HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

What to eat to make pudding like effluent?

Support Forums
>
Ostomies
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/24/2011 8:18 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Still working on my "diet".

My goal is to not lose too much water in my ileostomy effluent so to have it more like pudding consistency instead of eating and having a bag of water, which then of course doesn't make it to my kidneys.

Is the drinking between meals and having the 6 little meals per day the secret?

I have an almost liquid breakfast, then for lunch a solid, hence losing a LOT of water in the effluent. (Don't get me wrong, glad the stoma is working) but am trying to fine tune this diet.

Is it best to have a more solid breakfast like toast, egg, and milk, then liquid later, then some kind of solid for lunch?

Timing and what we eat seems to be key here, but I just can't seem to get this down.

Sample meal plans welcomed! Rosemary
Posted 9/24/2011 11:30 PM (GMT 0)
I'm not sure Rosemary.. working on mine at the moment too! it's hard to figure out cause and effect. Now I'm starting to exercise more, my blood sugar levels have gone nuts.. its' pretty confusing! will keep you posted but can't help much I'm afraid!
Posted 9/24/2011 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Sarah,

That's OK, I've had my ileo 4 years and still trying to figure out what to eat that does not tax the stoma too much. I have been into a LOT of sugar lately but my blood levels always come out low. BUT, I did read that a lot of sugar depletes collagen in muscle tissue that over time could lead to a peristomal hernia. I gotta get my act together. Thanks for the exercises you emailed. They look conservative and good. My PT backed things way back to am more comfortable now.

Caught a huge cold. Everything seems like a bigger deal when one has some underlying condition doesn't it?. Oh, well, it is as it is.

Rosemary
Posted 9/25/2011 1:20 AM (GMT 0)
I used a slight modification of the BRATY diet. BRATY stands for Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast and Yogurt. The one thing I left off after trial and error was the applesauce. It made my output more liquidy (is that a word?). I would start and end the day with a banana and yogurt, and those seemed to gel me up quite well and ensured I didn't lose too much liquid during the day. The rice and toast helped too, but I think the bananas and yogurt helped the most. Just don't eat the light yogurts that Dannon and Yoplait put out. They have artificial sweeteners in them. I had a pretty nasty cold while I had my ileo and I took some cough drops that had artificial sweeteners in them and my bag was constantly full of liquid. Wallaby yogurt seemed to have the right combination of taste and low fat and plenty of flavors.

Good luck!
Posted 9/25/2011 7:05 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks, good point about the artificial sugar. That really gives me bad diarrhea with the ileo. Not a good thing. I find that real bananas thicken way too much but baby food bananas are OK. They have this peach-applesauce that thickens like crazy. I noticed that normal applesauce does not thicken but rather thins.

I also wondered, is it even possible for ileostomates to maintain normal nutritional levels? due to the fact that we (I) just can't eat all the fruits and veggies that I used to be able to. Miss those sooo much. Winter squash thickens way too much! So do potato and pasta's. I just can't seem to get it right. It was better when my ileostomy was new and I could eat almost anything and it would whale right out of me.

Thanks for your response. Rosemary
Posted 9/26/2011 11:01 PM (GMT 0)
Wish I could tell you. My output is never that predictable. I think I would go crazy trying to keep it at one consistency, so I don't worry about it much. A few days ago it was all liquid for whatever reason (I didn't eat anything that I haven't eaten numerous times with thicker results). On the days that it ends up being more liquid in consistency, which fortunately isn't that often, I just up my fluids as I know I am losing more through me ileo.

The only two things that predictably make my ileostomy output liquid is drinking wine on an empty stomach (it is fine with food) and sugar-alcohol (such as xylitol and sorbital) sweetened foods and drinks.

It is interesting that Bay Area Guy has bad luck with applesauce. That is one thing that always thickens up my output. Shows how different everyone's systems are.
Posted 9/26/2011 11:40 PM (GMT 0)
Blueheron,

Thanks. IF ONLY some doc had mentioned the sorbitol to me prior to my original surgery for what was then supposedly the redundant sigmoid colon (that turned out not to be on review of the scan after the fact) I think that stuff would have solved my original rectal emptying difficulty. That stuff shoots straight through my small intestine I know that for sure. As I had normal colon transit, I am sure that would have had the osmotic laxative affect I needed to push normal stool right through what was actually a deep low rectocele I had. BUT, none the less, I sure know to avoid Sorbitol now. This site would have been great for me when I was contemplating the sigmoid resection surgery as with ileo's patients sure find out what the speeder-uppers are! My docs were all into Miralax which I could not tolerate, odd none of them mentioned sorbitol. Ah well, thanks for the info.

Yeah, my wanting to have the effluent more like pudding is just as you said so I won't lose so much liquid through the ileo and dehydrate. BUT, just upping water consumption to compensate is a sensible idea. Rosemary
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply