Is Your Ostomy Pouch Leaking?

There is truly nothing worse than having to deal with a leaky ostomy pouch. Those people reading this who have had to deal with that in their lifetime know exactly what I mean. If you’ve never had to deal with an ostomy life, then count your blessings. Seriously, you are probably one of the luckiest people on this planet. Having to get an ostomy is probably the worst thing that could ever happen to a human being in the history of time. There are a lot of different reasons that could cause an ostomy pouch system to leak, so it is sometimes hard to know just exactly what is causing a leak for that specific occurrence.

However, I am going to be writing about a short comprehensive list for some reasons that could cause your ostomy pouch to leak and how to avoid and fix them. A leaky ostomy pouch can often create a lot of social embarrassment and anxiety, mostly because you may find yourself stinking up an entire room all at once. So without further ado, here are some tips and tricks on how to prevent or fix a leaky ostomy pouch.

Firstly, like I mentioned already, there are a lot of different factors that could explain why your ostomy pouch is leaking. That being said, it is important to keep looking for different solutions until one of them seems to be working. So, what I am trying to tell you is that you should not feel discouraged just because you tried one method and it did not work out the way you wanted it to. One of the first reasons as to why your ostomy bag may be leaking is because the skin around the stoma is uneven. This can happen for a variety of reasons, so you might have to check a few different boxes before you can completely rule this solution out. The first thing might be that your stomach hair is getting in the way of you forming a good seal on the skin barrier - everybody has those fine little hairs on their stomach, and some more than others. So in the case that you are not getting a good seal on your skin barrier, it may be a good idea to shave the area around your stoma often. Remember to shave very carefully so that you do not harm your stoma!

Another reason why your skin might not be totally even around your stoma is because you have some skin folds or scarring that doesn’t allow for the skin barrier to get a good seal around the stoma. In this case, output and odor can leak in those tiny gaps of skin and pores and whatnot. Some tips that I have for you in this case is to use various products like stoma powder, paste, or adhesive gel that can help even out that surface around your stoma and seal on the skin barrier more effectively.

Another reason that your ostomy pouch may be leaking is because it is getting filled with gas too quickly, so you might want to look for ways to avoid gas. Unlike normal people who get gas, people with ostomies cannot control when the gas comes out and therefore can balloon up their ostomy pouches to the size of the Hindenburg at full capacity.