There are many causes for skin irritation including:
- Allergy to a product
- Irritated hair follicles (sometimes when you pull your ostomy pouch off you can pull out hair and see red dots around the follicles. You can shave the hair around your stoma, but be really careful. Don’t use a razor blade; an electric razor or round-ended scissors are a better option.
- A leak caused waste to sit on your skin.
- Cleaning your skin too forcefully. Love your skin and treat it kindly, try not to scratch it or scrub too hard when changing your ostomy pouch.
- Sweat can cause moisture build up and irritate the skin.
Irritated skin can be red, tender, and weeping (consistently wet). Unfortunately, it’s hard to get an ostomy pouch to stick to irritated skin so it’s important to treat it early.
For any skin irritation, ask your ostomy nurse for advice to help the skin heal.
Parastomal Yeast Infection
Yeast infections can happen under your baseplate and are typically taken care of with Nystatin powder. Nystatin powder is a prescription powder that you sprinkle on your parastomal yeast infection before putting your new baseplate on. If you suspect you have a parastomal yeast infection, schedule an appointment with your ostomy nurse to confirm. They will likely prescribe you Nystatin powder or another antifungal agent to apply to your skin and help it heal.