Constipation in early pregnancy - HELP!

[quesadillas]

Hi,

I'm sure this is one of those delightful pregnancy things, although I didn't get it last time. I'm so constipated it's unreal. I'm in so much pain. It's right there, desperate to come out but it's too painful. My diet is a bit shocking at the moment due to morning sickness, which is probably the cause. Anybody have any recommendations? I read apple juice was good, so been drinking that today. I need a quick fix and then I can address the cause of the problem. I can get to Boots later, anything over the counter I can have?

I'm weeping in work. My colleagues are wondering what the he'll is going on. I'm starving as I'm too scared to eat much!

Prune juice really helps to shift things naturally. Make sure you keep up your fluid intake. I'm sure others will be on to advise on OTC meds which you can take but for me prune juice always got things going.

Oh god I remember this it was horrid.
You can get lactulose from the pharmacy or ask gp for movicol.
Fybogel made me have bad piles as it bulks it up ( sorry).
Hope you get some relief soon

I feel your pain. At 6.5 weeks I look about 5 months gone. I had some success with industrial quantities of prunes. I bought some lactulose which has made a big difference. The one thing that seriously worked but I don't think is recommended was reverting back to normal coffee for one cup in the morning (after switching to decaf).

Thanks for suggestions. Guessing somewhere like Holland & Barrett for prune juice?

I can barely sit down. This is horrible!

Fybogel helped me but as pp said, you need to keep your fluid intake up so that it isn't counter productive. Also, not sure how helpful this is, but I only stopped needing fybogel last week. I'm 37+4 so you really need to find something that works for you! GP can also help. Don't suffer!

You poor thing, it's bloody horrible.

Sainsburys do cartons of prune juice. Purple box. They're about £1 each

As I don't like prunes I found a tin of peaches did the trick quickly. Also I managed to eat them without feeling too sick!

Seconding prune juice. Warning, though, it REALLY works. Drink one tumbler of prune juice and one of water, wait half an hour to see if anything happens, then do the same again.
Do NOT do what I did and chug a litre of prune juice on the assumption that nothing nnatural ever works. You'll spend four hours pissing fire from your arse after the cannonball fires out.

Right, I'm skiving off work early to find some prune juice! Glad I was warned about how quickly it works!

Wish me luck.....

I've been consuming dried sultanas at a rapid rate which helps, but thanks to this thread I am going to try prune juice!

Oh yes. I have soooo been there. Lactulose OTC is very good.

Hi ya. I have suffered with severe constipation through my pregnancy and still do at 24 weeks. I feel your pain, I got sent home twice from work due to the pain of constipation and needing to sit on the loo for up to an hour. Good news is that I spoke to my midwife and I now take fibergel (sorry if wrong spelling), tablespoon a day of syrup of figs and drink mango juice. Now it's better and I go but I do still need to drink at least 1 litre of water a day and eat 1 ripe banana a day.

Give those ago and hope you get your motion going soon.

I've started eating flaxseed on my porridge, and also drinking a lot of warm water with lemon every day. The warm liquid supposedly helps soften your stools..

Your poor thing! Another vote for fybogel but not until you have got passed this period of constipation I would think. It is bulking fibre so will keep you regular but won' t soften what you have in your bowel already so is more of prevention/maintenance thing. Lactulose will get things sorted right now but beware it made me very windy/loose .

I also eat a bowl of all-bran with a banana for breakfast - loads of water during the day - fruit and vegetables with every meal - wholemeal bread/pasta etc. I am on iron supplements as well which makes things worse so I am obsessed with keeping things moving as it is horrible and I am trying to avoid piles at any cost.

Well, didn't even get to drink the prune juice before (thankfully!) things shifted. Going to look at all the other suggestions to try and avoid it happening again.

I feel like a new woman!

Great news! Glad you feel better