Hi,
I am having a little burning sensation and slight skin breakdown right around my stoma (a couple cm from the stoma - no irritation on outer areas of skin). I use AllKare protective barrier wipes and Convatec Stomahesive protective powder in addition to the Convatec Stomahesive Paste. I use the powder on the skin closest to my stoma, the wipe aound the outer skin area, and the paste on the wafer (about 1/4 an inch from the stoma).

My questions are:
1. Is it good to use a mixture of products like this?
2. If I put the powder down first should I be using the wipe over top the powder?
3. Is it ok to get paste on the stoma? I have not had any leaks (knock on wood) so I think the paste is good for me, so I don't want to give that up, but would like the seal to be closer to the stoma.

Really, any advice on skin breakdown would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Erin

I use an eakin seal an I try to get the seal as close as I can to the stoma.
I'm sure it's ok to get a little paste on the stoma as it is a mucous membrane.
My ostomy nurse always told me to use the wipes over top of the powder as it creates a seal over it.

I used to use the paste but the output kept eating through it and irritating my skin. So I got some eakin seal samples and I tried those over a weekend just in case I had a leak or something. So far they are much better than the paste.
I only use 1/4th of the seal and form that around the part you would normally use the paste, then I put powder on any skin that is irritated, and when I put the flange on the seal goes over top of the irritated skin.
I get about 7-8 days of wear time before I need to change the flange.
I still get some irritated skin around my stoma, but I have a loop ileo so it isn't perfectly round so I keep trying to cut the flange to get as close to the stoma as possible.

Erin,

I don't want to mess with your routine but we have found after 3 1/2 years that less is better. All of those pastes, wipes etc.. contain alcohol which can be very irritating to your skin. We stopped using all of them and just use a very tiny amount of powder around the edge of his stoma making sure to blow off all of the excess. We then apply an eakin seal (by convatec) directly to his skin and then place a cut to fit wafer over that. I find it very important that my son lay flat on his back after applying a new wafer for about 10 mins also.
Good luck.

I have been using the Eakin seals as well and really do like them. Also, I was using the allkare wipes first and could not get real close to my stoma because it burned really bad if I did. I have now switched to Hollister's no sting skin prep wipes which have no alchohol in them and can now get right up to my stoma. I use just these wipes and the eakin seals and it's been a lot better. I do use two wipes each time and put it on very thick. Hope this will help you....

Laura has a really good point that very often, less is more. When you have problems with skin breakdown though, a little help can go a long way. Eakin seals help your skin heal and I highly recommend them, at least as long as your skin is having problems.

There are lots of combinations of 'accessories' and you should not have any problems, for the most part, using different brands of things or using a combination of pastes, powders, wipes, etc. when you need to. Most appliances are designed to adhere best without any of that stuff, but I have constant skin problems and use powder on any broken skin with a barrier wipe over that, or a barrier wipe alone if my skin is doing ok. I have used absolutely nothing with a wafer, and have used powder, barrier wipes, paste and Eakin seals (and sometimes more than one at a time) at once depending on how much trouble I'm having with leaks.

I always recommend starting out with nothing but the wafer and adding stuff to solve specific problems as needed.

-Rae

The only problem I have ever had with mixing and matching brands of stuff is using an Eakin seal on wafers that are very flexible, like the Cymed and similar wafers. The Eakin seals bunch up and get all lumpy. The Adapt barrier rings work better on those.