I cannot offer first-hand experience here, since never in my life have I had the problem under discussion. However, when my father-in-law was living with us, he did have the problem and I gave him prune juice. It worked very well. If you don't like prune juice, you can put nice little cut up pieces of prunes in your oatmeal (delicious!), you can make prune brownies, prune souffle dessert, prune cookies, prune/nut bread. Dried prunes are also good cooked in a little water which softens them up and water turns to juice. They slide down really easy (and out as well). Makes a nice little warm side dish at breakfast. If you have kids you can tell them those little dark pieces in the cookies or the oatmeal are mushy raisins.