Have been wanting to share this with my fellow pouchers. I have discovered that oatmeal - a really big bowl of it every morning does wonders for me. I do not mean the sugary poison they sell you in a box, I mean plain oats - I like the less crushed kind, but any kind will do. I don't eat any milk products, so I make it with oat milk or rice milk or spelt milk - not soy milk as that is very challanging to one's GI tract. It then tastes quite sweet. The important thing is that it seems to line my stomach and helps keep me feeling very well. Try it, you'll like the results! BTW, it works immediately. I'd love to hear responses.

I agree! I love a bowl full of plain oatmeal with hot water. My pouch loves it too!

I'm another fan! After trying fibre supplements with no real success, I realized by accident that I had the best results from plain old, standard oatmeal. I suspect it's the oat fibre. I can add a little maple syrup with no ill effects. It's also good with raisins, bananas, berries or a dollop of strawberry yogurt.

Even the instant sugary stuff does wonders (of course, I am sure the non sugary stuff is better for us)!

Yup, I eat the instant when I don't have time to make the regular stuff. I try not to rely on it too often because of the high sugar content, but it still does the trick just as well!

I eat Quaker Old Fashioned Oats for breakfast 3 times per week, this week it was Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have exactly 1/2 cup dry measured oats which I boil in 1 1/4 cup salted water until absorbed, usually about 7 minutes. I do not like instant oats. It's old fashioned or nothing for me. I put a small amount of splenda and honey in the oatmeal and when cooked I top it with milk. I have been eating it for a long time and it is easy on the J Pouch. I think each serving of the old fashioned oats contains 4 g fiber so this helps the natural fiber intake as well.

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My surgeon told me at my take down that I would never be constipated again. It took me exactly four days to prove him wrong- I cooked up a nice big bowl of oatmeal and was miserable.
I wasn't obstructed, it just took two days and a bottle of grape juice to clean that out of there!

I agree with you about the constipation. I think the blockages I get is kind of a constipation thing.

My surgeon said "you'll never be able to eat tomatoes again"

I eat tomatoes. These surgeons are lacking.

Ever since my J-pouch surgeries Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal....not the instant variety....has been my favorite comfort food. I make it in the microwave. I use a very large microwave safe bowl. Mix 1/2 cup oats with 1 cup cold water. Stir. Cook in Microwace on high for 3 minutes. Stir. Cook on high an additional 30 seconds. Voila! It is ready to eat or add what you like prior to eating. When my tummy is behaving itself I add fresh or frozen blueberries, sliced bananas, walnuts and dried cranberries. Yummy! I don't limit this to breakfast. Any time of the day or night will do! Enjoy!

Someone posted the microwave quick oats method some time last year and I haven't eaten a package of instant ever since.

I have found that I can't eat it on days I'm working, however. For some reason it gives me slightly painful gas and I hate the looks I get from the loud rumbling.

I have never tried microwaving the old fashioned oats mainly because it does not seem like a very "old fashioned" thing to do to old fashioned oats. So I make them the old fashioned way, by boiling them. However, they do have microwave directions for the Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal, which are basically what CeeeCeee posted above.

I add more water because I like to cook them until they are very soft.

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Thanks everyone for the responses! I am surprised by the variety. We are such a mixed bag... But, as usual, DJBHusky and I are in agreement!

I'm about 3 weeks post take down and after reading this thread I got up and made some plain oatmeal. Omg, it is terrible! I don't think it's the taste that is the problem so much as it's the texture. How do you guys eat so much of it?

I don't know, oatmeal is something I've always liked so eating more of it isn't really an issue for me. If you really do not like the consistency, try experimenting with cooking times to get a texture you might prefer; longer cooking will give you softer oats, shorter will give a firmer texture. And try adding fruit (bananas work well and are themselves a good bulking food), which might help make it a little more palatable.

Srandall, fondness towards certain foods is generally a matter of individual taste. I grew up eating oatmeal and always liked it. But as with Spooky, can I suggest that you may want to cook your oatmeal longer than the directions call for? I add more water and cook the oats longer, which results in them being softer. So instead of 1 cup water for 1/2 cup oats I use 1 1/4 cups water and boil them 2 or 3 minutes longer cooking them on a medium heat.

You still may not like the texture. But that is also a matter of taste when you come right down to it. When I go to sushi restaurants I generally will eat everything on the menu except uni (sea urchin). The reason why is that it has the texture of snot and I feel like I am eating someone's snots. To me uni is nothing more than fish-flavored snot. However, others love it. I also like brunettes more than blondes, vanilla ice cream more than chocolate, and the color blue for my cars. There are no explanations for these things. They are just built in predispositions that go along with who we are as people.