Nutri­tion Guide­lines — High Out­put Ostomy

Some tips and guide­lines for patients who have an out­put of more than 1000 mLs ( 4 cups)a day.

IMPORTANT: Never take med­ica­tions for con­sti­pa­tion or diar­rhea with­out check­ing with your doc­tor first.

• Drink at least 2 L ( 8 cups) of a liq­uid through­out the day. The 2 L does not include aver­ages that con­tain caf­feine (e.g. cof­fee, strong tea or cola), as these cause your body to lose fluid.
• Oral elec­trolyte solu­tions such as Cera-lyte or Pedi­alyte may be indicated.
• Avoid foods that are high in sugar, as they may increase output
• Avoid foods that increase out­put such as grapes, raw peaches, raw straw­ber­ries, raisins, prune or prune juices and highly sea­soned foods.
• Choose more sol­u­ble fiber foods like dried beans, as lentils, is cooked car­rots, cau­li­flower, psyl­lium, peeled fruits like apples, pears, or just with­out the mem­brane and bananas bar­ley and oatmeal.
• Avoid insol­u­ble fiber foods like wheat bran, whole-wheat com­mon skins of fruits and veg­eta­bles, nuts, seeds, dried fruit tough skin like on peas and corn.
• With high out­put loss of both sodium and potas­sium are a con­cern. Try to include lots of foods and drinks high in each of these.
• Good sources of sodium are table salts, canned soups and broth, salted crack­ers and canned vegetables.
• Good sources of potas­sium are orange juice, tomato juice, bananas, can­taloupe, hon­ey­dew melon, pota­toes, sweet pota­toes, yams, squash and milk.