Ostomy belts! Do you know what they are for? Do you use them? They are something that my stoma nurses remind me about when my stoma is being flush or a bit awkward (which at the moment is more often than I’d like!)
The general idea behind the belts is they that help create a sort of vacum which pulls your stoma further into the bag. Every convex bag I have ever tried which is a fair few as part of my ostomy bag roulette series; has some clips on the side which is for the belt to attach too. All of the belts are adjustable and come in varying widths – I personally prefer the wider ones as they cut into me less but I have a little bit of padding but you may prefer a thinner one.
So as I mentioned above the convex bags have little clips on them for the belt to help push your stoma further into the bag to help prevent leaks. For me I find that they can be the difference in my confidence or sometimes a good night sleep! I use them if I’m worried my bag hasn’t stuck well or if I’m worried I’ve eaten something the might cause my output to pancake. The idea being it will drop in the bag rather than under the baseplate. I generally wear them on an evening when I just can’t be sure what my output is going to be like so if I have had something quite starchy like potatoes or even the naan bread I have with my weekly curry.
The biggest downside is every ostomy bag make has a different clip system so they are N O T universal and it annoys me if I’m honest. It surely wouldn’t be hard for them to have that bit the same as ultimately so many other ostomy accessories can be universal. It doesn’t make the bag itself any better or worse so in my opinion having them the same would help so many ostomates and isn’t that the whole point of the bags? Allowing the ostomate to live their life to the best of their ability with the bag of choice?
Do you use an ostomy belt? If so how do you find them?
Companies such as Salts and Pelican do different colour ostomy bags :) You can also buy bag covers :)
Can you get different colour bags
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