Hydration powder is the way to go!

[Shamrock4806]

Always had a problem with too much runny output because I was drinking a lot of plain water and milk which in turn caused more runny output and more drinking of fluids.

So I was so dehydrated one day I decided to buy a hydration drink and felt so much better, not only that the runny output basically tapered off.

So I bought a few bottles and keeping them chilled would take a sip or two of the hydration drink then some plain water.

Because of the high price of bottled drinks I found powdered version in the supermarket that gives 6 bottles for the same price as a bottled version with the water in it.

So now I'm happily doing my rehydration routine at home or wherever, taking a few sips and then chasing it with a little plain water to clean my pallet.

Definitely less watery bag dumps and not feeling as dizzy etc.

Someone here recommended it but I blew him off because according to what I've read all one needs is the salt to replenish electrolytes and the rest will come from ones food they eat. So I just drank slightly salty water of ate a salted cracker or something.

Well that's for normal people, for illeostomy types we lose all electrolytes all the time, so switching to a hydration drink provides across the board electrolytes replacing what was lost during the bag dump.

So I've much improved my hydration and I wish to apologize to that whomever whom I tried to explain why do I need to buy hydration powder when I'm going to get the other electrolytes from food. Apparently that's not fast enough when one has an illeostomy.

Instead of explaining that to me we debated but now I realize he was correct. He didn't explain why, just said that's what you do. I needed to know why. So if he said the hydration powder works faster and more consistently to stay up with the bag dumps then I would have understood.

So anyway I finally figured that out for myself. But he was correct that the AI program I was using was steering me wrong some. That hydration powder or drink is much more effective than simply waiting for them to be replenished with food.

So don't always trust the AI people, others experience can be more accurate, but visa versa can be true as well.

Typical composition of ileostomy output (per liter):
Component

Typical Amount Lost

Sodium ~80–140 mEq

Potassium ~10–20 mEq

Chloride ~50–110 mEq

Bicarbonate ~30–50 mEq

Water ~1 liter