goofy question--soap eater--help

[christy]

OK this is not BPI related, maybe the anoxia but not BPI. Katie LOVES to eat soap. Any and all kinds. She'll grab the safeguard, whatever and take a chunk like it is candy. can't get her to quit. Her ped says he has "heard" that they do things like this from a lacking of something, but he didn't say what! She also tried to eat lotions and vaseline. This is getting frustrating trying to keep this out of her reach. Beside's--how am I going to wash her mouth out when she gets to be a nasty teenager, lol.

Any ideas what might be going on and what the heck to do about it? We do vitamin supplement but apprently not the right ones.....

thanks

[marymom]

how old is Katie?

[Tricia]

Hello Christy,
It sounds to me like pica. It's the same sort of strange "cravings" some pregnant women get, kids can have the same type of cravings for non-food items. There are lots of theories about why the strange cravings, but I don't think there's any one solid answer out there. For instance, the vitamin supplements are probably great, but if the cravings don't subside, then a vitamin deficiency is probably not the source of the cravings. Pica is, however, more common in kids with developmental delays, or developmental disorders.

That said, my now-13-year-old nephew ate toilet paper rolls for about a year starting when he was about 12 months old, and aside from this utter humiliation from his aunt sharing this tidbit with his friends from time to time, he's a perfectly healthy young man today.

I have no advice on how to keep a child away from soap, my only experience has been how to get kids to go near it! Good luck, and let us know what you find out!

[Cara]

I have seen commercials for bars of soap covered with a mesh cloth. Would this help? She wouldn't be able to bite off a big chunk that way.

[christy]

she is 2 1/2 and has always done it--even as an infant she would hold her arm up and try to lick off the lotion or soap.

It is any kind of soap--not just bar soap so the mesh would probably help with that but she also eats the liquid soap from her hands at daycare, etc. It is really bad when we tried using foam soap for her therapy in the tub--that is her favorite and then she smells like aerosol.

I will have to look into the PICA. I hope all turns out well....this drives us nuts trying to keep her away from all this stuff.

Thanks everyone.

[admin]

okay, now I am embarassed....my 15 year old loves the taste of soap....thought he was the only one...he says the only soap that he doesn't like is the one with the mesh around it....he says it tastes awful....by the way it is by Johnson and Johnson and comes in two awful flavors

[christy]

Ok I checked out PICA today and it is basically the patient eating odd and or non organic NONFOOD items. It is presumably related to developmental delays, behavior problems, personality disorders, psychosis...things that make a parent shudder. Especially when you are dealing with a child that already flies backward, has meltdowns that scare a corpse from sleep and went a long time without oxygen. Guess we better bring it back up next dr visit, we hadn't discussed it in a while. Although he did tell us there would be delays and developments showing up as she got older that we weren't aware of as an infant. This sounds bad but I hope the delivering staff are having a bad day, just for today. Have I expressed lately just how much I hate this injury and the things that go along with it as well as other things that may crop up relating from the traumatic birth? ARGGGGGH!!!!