Taking Care Of Your Stoma Is Not That Hard – Keep It Clean

If you have had a stoma for any serious amount of time, then you know how important it is to keep it clean. A lot of people underestimate the power of giving your stoma a nice clean up job during each ostomy pouch change. While it is true that a lot of people can run into various problems while living with an ostomy, many complications can be avoided in that regard by simply keeping the stoma clean.

There are certain times that cleaning your stoma is very effective at preventing any sort of infection or irritation that can lead to further, more complicated problems down the road. The last thing you’d want is to end up in the hospital because your stoma is acting up. My hope for you is that you can read this article and find some helpful information regarding your stoma and how you take care of it on a daily basis. 

If you are looking for a perfect time to clean your stoma, then I may have some suggestions that I can throw your way. Firstly, it’s important to know that you should be cleaning your stoma pretty regularly. A pretty standard rule for cleaning your stoma, and one that is relatively easy to follow, is that you should clean your stoma after each change of an ostomy pouch. This can ensure that you are giving your stoma the proper amount of attention and care it needs, and will make the whole changing process go a lot more smoothly because it is easier to deal with a clean stoma and ostomy pouch system than dirty ones.

In addition to this, cleaning is fairly easy and convenient to do while you’re changing ostomy pouches, because you are likely already in a spot that is convenient for cleaning (since you are changing the ostomy pouch). Does that make any sense? I hope it does. Anyways, it is really important that you are not overcleaning your stoma as well, because this can no doubt cause some irritation on its own. If you are experiencing some irritation from your stoma after cleaning it, it may be a good idea to talk to your doctor or something like that.

A little blood here and there during cleaning is normal, so keep that in mind as well! Just because there is a little blood coming out of your stoma does not mean that you have to rush off to the hospital – you will be okay! As far as what you should use to clean your stoma, keep in mind that you want to avoid a lot of cleaning products or wipes. Certain products like these can actually do more harm than good to your stoma, and leave you in some serious discomfort. That’s why it is just recommended to use some warm, clean water to rinse out and clean your stoma.

Then you can simply dry it with a soft cloth or paper towel or something. What I hope you take away from this article is that cleaning your stoma does not have to be super complicated, but it does need to happen quite regularly. Hopefully this article gave you some good advice on cleaning your stoma, and that you can venture out into the world of ostomy knowing that you are full of stoma knowledge.