Illeostomy? Feeling depressed and sluggish? Try this diet.

[Shamrock4806]

This is my current diet, I used to have a high output ileostomy so I need to watch my food intake very closely as to reduce bathroom visits or blowouts. I've read that until what's left of the digestive system learns to absorb more water one would have high output. So it could that as well. But it was difficult getting it under control believe me. I like to eat and had to learn to eat less and only certain things.

I bake a bunch of chicken thighs or legs, I find this meat juicier than chicken breasts and wings have little meat on them anyway. I just use a seasoning mix and ensure as much fat drains off while cooking as possible. Removing fatty parts and even skin if it's too much as to keep the fat down, but I don't want to remove all fat. So I'll nuke up 2-3 or even 4 sometimes of these baked chicken pieces for lunch. This is a significant energy source for me.

Breakfast has been usually a bowl of rice type cereal with low fat milk. But occasionally I'll go out for eggs over easy, link sausage and french toast.

I keep some orange juice around and take a slug if needed, a strawberry & banana smoothie as well as small cans of V8. Some pickles to drink the juice if I crave it.

Dinner can be anything like spaghetti with pasta sauce (no chunky veggies), maybe some mild Italian sausage, microwave swedish meatballs in pasta cream sauce or a Salisbury steak dinner with skinless potatoes and avoid the solid veggies. Lasagna (small pieces) also. All soft foods, easily digestible.

The main thing is getting that chicken in for the day, it's packed with protein and B vitamins for energy. As you know us illeostomy types need to watch our B vitamins, especially B 12. Thing to watch for is no hard parts. Warning deep fired and/or brined chicken or meats can cause runaway diarrhea issues so always bake, boil or pan fry..

I've been doing pretty good on this sort of diet, just enough energy but less bag volume.

Oh and I eat something in the middle of the night as well, it could be a bowl of cereal or even a piece of bread with creamy (only) peanut butter on it.

One thing to note is pasta can be a tricky devil, it can cause a huge amount of bag output and even a blowout if one eats too much and then falls asleep. Or it can be not cooked all the way and actually thicken up output as it absorbs more water through the system.

And pasta sauce, although I love it, can be problematic as well, if mixed with bread or will thicken up output and even cause pancaking. It likes to gas, stink and stain the bag too. So I've learned to just eat barely enough to coat the pasta and nothing more.

Portion control is vital as that bag can only hold so much, but I've been sleeping better and longer in some cases because I'm not as hungry by eating the chicken and some pasta everyday. Instead of eating anything and suffering with high output volume.

I eat more at breakfast, lunch and a early dinner before 4 pm. After that I eat smaller meals.

For a treat before bed I'll eat a little mint chocolate chip ice cream, it's a mixed bag of results. The dairy causes some gas (as does the milk) and the chocolate makes for thick black sludge later. But it's usually fine.

But it's nice to finally settle down into an acceptable diet, along with bag adhesion issues my diet also has been a problem a long time trying to solve by trial and error process.

[Shamrock4806]

I was craving something a little Mexican spicy so ate a can of refried beans mixed with just a little Chalula hot sauce. it was perhaps a little too much as frequent dumpings were needed so perhaps only a half a can of the refried beans next time.

I usually try to stay away from large amounts of meat because it causes a lot of watery output, but unfortunately defrosted an entire box of frozen hamburger patties so need to cook them up. I usually mix it with ketchup or put it on bread

I wish I could eat more things but I must be slow and careful as not to upset my fragile digestive system and piss of that almighty bag.

I've gotten it done that I can almost change a bag anytime I wish now, sure it spews some but it's somewhat manageable and not totally out of control like before. I get nearly 3 day pain free days outta a bag now. It's not been easy, requires massive discipline and careful attention to diet and food volume control.