Pica - eating clay, ice, etc...

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_090.html

I think I figured it out! (how to post the link) I’m surprised that it’s so easy and yet I couldn’t figure out how to do it! hehe, I’m sure I must look like an idiot to many of you.

I wanted to touch on this pica thing, though. I have that disorder, or rather, I did have that disorder with every one of my pregnancies… which would be five. I have three children, two were miscarriages.

With all of my pregnancies, I would eat huge amounts of crushed ice. At first, I thought I was doing it because it was helping my heartburn, but I soon realized that I was wanting ice even when I didn’t have heartburn. It’s so hard to explain the crave, though! It’s almost like a drug addiction! I would be forced to tears if, for some reason, I couldn’t get any crushed ice! I didn’t have an icemaker that would spit out crushed ice at the time, so I would go to the gas station down the road and get crushed ice by the bagful from there. But when I didn’t feel like going to the store, I’d take the ice from the trays and put them in a ziplock bag and crush them up with a hammer (I’ve even used the heel of a shoe when I couldn’t find a hammer). I suppose the ice one isn’t so weird, but I had it with something else as well. TOOTHPASTE! I’ve never heard of anyone doing it with toothpaste, so I wondered if anyone else has heard of that.

I wouldn’t allow myself to eat the toothpaste, but what I would do was brush my teeth VERY OFTEN… to the point where my gums would bleed! I’d also brush VERY far back on my tongue so it would sorta make it feel like I was swallowing it. It’s very difficult to explain how much I loved that stuff… I literally CRAVED it! We’re talking, moaning the minute it reached my tongue! The weird thing, as if that’s not weird enough, lol, is that I normally don’t like the taste of toothepaste at all. Brushing my teeth is like a chore that I have to do twice a day, but don’t particularly like to do it… sorta like washing the dishes or cleaning the house… I just don’t really care to do it because the toothpaste tastes so bad to me. So, I think it’s very strange that it tasted so great to me during that time.

So, does toothpaste have anything in it that my body needed? I mean, I know when people have it with things like dirt, there’s a reason for it, like there’s some sort of vitamin or mineral in it that their body needs. But what is there in toothpaste that I would have needed so badly? Anyone know? Or ice for that matter… are there any sort of vitamins or iron in water? I know that’s a stupid question, but I really never bothered to find out if there’s anything good in water… never really liked the stuff, haha!

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IME, ice chewing and nailbiting are two signs of iron deficiency. Once my iron level was up to par I didnt do so much of either. Of course, I’m not entirely sure if the nailbiting is mostly due to depression that can be triggered from low iron.

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Ah, I didn’t consider that one. I know that I used to have a habbit of biting the insides of my mouth… horrible habbit, by the way. But once I got on medicine for my back pain, I stopped doing it. It dawned on me that I was doing that because I was in pain and was nervous. But what you’re saying has never dawned on me. That’s interesting.

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I suppose chewing on Ice can hurt your teeth but what benefit can anyone get from it, its just water. Did you salt the ice or put anything else on it? Doesn’t seem like it should be lumped in with clay and the like. heh heh lumped with clay

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haha, that was pretty cute.

I never quite understood why it was thrown in there with clay and dirt either… until I got it myself. I think, though am not positive, it’s the same because you have an uncontrollable urge to eat it. By uncontrollable, I really mean UNCONTROLLABLE, it’s so hard to describe, but I felt like I would just cry or go crazy if I couldn’t have it. Very strange since I’ve never been a huge fan of eating in the first place. Of course, I eat, but I eat when I have to… food isn’t all that wonderful to me… I don’t care all that much for sweets, and I can only eat a very small amount of food at any one time. I’m just not a big eater… and I know I’m leaving myself open for all kinds of jokes about my cooking so bring em on! haha!

As to putting salt or anything on the ice, I’ve never done that, but with my last pregnancy, I started sprinkling sugar on it… that was pretty yummy, haha! I had cravings for sweets during my last pregnancy.

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well, both tap water and toothpaste are distinct for being good sources of flouride

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I get that sometimes. I don’t think that’s healthy. Maybe you do have a nutrient deficiency. You could see how a multivitamin fits you or… much better… fresh vegetable juice (tho that’s much more a commitment).

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Have you seen that movie Girl Interrupted? You know how the chicken eating girl says that she feel eating is like using the bathroom? That’s almost how I feel about eating, lol. I know it’s strange, but that’s about how it is for me.

I’m getting a lot better, though. I quit drinking a couple years ago, and have had a bigger appetite since then. Also, during my last pregnancy, I started eating a lot of sweets, caught the sweettooth, but I’m addicted to Reese’s peanut butter cups now, lol… love em! So, I do eat a little more now, it’s not near as bad as it used to be. I will take your advice about the multivitamin, though. That’s a good idea.