What's your favorite laxative?

Marshmellows + Diaper 😃

@miker

Out of curiosity, why not Castoria?

It doesn't taste bad, kinda like root beer syrup, and usually produces an easy, controlled poo without a lot of urgency. It's the kind of laxative that I'd consider a ‘poo helper’, not for a major clean out.

Anything but the stuff you have to drink before a colonoscopy. Too slimy. And exlax as to brings back unpleasant memories

@redbag_in_ny

There are several colonoscopy preps that are nasty to drink, among them GoLytely. The simple fact is that most all powerful saline laxatives taste crappy. But salines are pretty much the only laxatives that work rapidly and pretty much will clean and flush out your entire GI tract. The only other fast acting laxative commonly used is Castor Oil, but that is just as hard to get down.

The old ExLax had Phenolphthalein as the active ingredient It was a pretty good laxative, both softening and causing a strong urge to poo after about 4 to 8 hours. It was often given at bedtime and usually worked by after breakfast. The problem is it often worked several more times, urgently, in the following 24 hours as I found out in CA years ago. I'd been constipated and took it at bedtime and pood in the morning and then set out to drive up the coast. Then the stuff kicked in again and I needed to poo… NOW!. I found a facility at a remote campground, but the men's was occupied, so I had to use the women's or fill my pants.

The current ExLax is Senna and doesn't soften much and usually causes one or two poos in a pretty controllable fashion, without surprises.

@gwhap Coughing. A year and a half ago, when someone coughed everyone within 25 feet shit their pants.

Took me a little while to get this, then had a nice laugh 😃

Sean: After Mother was told to stop giving me enemas by a new doctor, she poured the stuff to me…night after night. She had done the same with enemas but I learned to love them. That was not the case with Castoria.. Yuk!

My mother usually gave me Castoria until I was 8 years old and balked at taking it because I considered it to be a laxative for little kids. Many of my classmates said their mothers gave them Feen-a-mint chewing gum laxative so I begged my mother to give me that instead, and she agreed since that was what she used herself. It was much stronger than Castoria, since it contained phenolphthalein. She gave me that until I turned 13 and she started giving me 2 pieces (an adult dose) which gave me bad cramps before it worked, so on the advice of one of my aunts who'd had the same problem when she started giving my older cousin an adult dose of Feen-a-mint, she switched to 2 pieces of Ex-Lax which didn't seem to cause as much cramping. I've since compared the amount of phenolphthalein in the two once they started showing the amount on the package. Ex-Lax had 90 mg. per tablet while Feen-a-mint had 97 mg. per piece. Also when you were chewing Feen-a-mint for the required 5 minutes you ended up swallowing a lot of air which probably caused the cramping, while with Ex-Lax you just chewed it briefly to break up the chocolate tablets and swallowed once so you weren't swallowing a lot of air. Once they changed Ex-Lax to senna I found it didn't do much so I switched to Dulcolax Tablets. The adult dose of 3 Dulcolax seemed to work almost as well as Ex-Lax with phenolphthalein used to. I've also tried Extra Strength Ex-Lax Pills with ⅔ more senna that regular Ex-Lax, but they cause some cramping and still don't work as well as Dulcolax.

None, I'm regular every morning after a little coffee. 😃

Not to be flippant as to the question , but other than an enema ……….. I have no ‘ plan ’ B ‘ ’ as to a laxative .

@Past_n_PresentEgent said,

Not to be flippant as to the question , but other than an enema ……….. I have no ‘ plan ’ B ‘ ’ as to a laxative .

I prefer doing enemas. They work when I want, unlike laxatives hours later or not at all.

My mother was never a patient woman when it came to anything. If we had a sore throat it was gargling and a half hour later questioned if we still had it. A cough got you cough syrup and to her thinking that should be the immediate end of the cough. The same with needing to have a BM. If we didn't have one frequently enough there were very few times when given a laxative because then she would have had to wait. No, the answer was some quantity of soapy enema, which always produced near immediate sufficient results.

As of recent history - Dulcolax soft chews - take 2 with about 16 oz of water or juice. Typically get a good result in 2 hrs or less. I do this at the start of a weekend enema series that I've been doing for 20+ years.

For me they work great.

BJ

Medical perspective :

Choose your laxative where you have regular BM normally . Using enemas/other for play is reasonable. Using it to an extent of diarrhea is severe.

There is no on answer for all…

An enema is the only “laxative” I'll use. Very effective and it feels so GOOD!

The magnesium spray oil. Rub some on your stomach and lower back.

Just enemas. They are predictable and enjoyable.

@BigJane

Dulcolax Soft Chews don't do much of anything for me, or rather to me. I've taken at bedtime, as suggested, and slept through the night, without interruption. In the morning I felt no urge to poo. My usual after breakfast poo might have been somewhat softer than usual, but nothing else.

