Constipation remedies - 13 weeks

[Quinny2288]

Hi, I am 13 weeks pregnant and I have really bad constipation. I wondered if you could please suggest any constipation remedies that worked for you. I have acid reflux so avoiding anything acidic such as fruits/juices.

I am happy to try anything over the counter or on prescription but preferably something i can use long term because constipation seems to be a long term symptom for me.

TIA

Probiotic pills! I'm on Zofran, so I take them with a big glass of water twice a day right before eating. They help a lot.

Lactulose with the occasional glycerin suppository if necessary. It's messy 😬

Movicol. Prunes. Any stewed fruit. Vegetable soup with lentils. Lots of water and fluids. Glycerin suppositories if really necessary,
AVOID bran, weetabix and other very high fibre stuff. Not good in pregnancy, but very good if NOT pregnant.

Seconded!

Lactulose.

Chia seeds mixed with a really good yoghurt, not the ones with sweeteners etc.daily.
Tinned prunes and the juice, saved my life when pregnant.
When I was really, really bad ( shudders) I had to have an enama at home. Trust me, don't let it get that bad.

Kiwi fruit is good too. You can blend prunes, kiwi and apple juice to make a nice smoothie.

Dried apricots!! And also sprinkle milled chia/flax seed on cereals, yoghurts etc whatever really - high fibre and doesn’t change taste / texture.

I had terrible constipation and acid reflux. I didn't want to take anything medicinal so I had lentil and veg soup every day, cut out bread and pasta completely, ate a fresh fruit salad or a high fibre cereal for breakfast and made sure I got a good bit of walking in during the day. It all helped massively! It took about 2 days to kick in once I changed my diet, but it was like being back to normal - and much healthier food for baba!

Kiwis, dried apricots and Asda prune juice( HV told me this one is the most effective one on the market!🤣)

Thank you. Is that a prescription product? Also, do you find with them, they keep you regular and it's not painful anymore to go?

Thank you, i can see i can get a liquid form from boots. Do you take lactulose every day?

Thank you, i have got some prunes and snacking on them at the moment with water. How many do you normally have to eat? Do you find this type of diet keeps you regular?

DO you take movicol everyday or only some days when you need it? How quickly does it work?

@Veryworriedhelp @SpaghettiSquash Thank you. How often do you take Lactulose and how quickly does it work?

I had about 4 or 5 prunes a day, usually with porridge. Try one sachet of movicol daily to start with. If you drink plenty of fluids you might even find you don't need it. IME you have to consider everything you eat, so you might want to try and do some homemade veggie soup most days, have some satsumas or similar instead of dessert. Substitute other stewed fruit instead of the prunes sometimes. Drink plenty though, and walk as much as you can. Just don't go for very high fibre stuff. Soft, cooked fruit and veg is gentler.
When you are pregnant your bowel relaxes and motility slows right down, so you need soft fibre and plenty of liquids. Too much roughage and you can end up with very hard, bulky blockages that are very painful to shift. Even worse if you end up with piles. (40 years ago my midwifery tutor told us that she would fail any of us who advised pregnant ladies to eat all bran).

I also suffer with constipation and I had it from the beginning. At the start I tried everything natural I could, was drinking 3L of water a day with 5-7 portions of fruit/veg and 10-12 prunes at nighttime but by 14 weeks it just wasn’t working and was becoming more painful and gave myself piles which bled 🙈🙈. I spoke to my consultant who recommended lactulose or fybogel. I tried lactose first and OMG the intense pain and cramps I got were awful so after 3 days of that I tried the fybogel and that suits me so much better i take one sachet every evening and I’m now very regular and the piles have gone 🎉🎉🎉. Il be taking it daily throughout pregnancy and probably also post part in too! I also suffer with heart burn and reflux and found it doesn’t make it any worse for me either. There are lots of options to try and both lactulose and fybogel can be brought over the counter at a pharmacy. Although if u choose the fybogel and it suits you deffo buy in bulk from Amazon as it’s way cheaper!!

good luck xx

I second this! Asdas own prune juice was the only one that worked for me and actually tasted ok. It’s more tolerable when it’s fresh out of the fridge and ice cold.

Don’t get sainsburys, it tastes like shit!

Oh no, sorry to hear you had to have an enema. OK, so that's the last resort then. Was it just one of those enema kits from amazon that you used? Also, what kind of yogurt do you mean? I have activia peach usually, is that any good, or do you mean some plain probiotic yogurt?

@endofthelinefinally OK, thank you.

@ecossegirl91 Thank you. What kind of yogurt?

Thank you, I will get some lentil and vegetable soup. I am having porridge for breakfast at the moment but don't think it's helping.

I just did a search to see why bran is bad for pregnancy constipation but can't see anything. What made you say to avoid bran?

Thanks, both! I got some prune juice from waitrose, but there is an asda about a 15 minute walk away, might ask my hubby to pick some up for me later!

@Quinny2288 i usually have Greek yoghurt with fruit and nuts for breakfast and have been adding in the milled seeds to that but any yoghurt will be fine. If you’re eating porridge for breakfast then you can sprinkle it on that too and mix in. I got the milled seeds from Tesco in the fruit aisle where they keep all the nuts etc.

I actually also did find that cereals such as all bran really worked too and I would put dried apricots in. Just make sure you drink soooo much water If you go down the bran route.

This is really helpful, thank you. I have added fybogel to the list of things to get later today from the chemist. Thanks for sharing the routine you follow, too.

Because it can set like concrete and get hard, dry, very large and painful to pass. Especially if everything is already extra slow due to hormones. This is where you can end up needing an enema. Tiny amounts mixed with porridge oats might be fine, but not large quantities of the really bulky stuff.