I have been having bowel movement every morning, but the first part is very hard and dry no matter what I do i.e. fiber, water, colace.
My Doctor told me to take 1 teaspoon of miralax in the evening. I did for the first time last night and this morning was perhaps the hardest one yet! Usually whatever I take at night shows up in the morning.
Anyone else told to take a teaspoon? Seems a very small dose, but he did put "tsp" for my dosage.

Hey Ryan,
I took colace for months and it didn't do anything for me.
I take the full cap of miralax-17g's every day and that has been a life saver.

hello ryan31!
welcome to the AF board.
may i ask you precisely what do you eat for breakfast and dinner?
i know you mentioned you have lots of fiber and water during the day but maybe if you also let us know your height and weight.
you may or may not be getting enough water.
do you live in a cold or hot climate?
i am very curious to know what it is you are eating for breakfast and dinner.
then based on that, i may be able to suggest to you (unless if you are showing that you are already eating such foods).
i remember the hard tipped poos...it was a very hot topic here on the board in 2007 and 2008.

happyass wrote:hello ryan31!
welcome to the AF board.
may i ask you precisely what do you eat for breakfast and dinner?

Thanks!
I always have one of the high fiber cereals, I buy different ones but they're all the 35-45% fiber type kinds i.e. Fiber One etc. Sometimes I'll have 2 eggo's and almost always I have a handful of blueberries and OJ.
As for dinner, it varies, usually healthy meals. Chicken, brocolli, potato, salad. I've been avoiding cheese for the most part and anything like that.
Honestly, what's screwed up, it seems the more I try the worse it gets, if I go get drunk and eat like crap that night, everything is ok the next day. Just when I think something is working, then I start having back to back hard stools. I don't have IBS, but with anxiety my stools were always all over the place shape wise, so I can never really keep it "normal" I guess.
I live in the Southeast, so it's usually warm, but I always drink plenty of water. Water is basically all I drink besides occasionally decaff green tea or a coke. I was drinking coke zero daily, but haven't done that in awhile.
I am 5'10 160-165, with the stress of this lately down to about 157 though.

ok great info to work with.
i too had that issue of having the tip of the first part of the poo hard and it was the worst part because it made everything irritable down there and by the time the soft end came out, it would come out so fast that it would quickly irritate what was already irritated! i hated those mornings!!!
i consulted a macrobiotics counselor and one of the things she pointed out to me, which made sense, was that if we ate the dried up cereals in the morning (as opposed to hot oatmeal or cream of wheat stuff), and to also combine it with cold milk or cold soy milk or simply enough, a cold beverage, it could create such a scenario.
see, the dry cereal will sit in your digestive system for about 24 hours, which over time as it moves down the digestive process and into the rectum, it has lost its moistness from the cold milk and becomes rough matter upon exit.
**
it made sense cause i was eating up the All Bran Bran Buds - loved that with my blueberries and strawberries and what not, with soy milk.
**
she advised further to not intake anything cold in the morning.
so in essence what i learned and what helped alleviate the hard tipped poos - was converting to a softer type of breakfast - and some options are hot oatmeal (really mushy so the oats easily disintegrate), hot cream of wheat, hot porridge, or any other variation of hot cereal. try not to use milk if possible or if you need to, do 1/2 milk and 1/2 water.
else, switch over to using soy or rice milk sparingly.
**
drink your hot tea in the morning.
another variation for breakfast would be the traditional miso soup (it's a soybean paste based soup that includes seaweed (it's not as bad as it sounds and very good for you as it has many minerals, including magnesium), tofu, and as you get adventurous in making it, you can add soba noodles, shrimp, and shitake mushrooms. another equivalent, make a healthy vegetable soup for breakfast.
keep your intake for breakfast hot.
seriously, all these are great in fiber and healthy.
learn to reduce sugars - that is why it's great to have the berries and there will be sweetness in the soy or rice milk, but everything should be warm/hot.
***
your dinner sounds fine. i don't know how much chicken you eat, but try to see if you can have some meatless nights, and alternate between chicken and white meat fish (avoid red meat fish).
**
as like you, my stomach is very sensitive with anxiety. any anxiety sets off a change in bowel pattern. one day this, one day that. i've never been diagnosed with IBS either but i would assume it's almost like have a super light case of it.
**
i was talking about yin and yang foods the other day - so if you do a google search under macrobiotics yin and yang, you can look over the lists and see where maybe you are eating too many yang foods, which tend to also cause constipation, which could also trigger hard tipped poos.
eggs for me are super yang as is chicken and dairy.
it's knowing little things such as these that can help tweak what you are eating on a daily basis. if you are eating way too yang, you will have to find a balance with yin foods.
i am 5'10'' too but i so wish i was 160!!! there i envy you. i am at 205. ugh. but people are surprised when i say that as they think i would only be like 185 or so. even that would make me happy.
**
making the above changes won't miraculously change your hard tipped poos overnight but if you try for about a week, which it will take your body adjustment, you may (or may not) begin to feel a notice in the poo tips.
also, you may be super raw down there - like the first poo of the day after waking up. so if you haven't already, it wouldn't hurt to coat your anus with a helping of vaseline or jojoba oil or palmer's cocoa butter for instance.
wipe well thereafter.
take your shower.
the blow dry the butt dry. add on jojoba oil or palmer's cocoa butter for moisturizing afterward.
good luck.

Wow, thank you so much for all the detailed info!
The cereal thing I never would have thought of, but makes sense! And I like Oatmeal, so I shall try that for awhile, at the very least it won't hurt anything and will be something different.
Hopefully the Miralax I just started will work good too.
Thanks again.

Uh, sorry for bothering, as well as for my English. I've been lurking around for the past few weeks but I decided to join my fellow sufferers.
Ryan, something about the blueberries. Around here they are used as natural remedy against diarrhea. If I've understood you correctly, you have them at breakfast. I would replace them with some real soft fruit, ripe fruit, as peaches, mellons or prunes.
Sorry for intruding, but blueberries, fresh or dried, are a kind of a monster for me. Not every fruit makes you go, IMO, as, after taking olive oil, I figured to eat also a bunch of olives. My butt wasn't happy at all!
As for juices, I would also try prune juice, apple juice (mixed with a bit of honey) or mango juice.

I have been taking one teaspoon of Miralax at night in warm water or warm herbal tea and it has been making things soft. However, my CRS thinks it may be why I am having 4-6 bowel movements a day and wants to try and get that down to 1 or 2. One day, I took 2 teaspoons and went all day long and another day, it was just twice and things were great. I have always been pretty sensitive to any medications however. Many people (most) on here seem to be taking the regular dose (which I determined was 4 teaspoons in a cap, but the way)
Bambi