To be honest I'm not sure of exactly what ingredients were in what laxatives. To give you an example of the drugs he used to help him go, they were Movicol Adult stool softener sachets (at times up to 10 a day!), dulcolax, dupholac, picolax, sennokot, glycerine suppositories.
None of those things worked on my bowels either when they stopped functioning (I dont think I was getting peristalisis) with the ME. I ended taking the highest dose of three of those things (actuallly with the senokot, in desperation I ended up taking double the highest recommended dose without any affect), and taking them all together and my bowels still wouldnt respond!! Even if my bowel motions were softer, I still couldnt go! That's when I specialist finally came up with putting me onto Espom salts for my bowels, to my amazement that did trigger off my peristalisis.
Thou glycerine supplements did nothing at all either for me (I could do three of those with no affects at all), another kind of enema called Microlax did work for me some (sodium citrate, sodium lauyl sulfoacetate and sorbitol combo), thou like your son, I often would have to do two or on occassions 3 enemas for even this. (It really sounds like your son has exactly the same kind of ME bowel issue as I had).
Unfortunately Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate) do taste discusting (I used to gag while taking it) but I still did that that as the alternative for me was having to do multiple enemas which just arent pleasant either, so on this ground maybe your son would be willing to try Epsom Salts instead. Note make sure its food grade (many the pharmacies sell arent are are just for the bath). One food grade Epsom Salt brand is the Gold Cross brand. (Faudings Epsom salts arent food grade).
How my doctor had me start this was to take a part dose of it every hour till my bowels responded (he needs to drink a lot of water with it), I think I ended up going double the recommended dosage in total at first). I think the amount he had me take was 5g doses every hour.
Once I had a response. He had me stay on that total amount I'd had to take for a week I think it was (maybe it was just for several days?) He got me to stay on that starting amount for a little time to like completely clean out my bowels and getting things used to moving again. (It wasnt pleasant and when my peristalisis was triggered on this, I even ended up with some diarrhear and it also can cause a heat feel around the anus.
Then after a week I cut it back to an amount which just had me go once a day (he said that was very important to go once a day if one had this kind of issue, keep the movement up and to increase a little if one missed a day of going).
To may amazement this bowel protocol of using this to go once a day after the initial starting period, ended up fixing my bowels (unless my ME symptoms shifted?). I was on the Epsom salts (no more enemas!) for probably 4-6mths and then didnt need them any more at all (I now only need to take about once every couple of months and I never had to do enemas now). Im so grateful to that bowel specialist or I believe I'd probably still be on enemas.
He also takes prune juice daily. Sometimes takes fresh squeezed orange juice as well.
Neither of those things helped me at all. I drinking a cup of prune juice daily and eatting prunes on top. No affects at all on my bowel issue.
he feels worse when he takes laxatives because all that happens is that he gets dreadful cramps and yet produces nothing.
That I found happens even more if one wasnt going daily and then did something to try to stimulate.
Anyway, I strongly suggest you try out the Epsom salts with your son (note it may be uncomfortable at first esp in the first few days of clearing out any built up stuff in his bowels (stuff those enemas arent reaching) but it may be far better then enemas.
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He needs more done about his sleep issue. Its extremely important to treat sleep issues in ME. Im wondering has he tried the sleep aid (it should be available over the counter and not on prescription) doxylamine succinate in wee doses.
I tried tons of things for my severe sleep problems I used to have and hardly nothing at all helped. I had with the ME 3 different sleep issues going on (none of the Dr Sarah Myhill sleep suggestions worked for me except melatonin which only helped my sleep issue by 1-2 hrs so it was still severe when it was at its worst).
I ended up having to be on a cycling sleep program (due to the drug intollerance nature of some of the things I had to take for sleep) of various supplements and drugs of 3 different things. Without these things, there was no way I'd go to sleep before 6am (my non treatment time to get to sleep used to be between 6am-10.30am).
One of the things I used to take for sleep which was helpful was doxylamine succinate (many of us find it helpful, its actually thou not on prescription, its been found to be more sedating then benzos).
Note thou it is a common sleep aid and many do take daily, I personally think its important to not take all the time as I found I did build up tollerence to this drug and need to up my dose within 2-3 weeks. So I went to using twice a week only as part of my total sleep treatment stuff and didnt develop any further tollerance to it. (I wasnt worried about the tollerance that I stopped getting any worst by limiting how many times i took per week as the starting dose which worked for me was
only one 8th of the recommended dose of this so it just meant then that I was only taking a quarter of a pill a couple of times a week instead of an 8th of a pill daily).
Note. how little I started off taking (an 8th. eg a crumb of a pill or a quarter of a pill of anything is my normal starting dose of anything). People who have ME should be very wary when taking anything new and should start out with tiny doses when trialing anything (this certainly helps to avoid bad drug experiences). We often can get good affects for something at very tiny doses too.
and obviously have a doctor where who is educationable too, a rare thing!!!