The other reason I've considered taking laxatives with my ileostomy before is that I get so full, not just my stomach due to eating, but my bowel seems full and uncomfortable all day, and I have no output, then in the evening I finally get output and get more comfortable, so I've thought about taking something to move things along and get comfortable earlier.
So yesterday evening I took a stool softener, docusate sodium (the only kind of laxative I had in the house). I didn't bother checking how long it takes to work as I know my digestive system doesn't follow guidelines. I felt as usual over night and this morning, with hardly any output this morning (as usual). Eating lunch I felt more full than usual, I finished lunch about half an hour ago, and my bag has now rapidly filled up with watery output. I guess that's a good result. I still feel full and uncomfortable, so I think there's more to come. I'm not sure if I'd say it's an improvement on the fullness, as I feel worse so it depends how long this lasts before it all gets out. But I definitely can't complain that it's too thick, so hope when I empty it in a minute it will wash out nicely. No dehydration or anything either, it's only a bag of output so far so I don't think it's too much fluid loss.
Of course I also know that this evening I could take the exact same dosage of the exact same stool softener and have something completely different happen from this time round.