How long does it take Miralax to work?

I am embarrassed to post this, but I am miserable.  I have never taken it before, and I have a meeting beginning at 7:00 a.m.  I am afraid if I take it tonight, I will have an 'emergency' during my meeting and have to run out of the room.  How long does it take to work normally?  and how bad does it hit you?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
June

Every body is different but it took about 2 weeks for it to kick in for me...I don't think you will have to worry for something in the morning. If you need to "Move" because of the meeting MOM would work better I think...
Miralax is very gentle and very slow at moving things along...JMHO..

my 6 year old's doctor said you gotta do a clean out with miralax 1st for a few days and then maintance. He did 9 capfuls a day for 2 days now he does 2 caps a day

The dosing on the label is 17 g (one capful) once a day - but THIS is the dose that pediatric GI docs give seven year olds.  Take double that as often as three times a day for the first two or three days.   Then cut it in half to one and a half capfuls per day for a couple of days, then to one capful for a couple of days.  Then do one capful every other day for a few days.

If at any point, things grind to a halt and stop moving, go back up to the last effective dose for a week, and then try to lower it again.  If things are still not moving well then, talk to your surgeon.



PS - I should mention that I'm a medical transcriptionist, and I did three years of strictly pediatric GI work.  The 17 g a day dosing is VERY common for children under 10, just to give you some reference.

It's very mild - especially if you take the recommended dose, which is a child's dose.  Even if you double it, you won't have any surprises.  It gets things moving, but NOT like Dulcolax or a stimulant laxative will.  Don't worry!

MiraLax doesn't work quickly; it can take as long as three days.  Despite its name, at the recommended daily dose (1 capful dissolved in fluid), it's NOT a laxative; it's a powerful stool softener that can take days to work, but once you continue to take it daily, it continues to ensure that you have soft stools (Colace is scarcely more than a placebo when you compare it to MiraLax.)

That said, I'd never recommend that someone take any new med they hadn't tried before if they knew they had an important meeting the next day.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG), the active (and only) ingredient in MiraLax, is also the active (and only) ingredient in the bowel-prep GoLytely.  The only difference between them is the absolute dose of PEG.  GoLytely contains many, many times more PEG as well as fluid, and as such has a completely different action: it causes explosive diarrhea shortly after you ingest a significant quantity of it.  That's why it's used for bowel-prep before colonoscopies.  1 capsul of MiraLax should not cause this.

If you need immediate relief, why not try a glycerin suppository?

/Steve

It can take days to work. When I was severely constipated I used a Glycerin Suppository for immediate relief. Fleet has a brand that is really cheap and it works well. I have also used Milk of Magneasia for fast relief, it worked overnight.

April