I've been trying to eat prunes lately (which I actually really like!) to promote softer bowel movements, but I can only eat one at a time. If I eat more than one (even just two), I seem to get bad cramps later in the day. No diarrhea or anything like that, but just bad cramps. Is this normal? Do I just need to adjust to eating them?
If you eat prunes, how many do you usually eat and at what time in the day? Do they help you?

I eat a few around the time that I go to bed, but only 2 or 3. They dried kind. I'd eat so many of them if it weren't for the possible consequences later.

Yes, this can happen to many people. The reason prunes have a laxative effect is because they are high in sugar alcohol, which is indigestible and will cause GI irritation and diarrhea in anyone depending on the amount ingested (and abdominal pain in many of those). Some people are just more sensitive than others. Continuing on from the other thread, just because something is "natural" doesn't mean it isn't without the potential for adverse effects.

Thanks guys. Yeah, jr2, I'm sure it's the sugar alcohol that gives me the cramps. It's too bad, too, since I'm really starting to enjoy prunes. : ( Guess I'll stick to one at a time for now. I don't think I will even touch prune juice, since I think that's more potent than regular prunes.