Crazy Cravings!
Kate’s little girl has a condition that gives her taste for the unusual...
All babies put things they shouldn’t in their mouths – it’s normal. That’s what everyone said when my daughter, Lily, started chewing the carpet and her cuddly toys.
But unlike most toddlers, Lily wasn’t just having an exploratory chew on things – she was actually eating them!
When I started finding chunks bitten out of inedible things, I knew something had to be wrong.
My fiance, Liam Mullins, 26, and I first noticed Lily had a taste for the unusual when she chewed her bathtime sponge at 5 months old.
Worried, I spoke to my mum, Gerry, 53.
‘She’s teething, the sponge must soothe her gums,’ Mum told me.
I bought Lily teething rings and other rubber soothers, but she just wasn’t interested in them.
Then when she turned a year old, I caught her chewing her new shoes. ‘Don’t do that,’ I said, taking them off her. That’s when I noticed she’d bitten chunks out of the Velcro fastenings. And that was just the start… I caught her gnawing the carpet, nibbling her cuddly toys and eating the hair from her My Little Pony. One day I found her munching a spongy ball she’d been playing with.
I took it off her but she’d eaten half of it!
Lily also loved anything with bristles. I had to watch her clean her teeth to make sure that she didn’t just eat the toothbrush.
At my friend’s house, she came out of the loo eating the toilet brush!
Luckily nothing she ate seemed to harm her, but that didn’t make it any less worrying.
In January 2015, Lily started nursery school and, one day, her teacher took me aside and said that Lily had been eating a rug. She told me that Lily might have a condition called pica. It’s an eating disorder where someone has persistent and compulsive cravings for things that aren’t edible. I’d worked with a woman who had it and she’d eat dirt. Concerned, I took Lily to our GP and she was referred to hospital where the diagnosis was confirmed. ‘Lily has a slight iron deficiency, which may be the cause, but it could be a behavioural issue. She’ll probably grow out of it,’ the consultant said. She prescribed drops to boost Lily’s iron levels, but her cravings continued. All we can do is watch Lily like a hawk to make sure she doesn’t eat anything that might choke her, cause a blockage in her intestines or give her an infection. Lily is 3 now, and is a bright, bubbly girl who loves watching Peppa Pig. But her eating habits show no signs of changing. And sadly, it’s started to affect her appetite for real food, too. At the moment, our youngest daughter, Poppy, 17 months, thinks it’s funny to copy her big sister, so we’re having to keep an eye on both of them now! I don’t want Lily to feel any different. She can’t help her cravings and we try to stop her eating things she shouldn’t. I just hope the consultant was right and that Lily will soon grow out of her strange cravings.
I caught her eating hair from her My Little Pony