Grandma’s Hands ostomy pouch cover – REVIEW

Many ostomates feel more self-conscious about their body than the average person.  

Disclosure: The products used in this review were purchased out-of-pocket.

Sometimes we use special clothing, wraps or products like the Stealth Belt to boost our comfort and confidence, but many of us feel most comfortable when we keep things simple.  

An ostomy pouch cover can help, and today I’ll be reviewing two from Grandma’s Hands.

When I had my ileostomy procedure in August 2013, I was sent home with transparent pouches.

I loved the idea of seeing what’s going on with my stoma, but my family didn’t share the same sentiment, so I switched to opaque pouches for many months afterwards.

While I’m quite happy wearing my Stealth Belt when going out, I don’t often wear anything special at home during the day, so I began looking for a pouch cover that would fit my taste.

When I began testing more ostomy products and wanted to be able to troubleshoot a few issues I was having, I switched back to using transparent pouches, but the idea of using a pouch cover with a transparent pouch seemed counterproductive, so I began looking around for a pouch cover that allowed me to quickly see the contents of my pouch without having to remove the entire cover.

I couldn’t find any that were already made like this, so I contacted a local company called “Grandma’s Hands” and discussed options.

I spoke with Carol from the company and shared my idea about having a modified version of her pouch cover made, and after emailing a few photo’s of what I had in mind, she sent me photo’s of a prototype and they were just what I was looking for!

So I ordered two custom pouches (coined “peek-a-boo”) , one made from cotton and the other a more stretchy fabric. Their website offers many different colors/patterns to choose from in cotton, stretchy and satin fabrics. When placing my order, I included the details of my pouch (flange size, 1 or 2 piece system, etc.) and that’s it.

I received my pouches less than a week after placing the order (I’m also in Ontario) and I love them.

Grandmas Hands camo pouch cover front
Front of the Camo cotton pouch cover
Grandmas hands camo pouch cover peekaboo window
“Peek-a-boo” window
Grandmas hands black pouch cover back
Grandmas hands black pouch cover back
Grandmas hands black pouch cover front with flange
Grandmas hands black pouch cover front with flange
Grandmas hands black pouch cover front
Grandmas hands black pouch cover front

Using these covers is easy enough, you slip your pouch through the hole in the back and adjust if necessary.  The fact that these custom pouches have a “peek-a-boo” window makes it even easier to adjust my pouch while it’s on.  My pouch system (Coloplast Sensura Click, two-piece) has tabs which the pouch cover can hook onto so it doesn’t slide off.  I’ve seen these tabs on other brands too, so I’m confident in saying that the pouch cover won’t slip off most popular brands of pouching systems (it’s never slipped off for me).

I have not tried these pouch covers on a one-piece system.

The covers are quite comfortable, and I’ve used them both during the day and night without any problem.  One thing I will note when it comes to night-time wear is that my pouch is often quite full (ballooned) when I wake up to empty at night, and using any pouch cover makes things a bit difficult when it gets to that point.  Since I prefer to either remove the pouch cover completely or roll up the bottom, both are nearly impossible to do with a full pouch.  Luckily, with the help of the Osto EZ-Vent and the peek-a-boo window on these pouch covers, I can simply deflate my pouch and proceed to empty it normally.

Doing it with a Nu-Hope pouch cover is impossible and/or messy. And speaking of the Nu-Hope pouch covers, they are tapered at the bottom, which means you can’t really roll them up when you empty your pouch (potentially causing a messy situation).  The covers from Grandma’s Hands can be rolled up with ease and they feature a Velcro bottom to keep things closed.

Grandmas Hands Camo Ostomy Pouch Cover
Camo cover with the bottom folded in.
Grandmas Hands Camo Ostomy Pouch Cover
One of MANY patterns and colours to choose from
Grandmas Hands Black Ostomy Pouch Cover
I often fold the bottom in to make the pouch cover shorter.
Grandmas Hands Black Ostomy Pouch Cover
Black is great for all occasions.

Washing these pouch covers is easy, and you can either do it by hand (which I prefer) or use the gentle cycle on the washing machine and hang to dry.

