Six Tips to Avoid Ostomy Leakage

January 23, 2020

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Adjusting to your ostomy bag could be tasking. There’s the caution to cover, caution to avoid strain, and even the most, caution to avoid ostomy leakage. If you’ve been struggling to find a way to keep your bag in place, read on, as this article highlights six tips to avoid ostomy leakage. You can also get this powerful stoma dome protector.

Avoiding leaks in your Ostomy.

If you have just had stoma surgery, or you’ve had one for a while, and leakages seem to be a regular occurrence, below are six tips you should find useful in managing your ostomy bag and preventing leakages;

Skin Care, Ostomy Skin Care; the skin around your stoma isn’t like a baby’s bum, it requires extra care as irritated or damaged skin can be very difficult to maintain and irritable. If you notice signs of irritation around your stoma skin, it is always best to call up your nurse and have her take a look. Also, the same way you are concerned about regular skincare, the skin around your stoma deserves double.

Change Your Stoma Pouch; Stoma pouches like every other thing go through wear and tear, they deserve changing every week. If your pouch is full, it is bound to stitch and cause leakage and also it causes strain on your stoma area.

Always Double Check; if you are going to be undergoing any physical activity, like exercising or even going swimming, always check if your bag is secure and sealed. If it isn’t, you may want to change it before undergoing your routine.

Proper fitting of the Skin Barrier; this isn’t dependent on how large, small, or protruding your stoma is, all that matters is that drainage flows seamlessly into your pouch without leaking underneath. To achieve this;

Have your nurse measure your stoma. With proper measurement, you would know how many barriers to applying.
Ensure no skin is unclad between the barrier and stoma
Apply stoma powder to every new open skin.

Caution whenever you remove the skin barrier; slow and steady does it here. Take your time peeling the barrier off to avoid stripping your skin. This helps you avoid irritation, damage, and a whole lot of pain. In taking off your barrier properly, you should;

Find an edge at the top, gently pull the barrier away from the skin and then work your way to the bottom.

Find your product; there are a whole lot of products available for stoma care and all you have to do is to find yours. Using the right powder, creams and pouches reduce stoma leak by over 60%. In finding the right one or the right blend for you, you may not want to just go all willy nilly, rather you could narrow down your research by;