Just a reminder about successful wafer bonding!
Posted: 2026-08-27 10:19:32
I went many many months without knowing precisely how to securely bond my wafer to my skin and it caused a much higher turnover rate than what I should have experienced.
So again for the lurkers here I just want to explain carefully and precisely my method that achieves superior results so that newbies and semi experienced types can maximize their wafer wear days too!
Now assuming your doing somewhat well and only experiencing small leaks here and there, perhaps changing the wafer out every 1-3 days instead of 5, 7 or even 10 days like I do.
I'm not covering what one has to do when one first gets an ostomy and still has scabs, that's a very difficult period which requires often wafer changes until the skin heals up enough. Nothing I can do about that here but say keep going and change it as soon as you feel any pain to reseal the leak so that skin heals up. The sooner it does the better it will be for you. Usually Medline Marathon, no sting paste and the proper fitting ostomy wafer is in order and that takes time to perfect unfortunately. Once you get that skin healed up then my advice here will benefit you greatly.
One thing to remember is that when scientists designed these products that they engineered them to work with perfectly healthy and clean skin, free of oils, dust, dirt and grime. So that's what we need to do.
So the simple formula is this:
1: Remove the wafer without getting any liquids of any sort (including adhesive remover and water) on the skin immediately surrounding the stoma where the barrier adhesive goes (paste or rings). This is very important because foreign liquids will prevent deep skin tissue cleaning. To remove stuck on barrier adhesive use a smooth edge of a butter knife gently scraped along the skin avoiding any wounds.
2: Dry wipe the stoma clean using toilet paper and discard. Next use oil free liquid eye makeup remover soaked on clean, dry toilet paper and soak it on around the stoma. Gently rub and discard and repeat until the skin is very clean. It also nourishes the deep tissue leaving a baby smooth like texture is exactly what you want.
3: Next wash the area three times using a pure soap like Ivory (do not use moisturizer soap!) using your hands (they need to be clean too) and gently use a soaped up scrubby pad used for dishes to exfoliate the skin around the stoma. Avoid wounds and coming into contact with the stoma as they will bleed. If this happens it's usually brief, just keep rinsing until it stops. Rinse well and run ones fingers around the stoma to check if it squeaks, this is telling you the skin is absolutely clean. This is very important! Don't let anything get on ones hands or around the stoma until the wafer is successfully applied. If output occurs redo the cleaning again. Why it's important to wait until the stoma is quiet before doing a wafer change, but sometimes it can't be helped so just wait in the shower or on the toilet with a bottle of water to rinse it away until it quiets down enough.
4: Next you need to have the skin absolutely dry by blow dryer, dabs of fresh, dry toilet paper and always one minute of hand fan waving before applying the next product.
5: If you have wet wounds, one grain high only of stoma powder just on the wounds and damp toilet paper water wiped off normal skin areas and thoroughly dried. Make sure nothing comes off the powdered areas by gently rubbing with clean fingers. This is important.
6: Next coat the area (regardless if stoma powder was used or not) around the stoma with a thin light coating of skin protectant. I find the Coloplast PREP dabber bottle an excellent product and cost effective. It creates a rough surface (unlike a spray) so the barrier adhesive (paste or rings) can adhere better.
Note: Sometimes with more wet wounds a second stoma powder + skin protectant is required, the process is known as "crusting".
7: Again between each step ensure a full minute of hand waving or lite blow drying so the skin is absolutely dry.
8: Next apply ones paste or rings directly to the skin first as to leave no gaps also to check if it's adhering to the skin or not before one wastes a wafer. If there is a gap output will get under it and skin damage occurs and spreads. So seal it up right and well.
9: Next apply ones wafer (cut the hole just a hair bigger than the stoma's exact shape) and using an empty toilet paper cardboard tube (may have to nest two together) use it to place even firm pressure through the wafer using ones palm for a solid five minutes. This will give time for the material to bond well to the skin and eliminate leaks.
10: Press ones wafer adhesive down for a good few minutes next, eliminating any air pockets that could grow mold. Apply ones barrier strips around the wafer adhesive for a better hold.
