Frequency of Pouch Emptying During the Day and Night

I'm a relatively new ostomate. I have some beginner's questions.

1. On average, how many times do you have to empty your pouch during the day, say 7 am to 7 pm?
2. How about at night, 7 pm to 7 am?
3. How do you avoid the pouch getting too full and bursting when you are sleeping at night?

Welcome... good to know you are new and want to be part of this wonderful group of people.

Your answers are dependent upon your stoma behavior and what you eat. 

Ileostomy folks empty frequently. Some every 2 hours. Some sooner. Again, what you eat will determine frequency.

If you have output while changing the bag, that sucks, doesn't it? In time, you will have a schedule when the stoma isn't so active to change the bag.

People often eat a bulking food. Many eat marshmallows. 

True, it helps. Others will offer more options. No worries. We've got your... front. Will write later. At work now. Just saying hi...

As Warrior stated, it depends on your stoma behavior and what you eat.

I have a colostomy. I have reliable output in the morning, sometimes after lunch, almost never in the afternoon, and only sometimes after dinner.

I'm really beginning to see a pattern with what I eat - if it's more whole foods, even with fiber, I output less. If I eat a bunch of “junk filler” like cookies, crackers, bread, etc., there is a lot more volume of output.

Given that we are all different and we eat differently, ileostomy frequency is usually dependent on when and how much you eat and drink. It also depends on whether or not you are missing any of your small bowel. Mine is intact, but my entire colon is MIA. I typically empty my bag 5-7 times during waking hours, which are usually 8 to 12 for me. During the night, I will typically get up around 3:00 AM. If I have behaved myself with the nighttime munchies, there is usually nothing but gas to get rid of. Sometimes, there is enough that I will bother with it. My next time up is sometimes around 5:00 and sometimes not until I get up between 7:30 and 8:00. If the former, there will be gas to get rid of and some output. At that time, I will decide if I can wait or not. Then I get up and it starts all over again.

I do not have a problem with a lot of nighttime output. I do stay away from significant quantities of food after 4 PM, or so. And I try to limit my nighttime snacking. Especially the night before bag change morning. I do take 2 mg of loperamide every night about an hour and a half before sleep. I also add a couple of teaspoons of Benefiber and a couple of tablespoons of pea protein to my morning fruit smoothie (peaches, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and the occasional banana). But, I eat pretty much anything I want. Lately, it has been a curry I made the other day.

Warrior gave some good advice to bulk up your output. The idea is to let it thicken in your bowel so that it slows down and your intestine has more of a chance to absorb liquid. The idea is to find what works for you. A happy medium, so to speak. Too watery and you are constantly at the toilet. Too thick and you run the risk of pancaking. One thing you can expect at night, if you eat too much your bag will fill with shit. If you don't eat, your bag will fill with gas. It is the way of things. When you find the right path, you can get on your way.

Daniel

It depends, literally. For me, to truly have to empty because there's quite a bit of output, maybe once per day. If my output is pancaking, about every time it squirts a little out because it drives me nuts. Out of convenience, a couple of times per day, like going to work or out, I like to empty anything that's in there, not that it's full or needs emptying, but it's more convenient to do at home. Or, like at my work, it's more convenient to empty while in the building and using a normal bathroom instead of using the one on the train I'm on. I very rarely must empty when I'm sleeping. So, it varies every day with what I eat (which I pay no attention to really) and what I'm doing that particular day.

Stories of Living Life to the Fullest from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

I have an ileostomy, and I empty about 4 to 5 times a day and once overnight, usually around 3 a.m. I just naturally wake up around then and usually can tell I need to empty. I am lucky I have a great seal usually and no leaks in a year. But I think it helps that I get up in the night.

Output while changing the bag has been my issue lately. My stoma just loves to do his business when he is out of the bag and when I am trying to put the wafer on. He goes all down the wafer and into the sink. I have to have lots of paper towels and wipes on hand to get the job done. Luckily it hasn't ruined my wafer because I lean over the sink. But I can usually barely get the wafer on before gushing happens. I have tried everything, from waiting hours after eating to picking the time of day that he is less active. Nothing works. I think my stoma has it in for me. LOL

That sucks. I know I freak when a little poo begins to come out, but something like Niagara Falls, ha ha, ain't me. Nope. It really subsided... and earlier someone stated if part of your small colon was removed, well... that's like an open faucet. 

I do have my small colon intact. So think of it as a valve... and it helps us types of ileos. I had no idea about this until I saw an explanation from people with SBS—short bowel syndrome.

That really sucks food can't restrain your flow... A few marshmallows and I'm good to change—no issues.

@alex—You do have a colostomy, correct? I forget. 

That's an entirely different animal, is it not?

Yep, colostomy

I have a colostomy but short bowel syndrome, so it acts more like an ileostomy—liquid output and not so predictable. I always empty when the bag is about 1/3 full. I set an alarm at night for every 2.5 hours to empty and avoid disaster.

Fiber, bananas, applesauce, rice, and potatoes help slow things down a bit. Sugar, including grapes, etc., makes things way worse for me.

When changing, I sit on the toilet to do it. And I change before I've eaten. I do eat 4 marshmallows about 10 minutes before I change it, so that slows things down and gives me time to change without trouble.

Hi Psmith, welcome to the site. I have an ileo and empty 5-7 times a day and none during the night. If my pouch fills with air during the night, I wear a 2-piece system, so I just burp the gas out and go back to sleep.

Consider yourself lucky, I get a flood of poo sometimes when I change and I hate it. I keep marshmallows in my bedroom. Lol

Nah... I don't consider it luck. I just figured my type of ileo is kicking back on making a mess. In the beginning, output would shoot out like shit through a duck... it was like a loaded cannon. And over the years, it just seems to have chilled, calmed down, which I thought is the nature of things.

I just might be wrong thinking others are in the same boat as me.

Mine behaves, and time caused that for me.

You are on a list of medications, are you not? If there are meds to slow output down, then there are meds causing it to speed up too.

What a pickle.

Ileostomy for me. It gets emptied at least 5x a day and 2x at night. I hate that it takes up so much of my day. On top of that, there is burping the bag every couple of hours.

I hope you get yours figured out.

Ileostomy. Also had a lot of emptying and air in the bag, causing the bag to balloon at night and disturb sleep. The carnivore diet has reduced output massively and stopped the bag from ballooning at night. I now get a decent night's sleep again, provided I don't eat any veggies.

Ileostomy & Short Bowel Syndrome. I empty between 10 & 15 times during the waking day/evening on a bad day. Eating more carnivore and fish now too. At night, I have taken to wearing a high-output pouch, which I am loving as I can now sleep through the night and have a very low likelihood of blowouts in bed.

I self-irrigate. It takes about 35 minutes every morning, and then that is it for the day—24 hours without worrying about bags, etc.

I have an ileostomy. During the day 7-7 it can be as few as 2 times and as many as 6 times. During the night it's super rare to go without emptying the bag from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. At least one sleepy time draining and up to 4.

I just had major foot surgery. The anesthesia put my bowels to sleep as well. I went almost 12 hours with almost zero output. Kinda liked that.

My experience is to eat before 6 p.m., go empty about 2 times before midnight. And 4 a.m. seems to be a very common "wake-up" call to duty for the majority of us ileos.

You gotta plan how fast or slow digestion goes for you.

It's always been said for normal people to eat before 8 p.m. or stop at 8. Nope, can't do that. That was said due to watching weight.

(Blow raspberry) I haven't slept through the night since 2016.