# Imodium dose



## Friday (Dec 9, 2008)

I think there are many of us on this forum that need to take imodium daily? I do for sure (and hope I'm not alone!). How many do you need to take each day to keep diarrhoea away?


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## Siea (Jun 21, 2010)

1-2 but no matter what I do I always have D in the morning.


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## nan2147 (Jul 23, 2010)

Friday said:


> I think there are many of us on this forum that need to take imodium daily? I do for sure (and hope I'm not alone!). How many do you need to take each day to keep diarrhoea away?


I take one or two when D is bad. Sometimes every day for a while. Then when D settles down, I take only when needed. Sometimes Imodium does not work, and then sometimes it does. Who knows anymore. At least we are not alone. This forum is nice to have.


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## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

I am seeing a share this topic with the facebook logo.....why on earth would you let that happen..what if you by accident hit the logo???? i never want my comments on facebook!!! now to the imodium 2 at night 2 in the morning and one with each meal and i still get D pretty often!!!


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## cherrypie09 (Jan 20, 2009)

I have to take Imodium every day and take one before breakfast, one before lunch and one before tea and half before bedtime and I still have a soft bm in the mornings. Without them I would have loose urgent bms 2-3 times a day.


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## Friday (Dec 9, 2008)

This forum is such a great thing, it really helps to know there are others out there with the same worries, thanks so much for your replies.How long have you had to take immodium every day for? I guess for me it's been about 2 years now.


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## D :( (Aug 11, 2009)

I take liquid Imodium and if I'm taking it as a precaution I will do half of a dose. If I'm having a particularly bad flare up I'll do anywhere from one dose to two and a half doses. Fortunately, I am having to take it less now that I'm on Bentyl and Buspar, but I still do need to take it now and then.


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## cherrypie09 (Jan 20, 2009)

Ive been on Imodium on a daily basis now since january 2009, started on 4-5 tablets a day, and then by september last year had got it down to 1 imodium a day, now its back up to 3-4 Imodium daily. I also take 4 tablets the gastro specialist gave me for bile salt malapsorbtion, they are supposed to help to bind things, Ive been on them for about 5 weeks and they dont seem to be helping with firming the stool up, but they have stopped the stomach cramps after eating.


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## clareuk (Feb 7, 2006)

I used to take 2 every morning as soon as I got out of bed (they didn't work unless I was up and about) and as another post mentioned I still had diarrhea every morning regardless but I got into a routine with them. If things hadn't slowed down after an hour / 2 hours and it was still bad, I would have to take another one as well. The mornings were always the worst time and they did usually start to take effect and I would manage to get to work although I was always late. The afternoons were always greatly helped by the immodiums. I am currently much improved and take only one a day at the moment until things kick off again and then I adjust the dose accordingly. I took 2 /3/4 a days for years.


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## Friday (Dec 9, 2008)

It's so supportive when people reply so openly to posts, thank you so much, it helps me greatly (I'm sure it helps most of us come to that).It seems that if I don't take imodium one day, say when I think I don't need it as I feel slightly constipated, then I am ok that day but the next day I get D back again (even when I've taken an imodium that following morning). Am worried that my gut is getting lazy and relying on imodium. But have to keep remember what my doctor told me and that it's just my IBS acting up worse than normal.


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## Siea (Jun 21, 2010)

Friday said:


> It's so supportive when people reply so openly to posts, thank you so much, it helps me greatly (I'm sure it helps most of us come to that).It seems that if I don't take imodium one day, say when I think I don't need it as I feel slightly constipated, then I am ok that day but the next day I get D back again (even when I've taken an imodium that following morning). Am worried that my gut is getting lazy and relying on imodium. But have to keep remember what my doctor told me and that it's just my IBS acting up worse than normal.


I also noticed that sometimes the day after I eaten imodium I am better even without taking any pill that day. This usually happen when I took imodium for several days in a row. I usually try not to eat it to often to not build a tolerance.


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## D :( (Aug 11, 2009)

I notice that the majority of you take Imodium pills rather than the liquid. Are the pills quite a bit cheaper than the liquid? Do they work pretty quickly? Also, are the pills perforated so you can break them in half or do you pretty much have to take a whole one? Is there a dangerous level of Imodium to take? Unfortunately, recently I have had to take more than usual for some reason.