Now I'm not covering other problems but can give some tips:
1: Always use a barrier adhesive (paste or rings) in direct contact with the skin immediately surrounding the stoma. It's the only thing preventing leaks. A little further out, like a quarter of an inch more, you can use barrier strips like for fill or preventing mold but they are weak along their edges so they will not defend against leaks getting underneath..Don't use too thick paste, it's designed for thin filling only. Instead bring the more solid wafer material closer the skin. Using wafer cutout piece strips (or rings) around the opening (sticky side out) works well.
2: If you have sensitive scar tissue the wafer or barrier adhesive is grabbing it and causing discomfort you can cut the wafer or barrier adhesive around it then fill the scar tissue gap with paste and then place another barrier strip on top of it all for holding strength. Paste doesn't grab the skin as hard as the wafer or barrier adhesive does. The gap needs to be filled to prevent an air pocket that will grow mold and itch like crazy, undermines the barrier adhesive prematurely and causes leaks to occur.
3: If your wafer or barrier adhesive is difficult to remove, cover the stoma area and the skin immediately around it with something round and use spray skin protectant around it. Allow it a full minute to dry. Try that and if you do another coat it will make the area even smoother which makes wafer or barrier adhesive less effective and easier to peal off. But it can come at a cost of lower wafer holding power and more substantial leaks (full blowouts even). Thing is if one uses the eye makeup remover it should moisturize the deep tissue better and keep the skin healthy. It's just that it has to be washed off the surface of the skin well (three times with pure plain soap) and dried well so the adhesives can bond.
4: I shouldn't have to say this but there's a lot of bad advice going around. Don't ever use non-ostomy products under the wafer. They are not designed to work. The only exception is if you have a skin fungal infection (like athletes foot but under the wafer) you can use anti fungal foot powder (in lieu of stoma powder if necessary) applied exactly the same way as instructed above for stoma powder. However only use it once or twice and not constantly as it's not designed for that purpose as well as actual stoma powder is. Once your fungal infection is gone go back to using stoma powder as it's much more effective at preventing leaks.
So again for the lurkers here I just want to explain carefully and precisely my method that achieves superior results so that newbies and semi experienced types can maximize their wafer wear days too!
Now assuming your doing somewhat well and only experiencing small leaks here and there, perhaps changing the wafer out every 1-3 days instead of 5, 7 or even 10 days like I do.
I'm not covering what one has to do when one first gets an ostomy and still has scabs, that's a very difficult period which requires often wafer changes until the skin heals up enough. Nothing I can do about that here but say keep going and change it as soon as you feel any pain to reseal the leak so that skin heals up. The sooner it does the better it will be for you. Usually Medline Marathon, no sting paste and the proper fitting ostomy wafer is in order and that takes time to perfect unfortunately. Once you get that skin healed up then my advice here will benefit you greatly.
One thing to remember is that when scientists designed these products that they engineered them to work with perfectly healthy and clean skin, free of oils, dust, dirt and grime. So that's what we need to do.
So the simple formula is this:
1: Remove the wafer without getting any liquids of any sort (including adhesive remover and water) on the skin immediately surrounding the stoma where the barrier adhesive goes (paste or rings). This is very important because foreign liquids will prevent deep skin tissue cleaning. To remove stuck on barrier adhesive use a smooth edge of a butter knife gently scraped along the skin avoiding any wounds.
2: Dry wipe the stoma clean using toilet paper and discard. Next use oil free liquid eye makeup remover soaked on clean, dry toilet paper and soak it on around the stoma. Gently rub and discard and repeat until the skin is very clean. It also nourishes the deep tissue leaving a baby smooth like texture is exactly what you want.
