The disorder, known as pica, affects 10% to 30% of young children between the ages of 1 and 6, and can also happen in children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as autism. On rare occasions, pregnant women crave strange, nonfood items. The most common items eaten with pica are dirt, clay, and flaking paint, with less common items including glue, hair, cigarette ashes, and feces.
Symptoms
The nonfood item the individual has consumed is associated with pica symptoms, which include:
- Stomach upset.
- Stomach pain.
- blood in the stool (which could be an indication of an ulcer brought on by non-food items eaten).
- diarrhea or constipation, which are gastrointestinal issues.
Because nonfood items are toxic, poisonous, and bacterial in nature, consuming them repeatedly over time can result in the following symptoms:
- eating lead-containing paint chips, which results in lead poisoning.
- a tear or obstruction in the intestines (caused by eating rocks or other hard objects).
- Injuries to teeth.
- Infections (caused by microbes and parasites that enter the body and cause illness)
Causes
The following are the leading contributors to pica:
- pregnancy
- mental retardation or autism spectrum disorders are examples of developmental conditions
- schizophrenia is one example of a mental illness
- cultural practices that revere or attribute healing powers to specific non-food substances
- malnourishment, especially iron-deficiency anemia
Prevention
If you pay close attention to eating habits and supervise kids who tend to put things in their mouths, you may be able to catch pica early, before complications can happen. If your child has been diagnosed with pica, you can reduce his or her risk of eating nonfood items by keeping those items out of reach in your home. Be sure to monitor your child’s outdoor play, as it can lead to accidental ingestion.
HOMOEOPATHIC TREATMENT
Antimonium crudum:
a desire for vegetables and raw food
Loss of appetite
abdomen swelling following a meal
inability to tolerate the heat of the sun, as opposed to exhaustion from excessive sun exposure and heat
dislike of taking a cold bath and the resulting irritation
Tendency to grow fat
Thick milky white-coated tongue
Thirstlessness
Bread, pickles, and acids cravings and intolerance
Irritable, snarky, and unable to stand being touched or looked at
Alumina:
a desire for raw rice, acids, coffee or tea grounds, cloves, chalk, charcoal, or starch
One of the most effective treatments for lead poisoning (a pica complication) is aluminum oxide.
Thin delicate children
Dryness of the skin and mucous membranes
Constipation, days where you don’t want to poop, and soft stools that need a lot of straining
Exhausted physically and mentally
Aversion to potatoes
Mild, cheerful disposition
Calcarea carbonica:
having a penchant for pencils, chalk, and coal
Cold-sensitive patient, easily caught
Fat, fair, flabby
Pale, weak, easily tired
During sleep, the head frequently perspires
tendency to enlarge the lymphatic glands
Aversion to milk and meat and a desire for eggs
Sour smelling discharges
timid, fearful, frightened, sluggish, and slow
Longing for fresh air
Culcaria phosphorica:
Desires clay, earth, chalk, pencils, lime, slate, etc.
as you eat, your stomach aches.
Distended abdomen
Feeble digestion
Unable to stand, rickety, and a chilly patient
Easy perspiration
slow to pick up walking
aggravation from wet, cold, changing weather, and mental effort
cravings for smoked and raw foods
Wanderlust, restlessness, and discontent
Cicuta virosa:
abnormal appetite for foods like coal, cabbage, chalk, and charcoal that are cherished
Grinding of teeth
Chilly patient
Easily bent backward and convulsive
Skin eruptions that were suppressed in the past
Crazy, stupid, and making odd gestures while singing and dancing
Natrum muriaticuam:
Craving for salt
The digestion of food is laborious.
Worse from eating
Hot patient
Poorly nourished
severe muscle loss and marked emaciation despite eating well
Oily, greasy face
dislike of fatty foods and bread
Nitricum acidum:
Desiring lime, slate, pencil, papers, and charcoal
specifically fissures in the rectum and mouth corners, cracks in the muco-cutaneous junction
Cold-sensitive patient, easily caught
Thin built, sickly
Desires fat and salt
Disposed to diarrhoea
Strong smelling urine
obstinate, irritable, fearful, vindictive, and easily startled by light and noise
Nux vomica:
craving pepper, chalk, and charcoal
Chilly patient, thin
Craves fats, spicy food
Yellowish tongue coating on the backside
excessive sensitivity to light, sound, smell, or music
Nervous disposition
Fast, brisk, zealous, and agitated
Hasty, vindictive, and using violence
Silicea:
a desire for raw foods, sand, and lime
Patient is extremely chilly, and all symptoms—aside from stomach complaints—are made better by the cold.
Profuse, offensive discharges
excessive sweating, particularly on feet
Easy suppuration, glandular affinity
head size and an enlarged belly
Slow to learn to walk because of weak ankles
obstinate, with a firm head, and tears at being treated kindly
Nervous, uneasy, overly sensitive, sour, afraid, etc.
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