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## Murph (Jul 26, 2010)

For the past few years, I would generally take 1 in the am, and that was enough to last the whole day, if I took 1, I wouldn't have to use the bathroom at all for the rest of the day (after the imodium kicked in fully, sometimes took 2 hours). If I was going to dinner, I would take another in the afternoon. But, recently, I have had a few problems after going out to dinner. So, I've cut back on the imodium and am trying calcium, and trying to only take imodium 1-2 days per week so that when I NEED it, it will work! The funny thing is that 1 is generally plenty, sometimes even taking 1, I won't go to the bathroom for the rest of that day, AND the next day (a major bonus if you ask me, I never mind skipping a day, I make up for it the rest of the time!), but then sometimes I can take 2, and still get diarrhea after dinner! Makes no sense, except that eating out, I have no idea what goes into the food, so obviously something bothers me more than usual, but I haven't pinpointed the problem. I try to keep the dose as low as possible so that if I need to up it at some point, I have some wiggle room.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Eating out is often a problem because of the nature of the meal, not which particular foods.Larger, fattier meals tend to cause more colon activity after eating that smaller, lighter meals.Most restaurant food has more fat per serving than you would cook at home (and they usually use full fat versions of ingredients when a lot of people use lower fat versions at home). The portions also tend to be larger than most people make at home.Just those two things can cause diarrhea and sometimes there is a tipping point for people. If they stay below a certain amount of "get a move on" signal when the stomach eats they are OK, but if they cross the line instead of "get a slightly bigger more on" signal they get a "flush it out flush it all out" signal.IBSers tend to be more sensitive to those "activate the colon" signals than is typical, even if all people have a gastrocolic reflex. Even without IBS there can be meals fatty/greasy/large enough to set off anyone's colon. Part of the "sliders" name for some greasy fast food is that it slides right down and then slides right out.


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## Cherokee (Aug 8, 2010)

Just my .02 cents, I took them for years just to be able to work. I got up to 6 pills at a time, 3 times per day. It got very expensive, to say the least. My Dr tried every drug known to help the D with no luck. Being a research Dr., he was able to put me on Lotronex. That really worked for me for 2 years. In the past year even it has limited results. I've gone back to the Imodium as well, but now usually 2 per day allows me to mow my grass and occasionally make quick short trips to Lowes or the grocery store.


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## sunspot19 (Aug 31, 2007)

I tried desparately for 1 1/2 years to go with other approaches, including colestyramine (worked ok but was freaked out by side effects stated including problems with teeth and other vitamin binding), probiotics (still trying, no magic one yet), fiber (acacia and other varieties), etc.Finally when I was going abroad for a few weeks and really was going out of my mind in the summer of '08 I bit the bullet and started on 1 in the morning, and one in the evening.What a relief! I had my life back. I still regularly went in the morning (which was my norm), but no side effects at all, could go out and enjoy my day, eat out, and other than being careful with Dairy (lactose intolerance now apparently) and certain sugars I wasn't restricted at all.Now summer of '10, things are not as perfect but still pretty darn good. Often though I am back to softer stools, or intermittently diarrhea.Clearly the greatest effect was right up front in '08 where I was amazed how my stools essentially went back to the type I used to get a few years ago, solid, simple, and only once per day.


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## Friday (Dec 9, 2008)

Are you still taking 2 each day - ie one in the morning and one in the evening? If so you've done that for 2 years and no bad effects? It's weird because I asked my doctor about doing that and he seemed to think it wouldn't make any difference. But I did point out to him that it says on the enclosure in the loperamide packet that for Chronic diarrhoea this will probably be the best method (why do we end up telling the doctor things?!)


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## sunspot19 (Aug 31, 2007)

Friday said:


> Are you still taking 2 each day - ie one in the morning and one in the evening? If so you've done that for 2 years and no bad effects? It's weird because I asked my doctor about doing that and he seemed to think it wouldn't make any difference. But I did point out to him that it says on the enclosure in the loperamide packet that for Chronic diarrhoea this will probably be the best method (why do we end up telling the doctor things?!)


2 each day, though admittedly for the last few days I have been taking none. I am trying to re-energize my body and strangely enough so far I have been doing ok without any. And I do note strangely enough because a few weeks ago I also tried going off and that was a bit of a let down.Only difference from a few weeks ago is I am doing a fairly robust program of taking probiotics in the evening. Mainly of the bifido variety. Who knows if it is really helping or not. Today right after lunch I ended up having a loose BM, but it wasn't that bad and still arms and legs above where I was previously.


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