3: Next wash the area three times using a pure soap like Ivory (do not use moisturizer soap!) using your hands (they need to be clean too) and gently use a soaped up scrubby pad used for dishes to exfoliate the skin around the stoma. Avoid wounds and coming into contact with the stoma as they will bleed. If this happens it's usually brief, just keep rinsing until it stops. Rinse well and run ones fingers around the stoma to check if it squeaks, this is telling you the skin is absolutely clean. This is very important! Don't let anything get on ones hands or around the stoma until the wafer is successfully applied. If output occurs redo the cleaning again. Why it's important to wait until the stoma is quiet before doing a wafer change, but sometimes it can't be helped so just wait in the shower or on the toilet with a bottle of water to rinse it away until it quiets down enough.
4: Next you need to have the skin absolutely dry by blow dryer, dabs of fresh, dry toilet paper and always one minute of hand fan waving before applying the next product.
5: If you have wet wounds, one grain high only of stoma powder just on the wounds and damp toilet paper water wiped off normal skin areas and thoroughly dried. Make sure nothing comes off the powdered areas by gently rubbing with clean fingers. This is important.
6: Next coat the area (regardless if stoma powder was used or not) around the stoma with a thin light coating of skin protectant. I find the Coloplast PREP dabber bottle an excellent product and cost effective. It creates a rough surface (unlike a spray) so the barrier adhesive (paste or rings) can adhere better.
Note: Sometimes with more wet wounds a second stoma powder + skin protectant is required, the process is known as "crusting".
7: Again between each step ensure a full minute of hand waving or lite blow drying so the skin is absolutely dry.
8: Next apply ones paste or rings directly to the skin first as to leave no gaps also to check if it's adhering to the skin or not before one wastes a wafer. If there is a gap output will get under it and skin damage occurs and spreads. So seal it up right and well.
9: Next apply ones wafer (cut the hole just a hair bigger than the stoma's exact shape) and using an empty toilet paper cardboard tube (may have to nest two together) use it to place even firm pressure through the wafer using ones palm for a solid five minutes. This will give time for the material to bond well to the skin and eliminate leaks.
10: Press ones wafer adhesive down for a good few minutes next, eliminating any air pockets that could grow mold. Apply ones barrier strips around the wafer adhesive for a better hold.
Now I'm not covering other problems but can give some tips:
1: Always use a barrier adhesive (paste or rings) in direct contact with the skin immediately surrounding the stoma. It's the only thing preventing leaks. A little further out, like a quarter of an inch more, you can use barrier strips like for fill or preventing mold but they are weak along their edges so they will not defend against leaks getting underneath..Don't use too thick paste, it's designed for thin filling only. Instead bring the more solid wafer material closer the skin. Using wafer cutout piece strips (or rings) around the opening (sticky side out) works well.
2: If you have sensitive scar tissue the wafer or barrier adhesive is grabbing it and causing discomfort you can cut the wafer or barrier adhesive around it then fill the scar tissue gap with paste and then place another barrier strip on top of it all for holding strength. Paste doesn't grab the skin as hard as the wafer or barrier adhesive does. The gap needs to be filled to prevent an air pocket that will grow mold and itch like crazy, undermines the barrier adhesive prematurely and causes leaks to occur.
3: If your wafer or barrier adhesive is difficult to remove, cover the stoma area and the skin immediately around it with something round and use spray skin protectant around it. Allow it a full minute to dry. Try that and if you do another coat it will make the area even smoother which makes wafer or barrier adhesive less effective and easier to peal off. But it can come at a cost of lower wafer holding power and more substantial leaks (full blowouts even). Thing is if one uses the eye makeup remover it should moisturize the deep tissue better and keep the skin healthy. It's just that it has to be washed off the surface of the skin well (three times with pure plain soap) and dried well so the adhesives can bond.
4: I shouldn't have to say this but there's a lot of bad advice going around. Don't ever use non-ostomy products under the wafer. They are not designed to work. The only exception is if you have a skin fungal infection (like athletes foot but under the wafer) you can use anti fungal foot powder (in lieu of stoma powder if necessary) applied exactly the same way as instructed above for stoma powder. However only use it once or twice and not constantly as it's not designed for that purpose as well as actual stoma powder is. Once your fungal infection is gone go back to using stoma powder as it's much more effective at preventing leaks.