Laxative how long does it take

See your GP for advice if you're often constipated, despite making appropriate lifestyle changes, or if your constipation hasn't improved after taking laxatives for more than a week. Don't get into the habit of taking laxatives every day to ease your constipation because this can be harmful. In some cases, you may be prescribed a laxative to use regularly, but this should always be supervised by your GP or a gastroenterologist a specialist in digestive conditions.

Like most medications, laxatives can cause side effects. They're usually mild and should pass once you stop taking the medication. The side effects you may experience will depend on the specific medication you're taking, but common side effects of most laxatives include:.

Contact your GP for advice if you experience any particularly troublesome or persistent side effects while taking laxatives. Excessive or prolonged use of laxatives can also cause diarrhoea , intestinal obstruction where the bowel becomes blocked by large, dry stools and unbalanced levels of salts and minerals in your body.

It's often possible to improve constipation without having to use laxatives. Before trying laxatives, it may help to make a number of lifestyle changes, such as:. Read more about preventing constipation. These situations don't usually mean you can't use laxatives, but certain types of laxative may be more suitable for you than others.

Laxatives aren't recommended for babies who haven't been weaned. If your baby is constipated, try giving them extra water in between feeds.

Gently massaging their tummy and moving their legs in a cycling motion may also help. Babies who are eating solid foods may be able to use laxatives, but you should first make sure your baby drinks plenty of water or diluted fruit juice and increase the amount of fibre in their diet.

If they're still constipated, your GP may prescribe or recommend a laxative. Osmotic laxatives draw water from the rest of the body into your bowel to soften poo and make it easier to pass. These stimulate the muscles that line your gut, helping them to move poo along to your back passage.

This type of laxative works by letting water into poo to soften it and make it easier to pass. It's difficult to know whether a particular laxative will work better than another.

It depends on the person. Unless there's a reason why a type of laxative may be more suitable for you than another:. Also see a GP if you're still constipated after trying all of the different types of laxative, or you think your child might benefit from taking laxatives.

Before using a laxative, read about it in our Medicines guide or the patient information leaflet that comes with the medicine to make sure it's safe for you to take. Find out more about the considerations about laxatives. Some laxatives have to be taken at certain times of the day, such as first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Ask a pharmacist for advice if you're not sure how to take your laxative. If you're taking bulk-forming or osmotic laxatives, it's important to drink plenty of fluids.

This is because these laxatives can cause dehydration. You may opt-out of e-mail communications at any time by clicking on the Unsubscribe link in the e-mail. Our Housecall e-newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest health information.

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This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here. This content does not have an English version. They can be taken by mouth as liquids, tablets, or capsules, or they can be given via the back passage rectum - for example, suppositories, or enemas. Suppositories are pellet-shaped laxatives that are inserted into the rectum, via the anus. An enema is a liquid that is inserted into the rectum and lower part of the gut bowel , via the anus.

There are four main groups of laxatives that work in different ways. Each laxative may have different brand names:. Some laxatives work in more than one way. There are also a number of newer medicines for constipation, which work differently to the groups above. These don't all necessarily work by their direct effect on the gut. These include prucalopride , lubiprostone , and linaclotide. Constipation is the name for the condition where stools faeces become hard and difficult or painful to pass.

The time between opening your bowels increases compared with your usual pattern. Note : there is a large range of normal bowel habit. Some people normally go to the toilet to pass faeces times per day. For others, times per week is normal. It is a change from your usual pattern that may mean that you are constipated. Sometimes crampy pains occur in the lower part of your tummy abdomen.

You may also feel bloated and feel sick if you have severe constipation. Constipation may be caused by not eating enough fibre, or not drinking enough fluids. It can also be a side-effect of certain medicines, or related to an underlying medical condition. In many cases, the cause is not clear. For more information see the separate leaflet called Constipation. Bulk-forming laxatives are sometimes called fibre supplements.

They increase the bulk of your stools faeces in a similar way to fibre. They partly work by absorbing water a bit like blotting paper. The increase in the bulk of your faeces stimulates the muscles in your gut to squeeze faeces along and out of the body.

Fibre is the part of plant food that is not digested. It stays in your gut and is passed in the stools. Fibre adds bulk to the stools.

You can increase your fibre intake by food as well as medication. Osmotic laxatives work by increasing the amount of fluid in the large bowel by drawing fluid into it osmosis. Less fluid is then absorbed into the bloodstream from the large bowel.

The bowels become more filled distended because of the extra fluid, and the stools are softer. The extra volume stimulates the muscles of the walls of the bowels to contract. These muscle contractions called peristalsis squeeze the faeces along.

Stimulant laxatives stimulate the nerves in the large bowel the colon and rectum - sometimes also called the large intestine. This then causes the muscle in the wall of the large bowel to squeeze harder than usual. This pushes the faeces along and out. Mostly, laxatives are taken by mouth orally. In some cases, your doctor may prefer to treat your constipation by giving medication via the back passage anus.

The choice of laxative usually depends on various factors. These include what you would prefer, the symptoms of constipation that you have, how severe your constipation is, the possible side-effects of the laxative, your other medical conditions, and cost.