Managing Ostomy Pouch Smell - Seeking Effective Disposal Methods

Hi JB, nicely put.. Aha, we should count that 1 up to me and 1 up to you. I know it's not a competition, but what's wrong with actually enjoying this forum? It's really great interacting with so many international and home-based members on intriguingly interesting subjects. The vast array of which has me totally out of my depth. It's a bloody good job we have what must be the best and most competent body of actual stomates with a history and a vast knowledge of stoma 'ology to help even the rarest of problems. So much good done on this site!!

Well, I think I've got my 'bore people shitless' hat on. So all the best and see you soon.

Brian.

I use disposable inserts. Rather than getting rid of the pouch, I get rid of the disposable, flushable insert.

I use closed pouches. I used drainable before, but prefer the closed ones. I put the used pouch in the bag that comes with the pouches, and found that if I do 3 knots instead of just 1, the smell is practically nonexistent. If the pouch is too runny, I use 2 bags. And then all of them in another strong plastic black garbage bag, that I dispose with no more than 10 pouches.

Yes, you probably need a drainable flat appliance and every single ostomy company that I'm aware of does make them. You might try asking for an ileostomy appliance because all of those are drainable. I don't know what's available in the UK, but in the US, Coloplast makes a starfish-shaped wafer, faceplate, or whatever it is you want to call it, and you attach the bag to that. I would highly recommend it for the shape you describe. But as I said before, not every company's products stick to everybody. For years, I had to use a kind of attack because it was the only product that would stay on my skin. Decades later, all of a sudden, they stopped sticking and would come off within hours, so I had to change companies. Back when I first got my ostomy, it was the Coloplast products that would not stick to me. As I age, my skin changes, and that is why some pouches will stick on some patients some of the time. If you feel more comfortable in the convexity, and I know a lot of "mound" patients (AKA Peri-stomal hernias) that do, I recommend an ileostomy appliance with the convexity.

Feel free to PM me with your specifics, and I will do my best to recommend.

Hi, my mom has a colostomy and she uses closed pouches. When she first came home from the hospital, she was disposing the dirty closed bags in the plastic bags we would get from grocery shopping, then tossing them in the garbage outside the house. However, our governor in NJ banned plastic bags, so we now use produce bags. On days that it is garbage pickup, I take all the produce bags thrown in the outside garbage and put them in a big garbage bag to ensure all the little bags are taken. We don't have any smell inside the house, but the garbage can does smell.

Staying Hydrated with an Ostomy with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister

Bos Bags. They are great, and no smell gets out. I don't know what the technology is, but they are thin bags in several sizes for diapers, dog poop, etc. They sell them in the UK.

It is very easy to use M9 for smells.

Hi people, why do I keep reading that if someone uses convex bags because the stoma sits on top of a small mound, the first response is to exclaim that 'it is so' because you have a hernia!! Well, I'm here to tell those who don't know that there are uncountable numbers of stomas who have their stomas perched quite nicely on top of a small but very neat mound with absolutely no underlying additional anomaly to the very original surgery. I also know this to be the case because my own unadulterated gift is exactly as described and is the one I woke up with immediately after my surgery. I can assure anyone with any doubts, I have talked to my surgeon, hospital staff, and of course stoma nurses, and the condition is as normal as any other base. However, before everyone jumps all over me, I'm well aware that a Parastomal Hernia is also a mound adjacent to, or part of the stoma, but I believe it may be much larger than what I imagine to be just called a mound. There's food for thought, so anyone with pain or bulging belly or in fact anything you don't consider usual for your own normality, don't take my word or anyone else's regarding your safety, let the doc' have a look. So there you go, people!

Hi JMC, thanks for the heads up on Bos bags. I've done a bit of a web search and they are available at Amazon. Well, isn't everything? I took a little of my time to read through the relevant info and I am presently ordering a pack! I can't believe that I've been sodding about with my bags and there's a chance that non-permeable bags are so readily available.

Ahhaa, I think my sanity is slowly sneaking back. Nice one JMC449.

I have the "mound" used convex and no hernia...

Yep... Top man Axl! Both sides of the world and all in between.... Ohhhh Yeeaaahhh!!

When I used to walk my dog, I picked up her poop with green biodegradable, scented bags. The smell was practically non-existent and you could barely see the contents. It might also be less expensive than a disposable bag made specifically for ostomy pouches. If it works for our furry friends, it should work for us. Just a thought.......

Hi eefy, I couldn't agree with you more, the actual smell from each bag is unnoticeable being that it is so well held and tied with the usual knot and most people travel home holding them in different ways about their person and of course you're right, no smell. I also accept without question, that our personal 'old arse' product, however difficult it is to work with for some of our ostomates, doesn't particularly have that well-known aroma of 'Homus Shittus' when tidied away in one of those beautiful black bags, knotted with a loveable adolescent ponytail hanging off the end, taking me all the way back to the girls of my childhood. The fun starts when it comes to our own ostomy care and bagging piles of juicy homemade produce in any way we can, to suit our own particular needs/wants/must haves, just to satisfy some shithead obsession because we humans can!! Enter stage right Brian! This is where I come in, knob 'ed in charge here!! I thought about this for some time before deciding to buy a good quality, not too big, portable bag holder something in the nature of a baby's nappy catcher. When this arrived I was well impressed and proceeded with the utmost of confidence, especially in view of the fact that it was fitted three ways of keeping smells at bay including a Carbon filter, sorted. Now I didn't realize the overall smell from the mounting number of bags would become increasingly obnoxious over a few days and although this shit bucket thing worked well at holding most of the leg-buckling laughing gas from giving me double vision, I secretly promised myself, this bugger won't beat me, and there we have it, obsessed beyond any hope of common sense.

So in spite of all the different points of view given over the previous days, and I appreciate every one of them, I am moving forward slowly on 'one only' hopeful way forward, JMC mentioned the BOS odour-proof bags, or other smell-proof bags, because unfortunately I somehow like the convenience of an in-house smell-proof system. At this stage I think my Wife is planning on moving into the garage to keep her sanity,... Oh, dear me, silly girl thinks I won't go and talk to her in there.

Thanks again stomates

I use Sensura Mio Convex drainable bags supplied by Charter. My stoma also sits on top of a small natural mound.

I have an ileostomy and use drainable bags. I always flush my bag with water every time I empty the bag at home. And the day before I change the appliance, I try to avoid odor-producing food, such as onions. I simply dispose of the bag in another bag and put it in the household garbage, which goes out once a week and I change the appliance twice a week. I have yet to have an issue with odor from doing that. If I do, I get out the Pooph and give the garbage bag a healthy spray. :-)

Daniel

I am so with you OP Briutz! I use closed pouches too and the smell under my bathroom sink is horrendous. Luckily I don't have to share my bathroom with anyone so I can just put up with it. I first started with drainables but I friggin hated them, always getting splashed with poo water and getting it on my clothes and all over the bathroom. I will never go back to stainable pouches. The best thing I've found to do is spray some of that odor eliminator air freshener on/in the garbage and take it out as often as possible. But I have not found a solution or a reason the poop smell permeates in such a cruel way.

I use these and they work very well! Or the Hollister bags that come with the pouches - also great.

Love the topic and dialogue.

What do you folks do when you feel the odor..that smell..is coming from you?

My sense of smell is heightened..

I could be sitting down..in the car..under the sheets when I catch a whiff of something that could make paint peel off the walls...

Usually it's from a barrier seal just starting to leak. Thus time to change it..but..there are times..two days after changing it. Ugh.. it's on you.

Thoughts?