At the time of this writing (updated Jan 2022), these pouch covers sell for CDN$12.49, which is less than most pouch covers I’ve seen.  My insurance covered the cost of these pouches, but not the shipping (which was $12 for the two). While the company is located in Ontario, Canada, their products can be shipped internationally.  I will point out that the “peek-a-boo” style that I’ve reviewed is not on the website, but Carol said that she’s glad to accommodate any requests for this style. is now being offered!

Highly Recommended

The “peek-a-boo” pouch covers from Grandma’s Hands are a step-up from traditional pouch covers, since it allows me to see into my transparent pouch when I need to, and they are comfortable and look great.

I use these covers even with my opaque pouches, and I recommend them to anyone who’s looking to accessorize their ostomy appliance.

You can find these ostomy pouch covers, as well as insulin pump and EpiPen pouches on the Grandma’s Hands website https://www.grandmas-hands.com/

Question: Do you use pouch covers? How have they worked for you?

32 thoughts on “Grandma’s Hands ostomy pouch cover – REVIEW”

  1. I have sent Carol a couple of pictures and a diagram to see if what she might be able to do, and this would i think maybe help with an Ostomy bag as well, suggested she might even want to contact you for your thoughts, but, allow a 1 3/4 inch slot in the sides of the cover to allow for the typical elastic belt to go through that would attach to the bag flange.  This would go through the side of the cover and then hold the cover in place. I would expect more securely, and therefore the bag could not come off without unlatching the elastic belt. Thoughts? 

    Reply
    • @spence Funny enough, I’ve been wanting to make a pouch cover with that exact design for ages now, but I’m neither craft enough or have the time to do it, so it would be interesting to see what Carol comes up with if she decides to go that route. 

      Reply
  2. The peek a boo design is included on the Ostomy covers but has no been on  Urostomy covers. I did suggest that she move the cover slot down as, please confirm, the Ostomy bag probably fills from the top down vs the Urostomy bag which fills from the bottom up? With Urostomy, of course, you can only let your bag get 1/3 to 1/2 full as there is then the weight issued on the flange and we won’t go further… Will update when i get the new bags and have a chance to try them. Unfortunately, in Ontario and Canada Post, it takes 2 weeks, expedited service to go from Cayuga to Barrie… due to Covid19 they say. 

    Reply
    • Let us know how they work out for you! With regular ileostomy/colostomy output, the stool should fall to the bottom of the bag, as with the urostomy. When it doesn’t fall to the bottom and collects near the top, we call that “pancaking" which is NOT the desired outcome!

      Reply
  3. Awesome conversation and we think we have it figured out. Carol is a gem to work with and we will see how what she comes up with will work. Apparently she may have made the whole a little larger than it should have been. I also suggested that she look at including an elastic component in the sewing around the hole to hold the cover snugger to the flange. She is going to send me a couple of replacements, updated with the Peak A Boo cover, that has only been included in the Ostomy bags, not Urostomy. I am sure that this will get resolved and i will be a happy camper. 

    Reply
  4. Good Morning, 
    Absolutely. I think maybe they just shipped the wrong size, but it needs to be the correct size. Walked the dog this morning and almost lost it.  It came off on its own, had to backtrack to find it and did. I will call them and update the review. Nobody is perfect!

    Reply
    • @spence…yes, for sure call them! I think you just got someone else’s order, or perhaps elastic not being there is a mistake they can correct. Regardless, they need to know this, if anything, it will help them further improve their services. It sure can’t hurt! All the best! 
      Linda

      Reply
  5. Just received 2 Urostomy cover bags from Grandmas Hands, and was a little disappointed. They look great but the size of the access hole on the back is HUGE. I had indicated that the size was is 1 1/2 inches but the hole is huge, to the point where i am afraid that it could fall off my pouch. I would have that thought there might be some elastic around the hole to keep it relatively tight, or that the hole would have been smaller, or what was the point of asking about the hole size? Also with the hole being as large as it is, the back has no stiffness to it, so the top of the cover can slide off the top of my pouch. I had ordered 2, but not sure i will order any more. The fabric and choices are great, but if you are not sure if the cover will stay on, then it kind of defeats the whole point of having a cover. I use a Hollister 1 piece pouch.

    Reply
    • Hi Spence, that’s such a shame to hear. I would contact the company to let them know about the hole size. I’m sure they’d be happy to work with you to get the size you want. If you do go that route, can you please update us here?

      Reply

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