Does your toddler eat things other than food or beverage? Do you wonder if it is just a behavioral issue and not PICA related.
What is PICA?
PICA is a disorder of eating anything that doesn't necessarily provides nutritive value. It can be paper, chalk, clips, hair, creams. PICA is mostly caused due to nutritional deficiencies mainly iron or zinc.
It is very obvious that babies and toddlers explore the world around them. The easiest way to explore is by holding and tasting. One day, out of no where Kyna ate paper towel and as an adult we all(we had her grandparents visiting us) reacted to take it out. Imagine how would a kid feel if they get 100% attention for a moment from 4 family members.
Kyna found this game very exciting and started to do it on regular basis. She would eat paper and show each one of us so that we react. As an adult, all of us had different methods to deal with the situation. In the beginning we would always run after her to take it out. As expected, sometimes it will be a success but sometimes it would encourage her to do this again as she gets to play. We reached a level where we had to hide all her paper books because she would eat those as well. We don't keep our toilet rolls at the designated place 😆 as that gives her easy access, we literally keep those away making things hard for us of course.
Then we tried telling her this wasn't a good idea and it makes us feel sad. It worked for couple of days but wasn't a long term solution. Then each one of us did what ever we thought will help and is the best solution. I tried to ignore it so that she doesn't get excited and she understands that this is not a fun game. I feel it helped as she once ate it and I ignored, she told me she is going to her dad and grandfather to show and ran away- I just sat where I was making sure she doesn't get a reaction out of me. Slowly, I saw a little drop in the frequency of eating at least in front of me.
Honestly, it was the most difficult part to do to see her eating and not reacting. I was feeling restless, scared and stressed. Restless, because seeing her eating and not doing anything was making my mind and heart go crazy. Scared and Stressed, as as a grown up you know that it could cause choking and more problems. But I think that is what parenting teaches you, handling things your own way and always juggling between mind and heart to choose the best solution to your problems.
We did get her tested for iron and she wasn't anaemic so it was not a nutritional deficiency. It was all behavioral, and I still feel just because first time she got a reaction she made this a game. As a parent, you learn lessons every day and after this thing me and my husband would remind each other to not react if she does something new that she should not be doing. We just calmly tell her how that is not a good thing to do and what she should be doing instead. I think it is very important to tell kids what they can do instead of telling what not to do.
