjusting to the new whole that the doctors so lovingly cut out in your abdomen. This means that your approach to food is going to be different for a few weeks. I suggest that you try to eat small meals more frequently throughout the day. While I was recovering from surgery, I made sure to eat small meals about six times a day instead of 3 larger ones. I think this is overall better for your body anyways, so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that you will be eating smaller meals more frequently rather than large ones. Also, make sure to chew your food very thoroughly and eat slowly. Why are you going so fast? There’s no need to rush your food down, after all, it’s not going anywhere except for into your fancy new pouch. You’ll also want to eat mostly bland and low fiber foods to avoid any further complications with your ostomy.

It’s important that you talk to a nutritionist before you’re discharged from the hospital about what you can and cannot eat following surgery. Let’s face it, I’m just some random guy on the internet that has absolutely no experience or knowledge regarding ostomy bags, so I would take their word over mine. Your doctor and nutritionist can help come up with some guidelines about what you should and should not be eating, and can talk about when it is time to start introducing new foods to your system again. My advice is to try things very carefully and slowly. You will eventually be able to eat most if not all of your favorite foods again, but it will probably take some time to figure out what your body can handle on a regular basis. So introducing newer more complex foods to your body slowly is beneficial to figuring out what you can and can’t eat.

Going forward, it is important to remember that everyone’s body is different. Not all foods will have the same reaction for everyone and some people have a harder time digesting food than others. Remember that having odor coming from your ostomy pouch is normal and should not be ashamed of; just make sure to carry around a small air freshener container when you go over to visit friends and family, that way you don’t stink up their bathroom. I hope this article was helpful for you in recovering from surgery and I hope that you can attain everything in your wildest dreams before you die from complications related to your stoma!