I read on this board, that you could use Hydrogen Peroxide to clean and deoderize you bag. I tried it, no problem. Went for a normal checkup to my Ostomy nurse, told her about using the Peroxide, and she was floored ! She said it could cause severe ulcers to my stoma.

Seems like , when I was young, my mother had me rinse my mouth if I had a small ulcer, to help clear it up. What is the diffrence?? This should help heal any small cuts also, shouldn't it?

Help me out on this one. THANKS! Mike

Hi Mike,

It was on Shaz's ostomy pages that I first heard about the peroxide trick to reduce odour in your bag. I have never heard of any contraindication to using it at such a weak strength. Like you have already said, the stoma is only made up of the same type of tissue as the inside of your mouth and if you can rinse and gargle with it then I fail to see how it can be dangerous to your stoma. I have known a vet give it to a dog when it accidently swallowed rat poison to try to neutralise the effects.

I have never tried it personally because being a girl my poo doesn't smell.

Shell

Thanks Shell,
That's what I thought. Do you think that, if it can help ulcers in the mouth, it may help ulcers that pop up around the stoma? Haven't had that issue yet.
Oh BTW I didn't think you would need it, being a girl .....................

I put only a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in the bottom of the bag. So, during the day, I don't think it comes in contact with my stoma. I guess it might at night when I'm lying down, but I think it's probably diluted with poo.
(Although I'm female, my untreated poo does stink!)

Anjuli

Heh heh , I KNEW IT ! Shell, you must just eat white rice . I'm going to give it a try again, and buffer it with tap water. Thanks all!

Hey, Mike. I had my temp ileo for 7 months and used 3% peroxide every time I emptied the bag with no problems. I just squirted some in the bag, probably a teaspoon. No odors regardless of what I ate or drank. And it didn't have that funky antiseptic smell that most commercial deodorizers have.
And like Shell said, it is common to use hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting in dogs.

Gotcha Mike!

Actually my poo only smells if I eat something pungent like fish or garlic (which I eat on an almost daily basis) in which case it comes out smelling of fish or garlic. I just don't care because even the Queen's poo smells so why should we worry so much about it just because we are colonically challenged?

And no, I don't eat anything particularly to buffer the smell. I eat anything I want, especially now I no longer have to worry about the dreaded butt burn.

Shell

annieq , when the dog needs to vomit, I'll definately remember that bit of info.......... Thanks for the response on the peroxide. I did it for about 3 weeks , before the nurse freaked out. Her logic didn't make alot of sense. I'm going to try again. A teaspoon seems about what I was doing. When i cleaned the pouch, I'd used about that much, mixed with water in a squirt bottle, and most would drain out.

Shell, I can relate to the fish, and Garlic. LOVE both, so it's sort of a standoff. I guess I can deal with it. Oh BTW , God Bless the Queen !!

Nurses tend to freak out because using 3% HP isn't in their ostomy handbook. I've been using it as a deodoriser for a couple of years now and it hasn't hurt my stoma one bit.

I have a nurse friend who's an ostomate who decided to experiment and actually poured the HP directly onto his stoma (ok,he IS into extreme sports too lol) and reported no ill effects from it.

I asked my ET nurse about this yesterday. Hydrogen peroxide is a somewhat unstable acid which breaks down rapidly in the presence of a catalyst. It releases a bit of gas and the remainder turns to water. In elemental terms, there are two hydrogen and two oxygen molecules and one of the oxygen molecules gets released. This process is what you see when hydrogen peroxide bubbles. Many things can act as a catalyst, so any hydrogen peroxide you put in your ostomy bag would not last very long in that state.

In short, she didn't think it would be harmful, but she questioned its effectiveness.

p.s. this reaction is why it is dangerous to drink hydrogen peroxide. If the reaction occurs in the stomach, the release of gas (which can be powerful) may cause internal damage.

Cheers,
Kevin

Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes hydrogen sulfide, which is the chemical responsible for the poo odors we produce. There's plenty to be read on the internet about the industrial use of peroxide (at much higher concentrations than 3%) in water/waste treatment to kill odor. It doesn't mask the odor; it KILLS it. It doesn't just mix with it; it chemically reacts with it and oxidizes the source of the odor.

Hey guys,

On the great advice of Shell's wisdom, I tried this peroxide trick after being tired of using every other trick (that was much more expensive beleive me) in the book. I am VERY pleased with it's effectiveness in reducing odor, and has restored my confidence to get closer to friends and families without that fear and subconsciously wondering "can they smell that" feeling. No harmful side effects in my trials.
I think it's a great deoderizer with no side effects. Just my .02

Matt

Thanks guys for the response, and you also Shaz. I have gone back to using it, and have seen no ill effects. I'm glad we have some very chemically knoledgeable members on the site. Again, thanks to all responders.
BEST!,
Mike

So I guess it takes care of the gas stinking? Because my poo really doesn't stink that much, but the gas is toxic! If I burp the bag it stinks (I usually do it very sneaky-like and then blame it on our gassy dog), but when I empty in the toilet with very little gas, the stink's not so bad. Because if the peroxide gets rid of that smelliness, I can get away with burping the bag with even more stealth.

It sure does Sara