I gave soaked ground flax once last week and added 3/4 tsp ground flax to my mom's drink but my suspiscion is that made her stool a more firmer shape and harder. A few pieces seemed to hold their stiff shape like a letter L .... Can that be possible ? Would the flax bind together and keep a contained shape that makes things worse? My mom gets 2 main meals a day with a snack in between. And approx 5 cups of liquid daily any more than that I have to chase after her. I add some liquid at the end of her meal and make it like a soupy stew to get more liquid into her body. But her abdomen seems larger.
Does Miralax only soften the stool or does a person still need something to stimulate peristalsis. Some doctors say she simply doesn’t have the power to push .
We need a combination of both types of fibre in our diet for healthy guts. But everyone's gut is different and it can take some exploring to determine what works best for each person. Some people may find they get gassy and bloating from too much fibre or eating foods that take longer to breakdown and digest.
Keep in mind it can take several days for food to travel through a person's digestive system, so a meal eaten today may not exit until much later in the week. Or if a person has IBS, it may exit in a few hours. So you may have given Mum Flax seeds last week, but when did you notice the change in her stool and has the change been consistent for several days? Did you continue to give her the ground seeds?
Foods that for many are binding, such as cheese, can have the opposite effect in someone with IBS, with explosive results. I am looking at you baked Brie.
With fruit are you giving it to her raw or cooked? Cooked fruit maybe easier for her to digest, but will still have fibre and lots of moisture. Mum swears by canned pears for dessert to have things moving in the morning. My stepdad who is in hospital, loves applesauce, but he could not safely eat an apple now.
The same applies to vegies, are they raw or cooked? Easy to digest or more challenging like beans or cabbage?
To give an example, my friend has gut issues too. She eats a banana a day, me, I can only eat 1/2 and it cannot be too ripe, or it causes me much upset. She cannot have any nuts or seeds, I have a breakfast full of nuts and seeds every day. She eats wheat, I limit the amount I consume or I have trouble. She consumes Dairy and eggs, I cannot eat eggs, nor Dairy, but can eat Goat or Ewe's milk cheeses. We are all so different, it is hard to say what will work for any one person.
Good luck finding the combination of foods that give your Mum the nutrition she needs while keeping her bowels healthy.
I am trying to get missinformation out of the way or see what works the best from others. Why would banans and cheese help on days and not others?
Try adding a probiotic to boost her gut flora. And the occasional laxative if things aren't happening after 4 or 5 days is nothing to shy away from.