Eat meals regularly. You should eat three or more times a day. An ostomy works best this way and produces less gas.
Chew your food well. Chewing well will help to avoid a blockage at your stoma site. If you have an ileostomy, be especially careful when chewing foods that may be hard to digest or foods that have a high fiber content.
Try new foods one at a time. Learn which foods may give you annoying side effects such as excess gas, constipation, a looser stool, or odor. If a new food seems to give you problems, eliminate it for a few weeks, but try it again later. You may find something else was causing your problem.
Avoid gaining excess weight. Once you’re on the road to recovery, you should avoid gaining excess weight. Extra weight is not good for your ostomy, and it can cause health problems in general.
Drink a lot of fluid daily. You may lose more body fluids than usual through the stoma, so it is important to drink a lot of fluid. Ileostomy patients and colostomy patients who have lost a large part or all of their large intestine will especially notice more fluid loss. This is because most of the body’s fluid is normally reabsorbed in the large intestine.
Above all, remember that no two people will react the same to foods. You will learn through experience which foods, if any, you should avoid. It may be helpful to keep a list of foods that you try and write down how they make you feel.