Xanthan Gum

jeff for me personally metamucil did nothing. One of my docs had me use benefiber, which is wheat dextrin. It made a HUGE difference. I have heard it is hard now to find the name brand "benefiber" but there are generics.. just look for the "wheat dextrin." Give it a try it might work wonders for you like it did for me.
good luck.

Hi Liz,
I think I have seen Benefiber in my local CVS. Is it a powder you mix with water? How much did you take daily? Thanks for your help. I have watery BMs at night so I need to figure out WHEN to take a fiber supplement.

Are you using any Imodium? I used it together with metamucil capsules as directed by my surgeon.

I used one huge tablespoon sprinkled on my food or mixed in with a small amount of any liquid beverage 3x a day. Seemed to work better with food. Be aware though if put on some foods like rice it turned it to "silly putty" texture!

So maybe you can try starting with just a spoon on something you are eating at dinner, like sprinkled over veggies. Good thing is that it is completely tasteless
Good luck. Hope it works for you.

Thanks Liz, I'll see if this strategy works for me as well.

TE Marie - I take 6-8 Lotomil daily.

I think Liz's idea is great as we are not suppose to drink the fiber with as much water as coloned people. We are using it to bind our food and slow the digestion process down.

I used the capsules instead of stirring it in liquid and found 3 before 3 times eating a day worked for me. 5 capsules = 1 serving of metamucil. I gradually cut it out as I didn't need it as my pouch matured.

The Benefiber brand has been off the shelves for almost a year now. It should come back at some point, and store-brand competitors are available. If Metamucil isn't effective enough, Konsyl reportedly has more soluble fiber per dose (it's more like Metamucil than Benefiber). I had poor results with the Metamucil capsules, since they didn't mix sufficiently, and came out looking like exploded capsules. The Metamucil powder works for me.

I took the "clear capsules" with the actual metamucil or generic powder inside of them. They were not a hard pill. Nothing came out looking weird at all. I passed some strange stuff out of my loop ileostomy so didn't take chances with hard pills or supplements of any type while getting the surgeries and after.