Safe cures of constipation in early pregnancy

[whoneedstosleep]

Title says it all, have tried increasing fruit/veg/water but still not great.

Does anyone know if bisacodyl tablets are safe? I have some in house but will go to chemist if something else would be better??

I don't know about bisacodyl but Fibogel is what the doctor recommended I use. I really hated it though so didn't really give it much of a chance to work!

I found that drinking hot water with lemon first thing in the morning as well as eating high fibre cereal for breakfast helped a bit. Everything went back to normal by itself eventually but it was horrible while it lasted. You have my sympathies!

I'd think something like lactulose would be 'safer' though I've never heard of any issues with spasmodics (like bisacodyl) for low-risk pregnancies. I'd make an appointment with your doctor and discuss, as they will ask you what your stools had been like and can possibly prescribe the most effective treatment...not much point in giving you a bulking agent if you're bowl's not spasming for example.
A chemist isn't likely to give you anything directly and will direct you to your ME/GP.
I know many women that take fybogel That's a fibre bulking agent, which adds volume making the bowl spasms more productive, but they seem to do this as a preventative rather than a cure.

Lactulose (prescription) essentially absorbs water increasing the water content to stools and softening them, making them easier to pass - I have had this since 31wks and it seems to be working ok. They were less keen to give me a spasmodic as I'd been having contractions, and less keen to give me bulking agent as, well, there's less space in there now!
Movicol is a similar prescription to lactulose, it's powder rather than a grim saccarine liquid like lactulose. I used to have this for IBS and am not 100% sure why this wasn't prescribed instead of lactulose, but, it essentially does the same thing.
FX for you. Constipation in later pregancy can cause allsort of utter agony and contractions fun...so go to GP now and get a resolution, just to avoid later issues if nothing else.

Oh! I forgot to add, whatever choice you go for, you need to up your fluid intake a lot...almost to an initially uncomfortable amount whilst things get going, and then try and keep it up after - I'm crap (hehehe) at this, but it does help.

prune juice! Tastes yuk, but does the job!

Thanks ladies, will try the prune juice 1st then call the GP tomorrow if need be.

Can you buy cartons of prune juice?

Peppermint tea helps if you are feeling gassy as well.

Prune juice and a salad for one meal a day worked well early on for me too (it helped that I didn't like ANY food and salads and fruit would usually stay down, sometimes)...
...conference pears are supposed to help...
...nothing helped at 31wks however so (6 bloody nightmareish days of passing nothing and having contractions), hense my advice to get to the GP. They can at least monitor you. Consultant has said "next time, just start taking lactulose as soon as you know you're pg and then we can rule this out as an issue if something happens...".
Sunraysia prune juice is usually widely available. I can get it locally from waitrose and morrison's. Quite a few do their 'own' brand juice too.

I was really suffering last week with this too. My midwife told me to get some Lactulose and take two teaspoons in the morning and two at night. This has sorted me right out. I cant tell you what a relief it is! I now take one teaspoon twice a day to help things stay regular. I tried all the salad, veg and fruit juice in the world and it didnt shift at all till the lactulose kicked in.

Prune juice and stewed apples. Or stewed prunes, if you like them.

You could buy prune juice in cartons when I was pg, over 4 years ago - I used to get the Grove Farm fresh stuff but they've discontinued it, sadly, it was all right! You can get it still in bottles though. Just check in the chiller compartment (fresh would be nicer than not).

I had Oatibix for breakfast as well, with sultanas and apple (bitesize). Harsh fibre, such as all bran or wholewheat fibre things, like Shredded wheat, can make the problem worse. Soft fibre, like in apples and oats, helps far more.

Between prune juice and lactulose you should be ok. Safe and easy to drink.
I was drinking huge quantities of water (have had kidney stones before so quite paranoid) and that worked...3-5lts at least.

I am on 630 mgs of iron a day, and I was ALREADY prone to constipation before I was pregnant. Lactulose and my homemade lentil soup does the trick.

Dried apricots,prunes and probiotic yoghurt(with seeds is even better).An apple eaten before anything else(even morning cuppa) in the morning.I reckon my constipation was rather mild...

Thank you all so much :)

I have homemade soup cooking, got my DH getting prune juice on way home from work and will buy laculose tomorrow.

Im 11 weeks pregnant and I am struggling to eat well, I am only managing to keep down bland food. Eating very little high fibre foods but will really make an effort as this is so uncomfortable :(

I look about 6 months pg with all the bloating.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment it really is appreciated!

I am exactly the same! 11 weeks and don't go for about 4 or 5 days then have hellish tummy ache. I also look about 7 months gone recently.... laculose here I come!

KIWI!
They're brilliant - worked every time for me. Apparently they work even better if you eat the furry outside too (I couldnt do that). One whole kiwi each day was my saviour with last pregnancy. I hate dried fruit/prunes etc but read on here about kiwi and it was great.
hth

A couple of satsumas a day seems to be working for me...

I started a thread on this on Friday and Lactulose was recommended. Have been taking it for two days and already things seem a little better (am 10+3). Have also upped my water and have been having Fruit and Fibre for my breakfast. Feeling like a new person compared to the past week!

Are you squeamish? Glycerin suppositories work instantly and don't go in your system at all. Also brilliant after birth...

I'm a nurse coffeeaddict so def not squeamish but I'll try the oral routes first.

I know you've said you're drinking plenty, but what really made the difference for me was lots of water. Like drinking half-litre glasses of it. It gets better once your food tolerance goes up and you can eat a bit more healthily too.

Also when I do feel the need to go, having a big glass of water before heading into the bathroom seems to get things to move quicker once I'm sat on the loo.

Which supplements are you taking? The standard NHS ones don't have any iron in them, so will cause fewer problems..,

Glycerin suppositories worked for me at 18 weeks and I've had no problems since. Got everything moving again...

FYI if you're badly bunged-up glycerine suppositiories are next to useless (for me, thanks to UTI, hsopitalisation and a shed load of codeine did for it). 3 of those and 1 other kind later and NOTHING....lactulose and patience worked for me...