A Coolatta (or whatever they call them these days) from Dunkin Donuts. Works every time. And I'm not kidding.

Castor oil is VERY effective.

A Coolatta (or whatever they call them these days) from Dunkin Donuts. Works every time. And I'm not kidding.

For me it's tomato juice. If I get constipated - a Bloody Mary is most effective!!

Castor oil is VERY effective.

I agree completely for I know upon this one too.

I don't do oral laxatives. I'd have to say, a really good cleansing enema or enema series. Why put something inside your body that is designed to irritate you? Water is just water, and beware of all the B. S. About harming your self by doing enemas. Sure, you can hurt yourself that way, but there are always those among us destined to earn a Darwin Award for their stupidity…

My choice of laxatives depends on the effect I'm looking for.

If I'm a bit constipated and just need a little help to poo, my preference is an adult bulb full of warm water, taken bending well forward while sitting on the toilet seat and retained until things start to move. The advantage is it's all over, beginning to end, within 15 minutes Such small enemas lubricate the passage and reduces harmful straining. I've seen silicone bulbs with hoses and nozzles obviously designed for this purpose but have not tried one.

For hard poo for several days in a row, my preference is Mitralax. Taken one or more times a day it is very good to soften poo but does not cause urgency in modest doses The common alternative, Colace, usually does little to nothing. When nothing happens, the dosage is commonly increased until here is a blowout' resulting in lots and lots of liquid poo Not my thing.

When the poo is not really dried out and hard, and just a push is needed to get things moving, a dose of Senna at bedtime usually produces a big result the next morning Depending on dosage and your individual response, the effect can be from mild reminder to an impossible to resist order… poo NOW!

If a purge is wanted, nothing beats a full 2 oz dose of Castor Oil while fasting, or the bowel prep purge of 4 Dulcolax tablets plus a gallon of Miralax & sports drink combo. Either of these are more purgatives than laxatives

Castor oil is VERY effective.

It is very effective but the taste isn't that great.

We used to buy castor oil by the gallon and use it as a gas mixture in 2 cycle Go Cart engines. It was a great lubricant. It also has a distinctive smell in the exhaust which I really liked. It is very different! I guess it is good for lubricating colons as well..

@Moppys_jalopy

Castor oil was/is used in many small engines, including model aero engines As a kid, I built a little car powered by a 0.049 engine with a pusher prop The engine was fueled by commercial glow plug fuel, composed mostly of methyl alcohol and castor oil.

An afternoon and evening, shortly after building it, i was outside on a quiet street, playing with the little car for hours As anyone familiar with such engines know they spray out oil vapors, unburnt. Si its no surprise tht the oil got all over my hands and arms and probable elsewhere

The surprise came a few hours later, when the very urgent, strong, pooing started and continued for several hours. Upon researching in an encyclopedia I learned that castor oil is also laxative when absorbed through the skin.

Much later in life, I was given Castor Oil Packs by the therapist during a colonic. Other than the comforting warmth of the pack, it didn't seem to do much. But, after a colonic with a castor oil pack, there is no rebound constipation in the day or so after a session The residual oil is apparently absorbed and has a continuing laxative effect

It is very effective but the taste isn't that great.

In the case that you will take 1 oz (= 30 ml) castor oil in your mouth and mix this there with your saliva for 30 minutes before swallowing this one you will not have any problems with the taste of castor oil for the receptors concerning the taste of castor oil are not in the front of the mouth but at the back. In the case that you will not be able to take the dosage of 1 oz castor oil in your mouth you may split this one by taking two times 1/2 oz castor oil and mix every dose in your mouth for 15 minutes with the saliva before swallowing this one.

Again, it is quite easy to prepare a cup of hot chocolate, stir in the full dose of Castor Oil, stir briskly, and drink it down. The hot chocolate pretty much hides the taste, smell, and oily texture. Another option is to give it mixed into hot soup Both these methods come from an old nursing book and don't leave residual taste or oily feel.

Either way, you will soon be ‘rewarded’ by a strong urge to poo.

I don't know how well this works for other people but if I drink a moderate amount of apple juice it will have a laxative effect on me. I could drink one 32 oz container and about 3 hours later I'm sitting on the toilet if I drink a 64 Oz container of it which I have done before. I will be sitting on the toilet in about 2 hours and the laxative effect will work for probably another 2 hours. I've always been this way with apple juice and I don't know why.

@MoCathDude I think the laxative effect you're experiencing is due to the sugar in the apple juice. There are sucrose-based laxatives that would probably have the same effect…

@littleamy19800 I can drink other kinds of juice no problem. I have no idea then I try to stay away from it as much as possible.