Stool Softener

[PeaceAngel22]

I have been on the gluten free diet for two weeks. The scary D is gone(thank goodness) but because I am no longer eating wheat fiber like triscuts and cereal, I have become constipated. I keep eating fruit and drinking water, but it isn't enough. Is it alright to take a daily stool softener and are they gluten free? Thanks everyone!!

[tarnalberry]

you might consider adding beans to your diet, and possibly flax meal, especially in hot cereal.

[BRUMI1968]

I had this problem a bit (though without ever having the D) -- I used to eat oatmeal for breakfast almost every day; and when I quit doing that, I got some pretty serious C...I mean serious.

You would be surprised to know how much fiber is in fruits and vegetables, really. Figs are really great, if you don't have blood sugar problems. Dried figs have something like 8g of fiber each. And, they're yummy. Prunes also help (again, if you have even blood sugar), both from fiber, and from some magic prune property.

I would look up high fiber foods on the Internet, and stay away from grains of all kinds for a while, and see if that helps. What finally got me better was ZERO DAIRY (dairy will constipate me in an instant - even a teaspoon of butter), and extremely limited grains. Now I eat rice milk (as a tea latte-yum!), and some rice tortillas, but mostly veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, and lean meat.

Good luck. Oh yeah, imortantly, I think it takes a spell for the system to work out the kinks. It took me about four months to find a good poop - and right now that's gone because I tested out dairy again so I'm constipated again. It'll take a while, but if you focus on it, and keep an open mind about what it might be, you'll find that balance.

-Sherri

[AndreaB]

Some natural stool softeners (aside from foods) are vitamin C, Magnesium, Flax Oil (ground seed would probably be ok).

[BRUMI1968]

Not that it is as good as going natural, but colace liquid is gluten free according to the web.

[marciab]

For fast relief, as in 5 - 10 minutes, I use a suppository. Fleece makes a good one. And I know Walmart has it. Enemas were painful for me, but suppositories weren't. And no worries about cramping.