Colonoscopy preparation in Nigeria: what to eat, what to drink, and when

Step by step

1. 1

   A week before

   Tell us your medicines. Stop iron tablets if you are told to. Arrange someone to take you home on the day.

2. 2

   Three days before

   Switch to low-fibre food: no beans, leafy soups, fruit with seeds, nuts, corn or brown bread.

3. 3

   The day before

   A light low-fibre breakfast, then clear drinks only from the time your instructions give. Drink plenty of water.

4. 4

   The evening before

   Take the first part of the laxative drink exactly as instructed. Stay near a toilet; it starts working within a few hours.

5. 5

   The morning of the test

   Take the second part, finishing at least two hours before your appointment, or as your instructions say. Then nothing to drink.

6. 6

   Check it has worked

   What you pass should be clear or pale yellow liquid with no pieces. If it is still brown or has pieces, call the centre before you travel.

Why the preparation matters so much

The camera can only see a clean bowel. Stool left on the lining hides polyps, and a bowel that is not clean enough means the test has to be repeated. In Nigeria the usual diet is high in fibre, beans and vegetables, which is good for you most days and the main reason preparation fails. Starting the low-fibre diet early is the single most useful thing you can do.

Stop these two to three days before

Fibre, seeds and skins stay in the bowel. Avoid:

• Beans, moi moi, akara and any lentils or peas
• Leafy soups and vegetables: efo, ugu, okra, ewedu, bitter leaf, garden egg
• Fruit with seeds or skins: tomato, watermelon, pawpaw seeds, oranges with pith, guava
• Brown or wheat bread, oats, cereals with bran, granola
• Groundnuts, cashews, coconut, tiger nut and popcorn
• Corn, including roasted corn and pap made with the husk
• Red meat with gristle, and anything very peppery that upsets your stomach

What you can eat

Plain, soft, low-fibre food:

• White rice, white bread, plain spaghetti or noodles
• Boiled or fried egg
• Chicken or fish without the skin and bones, boiled or grilled
• Boiled yam or potato without the skin
• Smooth pap (ogi) or custard, without milk on the last day
• Plain biscuits such as cream crackers

Clear drinks for the day before

From the time your instructions give, usually after a light breakfast the day before, you take only clear liquids. Clear means you can see through it, not that it has no colour. Drink plenty: it is what stops you feeling faint and helps the laxative work.

• Water, as much as you like
• Clear fizzy drinks such as Sprite or 7Up
• Strained clear apple juice, with no pulp
• Tea or coffee without milk or creamer
• Clear broth or stock, strained, with no pieces
• Oral rehydration solution, for the salts

Do not drink these

Red and purple colours look like blood on the camera, and milk leaves a coating. On the clear-liquid day avoid zobo, Ribena, red or purple drinks of any kind, Malt, milk, yoghurt, Milo, Bournvita, fura da nono, kunu and smoothies.

Medicines

Tell us every medicine you take when you book, because some must be paused and some must not. Iron tablets are usually stopped about a week before, because they turn the bowel black and sticky. Blood thinners, diabetes medicines including insulin, and some blood pressure tablets may need adjusting, and only a doctor should decide how. Do not stop a blood thinner on your own.

Common questions