Pica

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Does anyone have a child with pica? Has it gotten worse or better as they get older? My son is 7 and always has to be chewing on a toy or clothes. He also licks, sucks, and chews on his fingers a lot. He eats bugs, chews on clothing and towels to the point of strings coming out of his backside (tmi), and eats plants and dirt when outside. At the lake I have caught him eating that seaweed looking stuff and stagnant lake water.
In the past few weeks a couple times at home I noticed his hands smelt like poop, and his breath smelt like it as well. I think he was just scratching and tasting . Has anyone had any experience with this at all?

I still crave things like raw rice, when I was pregnant I craved sponges (the type you wash with) omg just thinking of it now makes me want to chew on one, I used to scrub the floors with scourers and stuff like that.
I think it probably gets better with age and awareness but for now just keep an eye on what he is eating x

my son is almost 5 and this started up with him at about 3-4 I think. He would chew on our window sills or the corners of the wall. Never eat it, but he would literally bite chunks off of the window sills and chew on the wood. He would also chew on toys a lot. We eventually got him a sensory chew toy and he stopped chewing on stuff for a good little while. Within the last 2-3 months though all of this has started to pick back up a bit and he's chewing on his nails almost consistently. I try to keep his chew toy on hand to divert his chewing to something safe. He also chews on paper a lot too. Gum helps a lot too.

Not so extreme as you say, but my son chews on things constantly. We are working on the nailbiting as he was biting down into the quick. He also picks the strings off the couch and eats them while he is watching tv. Highly annoying to me. Last night he was playing with/licking/chewing on a bag clip. BTW - he is 11. I remember waiting to get him small toys until he was almost 5 because he was always putting them in his mouth. (still does). I am NT, but understand the sensory thing about it all. I chew gum all the time, and find myself rubbing my lips with objects when I am working or distracted by tv. I also used to chew on erasers, plastic, paper, and all kinds of things when I was his age. I had pinworms all the time when I was a young child because of playing in the dirt, then putting things in my mouth with dirty hands. It bothers my husband way more than me, I just don't want him to swallow anything dangerous.

My daughter who's 4 also has pica. She's not a chewer, but she eats alot of weird stuff, pet food, playdough, dirt, sand, salt and other spices, flour, raw rice and pasta it goes on and on.

The first think we did was have her pediatrician check her blood, they checked her metal levels iron, mercury, lead and something else that I can't remember. Other than that, it's been alot of restricting her access to certain things, keeping the cupboards locked, the cat food on top of the fridge etc. Consistantly giving her a warning then a time out for continuing to eat unappropriate things. We also try to have snacks available with a similar taste, consistancy or visually similar, when she's playing with playdough we have a salty snack available, coco puffs when or corn nuts when she starts going for the cat food. We've tried chewy tubes, but it didn't take cause she's not much of a chewer. I've been working on it with her OT's now for about 2 years. I can't say that it's gotten any better, I've just gotten better at preventing and redirecting it. Good luck!!

chalk used to be my big craving...and sometimes sand--oh, and ice (both cube and crushed). It was the texture of both things I was attracted to. I love how chalk absorbs water in your mouth...and how gritty sand is. I love chewing on snow, and the vague taste of dirt it has...

I'm 42, and it was only in my late 30s that I realized that these cravings were really related to my stress level. The more stress I was under, the more I thought about chalk and chewing on things. Since then I've been able to keep my stress level down a bit more. I'm taking st John's wort for anxiety...and it helps a lot. I don't think about eating chalk much now. But my feeling (I read about it when I realized it was probably a condition, and that most people don't eat chalk and sand...and it's widely accepted that it is related to anxiety).

Yes...I'm a parent on the spectrum.

B

I don't know about pica (relating to craving particular minerals) but in terms of sensory chewing, as another poster said, it ebbs and flows according to stress levels. Also sometimes he redirects it (by pure chance, probably) from more socially problematic (chewing on shirts) to some what less socially problematic (fingernails.) We have not had too much success with chewies, but they are not exactly considered cool, either. Gum won't work because he would swallow it.

Does your child get OT? They might be able to help redirect it, if it is a sensory/stress thing.