Your Baby's Colostomy: What to Expect

There are many different conditions that can make it necessary for a baby to have a colostomy, some from birth, others develop a little later on. Whatever the cause, for parents it can be terrifying to realize that their adorable little infant will have his intestines on the outside of his body. It takes some getting used to.

A colostomy is very simple and the procedure has existed for thousands of years, although the technique has been perfected, of course. It consists of cutting the intestines and bringing the two ends outside of the body, usually on the left side of the body. The ends are turned inside out like a sleeve and stitched to the abdomen. This leaves two neat donut-like protrusions that will be covered by the colostomy bag. The lower stoma is useless as it connects to the lower part of the body and the anus, if one exists.

The upper stoma is where your baby will defecate from now on. Since there is no sphincter, this means that he will be defecating as the feces move through the intestines, instead of having a schedule. The feces will look the same as what a normal baby would produce.

The stoma, immediately after the operation, will be red and irritated and will tend to bleed occasionally. This is completely normal. You may worry that the stitches will come loose and that the intestines will slide back inside, but amazingly, the stoma fuse very well with the abdominal skin. Care must be taken that the area doesn't get infected, but you can clean it easily with a damp cloth when you change the colostomy bag.

It is important to remember that the inside of the intestine doesn't contain nerve endings, so when the stoma bleeds, it is not hurting your baby. In fact, your child will not even realize that he is different until he is older. Also babies tend to heal very quickly and you will notice that the trauma of the surgery lasts longer than the healing process.