Diet for patients with stoma

Everyone is familiar with stoma, especially those who have had major surgery at home. In the hospital, you can often see bags used to collect feces and urine in patients after major surgery. After major surgery, this can avoid the harm caused by random movement that may lead to wound rupture. The diet of stoma patients is definitely different from before. They should eat more easily digestible foods and drink more yogurt to help digestion.

In principle, no matter what kind of stoma patient, there is no need to abstain from certain foods. All they need to do is to have a balanced diet, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and keep their bowel movements smooth. When eating, try to separate wet and dry food to help the stool form. At the same time, you can increase the amount of yogurt you drink to regulate the flora of the intestinal stoma and play a role in regulating intestinal function.

Try to avoid eating foods that are difficult to digest, produce a lot of gas, or are irritating, such as glutinous rice dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and rice cakes (difficult to digest), shelled foods such as melon seeds, peanuts, red beans, and mung beans (easy to produce gas and difficult to digest), carbohydrate-containing carbonated drinks such as beer, cola, and soda (easy to produce gas), and foods that cause odor such as chili peppers, curry, onions, etc. When eating, you should chew slowly and thoroughly, and when trying new types of food, you should increase the amount gradually to avoid causing diarrhea.

For patients with urinary stoma, special attention should be paid to the acidity and alkalinity of food in their diet. Because uric acid and amino acid stones are easily formed in abnormally acidic urine, and excessive alkaline urine can also form phosphate, carbonate or oxalate crystals (see the white uric acid crystals in the picture below).

Uric acid crystals may even cause intestinal mucosal ulceration and infiltration of the skin around the stoma. Once the above situation occurs, you can first use neutral soap or 1 part white vinegar plus 3 parts water (saline solution) to wet the gauze and wipe off the crystals precipitated on the skin, but be careful not to wipe it on the stoma mucosa. Acidic foods include grains, bread, biscuits, rice, noodles, livestock, lean poultry, fish heads, animal offal, eggs, plums, peanuts, and walnuts; alkaline foods include milk, fruits, almonds, mustard, raisins, spinach, and foods made with baking powder; neutral foods include vegetable oil, lard, butter, white sugar, fruit candy, coffee, and honey.