Paper eating...

[DaisyFace]

Well, here's a new one...

I guess not really new, I've just finally caught her in the act.

difficult child is eating paper. Regular notebook paper. By the strip...

Not sure how long it's been going on--I've often seen her eating or chewing something, couldn't tell what it was--but when I ask what's she's eating she says "Nothing"

Today, she didn't know I was watching and there she was--eating long strips of paper.

?????

--DaisyFace

 

[DammitJanet]

Thats called Pica. Another thing to bring up with psychiatrist. Sigh. Big problem.

 

[DaisyFace]

Thats called Pica. Another thing to bring up with psychiatrist. Sigh. Big problem.

Never heard of "pica"...

I'll have to Google it.

Thanks!

 

[gcvmom]

Oye. Don't know how you address that one but hopefully your psychiatrist will have some ideas.

I remember my surprise when difficult child 2 was in 3rd or 4th grade and shared with me that he'd been eating ants at school. That's right, ANTS. He said they were crawling up the trunk of a tree and he decided he'd give them a try. He did it a few times before he decided that was enough (!)

And back when we had him on Risperdal and stimulants (before we knew what was going on) he revealed to me that he'd taken food from the trash can at school and eaten because he was still hungry after he ate his own lunch. (He was pretty ravenous back then because of his medications).

Just wanted to let you know that we've had strange eating habits here, too.

 

[GoingNorth]

I had a thing from my late tweens/early teens where I would tear off the corners of magazines and the like and eat them.

Unlike the skin picking I also did (and still do), which is related to anxiety levels, I can find NO relation in my case between the paper eating and anything that I had going on emotionally.

I never did it to a "real" book, or to a library book or the like, just to my magazines and stuff.

These days I'd consider damaging a book intentionally to be something akin to spitting in the nave of a cathedral

 

[Bean]

There was a show on MTV True Life (I think) where they had people with different issues. I remember one of them ate toilet paper. She'd keep it in her purse. I think she was up to like a roll a day.