Let’s Thicken It Up!

Yep we all have times when our output/stool/poop whatever you like to call it doesn’t want to play ball and goes super liquidy. You don’t always want to take loperamide or just can’t seem to take enough to make a difference. Hopefully this little list could make all the difference to give you some relief, because let’s face it most of us have spent far too much of our lives on the toilet before our ostomies.

High output can cause a few more problems than just more visits to the “throne room” like :

• adhesive erosion
• skin breakdown
• leaks
• unable to absorb nutrients properly
• output getting into the filter

They say the ideal texture is like thicker porridge or toothpaste, but I think each person has their own preferred thickness they find easier to deal with so it will be a case of trial and error for a while. Finding what your bodies happy medium with fluids can be really beneficial, I actually became scared of drinking too much in case it made my output too thin which I talked about here. Some of these I have tried and work for me, some of these are suggested in groups I am a part of.

• White potato
• White bread
• White rice
• White pasta
• Jelly babies/marshmallows or other gelatin based sweets – I’m not sure if the vegan gelatin works but if you have tried it and it’s worked please comment below!!
• Bananas
• Applesauce
• Crackers
• Nut butters so think peanut, cashew (sooo good), almond etc be careful of the chunky ones or just chew really well, I can eat nuts fine but if I haven’t thought about it they can be sharp on exit
• Porridge
• Cheese

But then again most of the ostomy supply companies offer gelling agents that you pop into your bag which are a type of silica gel. I have used a couple of different companies offerings and yeah while they do thicken it up (a little too well sometimes) once you have emptied and all or most of the agent has gone you can be back to square one. I have found they work well if I am travelling long distances and don’t necessarily know when I am going to find a toilet.

I know it may sound counter productive but whilst having high output you do need to make sure you drink, whether it’s a shop bought isotonic drink or St Mark’s Solution but you can quickly become dehydrated which becomes a vicious cycle (trust me I have been there and it suuuuucks)

St Marks Solution is :