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Is there still an immediate problem? - because there are enemas that would help with that, although you would need to ask qualified nursing staff to supervise.

I'm with you on the drinking enough water; but you really don't want to overdo it, especially if his kidney function isn't great, or you'll mess up his electrolyte balance and run into all sorts of problems. Judging "enough" is the tricky bit!

Unless he's taking medication that bungs up his gut - codeine and iron supplements are the usual suspects - he shouldn't need to rely on laxatives all the time. As he's on thickened fluids, I assume there's a swallowing reflex issue? But all the same, raisins can be puréed with his breakfast oatmeal, for example; and surely most of the foods that prove useful in "keeping you regular" can be mashed or puréed and mixed in.

I also accidentally discovered that Heinz Cream of Tomato soup will go through some people like a dose of salts. It all gets a bit technicolor and I would not recommend this technique.
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My Mom takes 1/2 cap of miralax with a glass of V8 every day.   It doesn't thicken and has no flavor.   We use V8 only because she like the taste and it had some vitamin K to offset the warfrin and keep her INR in balance.  (Kill 3 birds with one stone)

She has IBS, and everything needs to keep moving or we end up in the ER again.
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My mother suffers from vascular dementia. Her overall motor function is declining, hence the constipation. Nothing over the counter works to get her bowels moving. Ask the doctor to try Lactulose. Google this to learn more about it. It's a prescription-based syrup/medication. It's not expensive, like less than 20 dollars for a one month supply. Suppositories only work when the stool is stuck in the rectum/sigmoid colon area. Motor decline affects the entire digestive track, the entire abdomen, which is why the stool is overall moving slowly.
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