![]() Depending on what you eat, pica can damage your teeth. For others, it can lead to eating dangerous or toxic items. For people who eat things like ice a common behavior for someone who is pregnant pica is harmless. If you learn that you are not deficient in iron, you might consider cognitive behavioral therapy, which can help overcome pica. Chewing on ice is a variant of pica, an eating disorder characterized by craving and eating non-food items as diverse as dirt, glue and hair (and worse). Pica can have a wide range of effects depending on what non-food item (s) a person eats. Or they might eat potentially dangerous items, likes flakes of dried paint or pieces of metal. Most people get adequate iron from their diets – there’s plenty in red meat, beans, lentils, millet, chickpeas, dark, leafy greens, molasses, dried apricots, dried peaches, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, scallops, clams, oysters, soybeans, and many other foods. A person with pica might eat relatively harmless items, such as ice. Because it is one of the few minerals we cannot eliminate, it can accumulate in the body, and, being a strong oxidizing agent, can increase the risk of cancer and damage the heart and the arteries. With the exception of menstruating women and individuals who have had a significant blood loss, no one should take supplemental iron except when advised to by a physician after blood tests reveal iron deficiency anemia. Instead, see your physician for a blood test to determine whether you have it. ![]() However, pica can also be a symptom of stress, emotional upset, obsessive-compulsive disorder and, in children, a developmental disorder.ĭon’t start taking iron supplements on the theory that your underlying problem is a deficiency of this mineral. Research also suggests that ice tastes better to people who are iron deficient. One study suggested that the ice may relieve the pain of glossitis, an inflammation of the tongue that can be a sign of iron deficiency. Pica disorder examples include pagophagia, which refers to eating ice, and geophagia, which refers to eating dirt and clay. The eating of these substances must be developmentally inappropriate. They may include paper, soap, cloth, hair, string, wool, soil, chalk, talcum powder, paint, gum, metal, pebbles, charcoal, ash, clay, starch, or ice. We don’t know why it occurs among pregnant women or why individuals with iron deficiency anemia crave and habitually chew ice. Typical substances ingested tend to vary with age and availability. The specific compulsion to chew ice is called pagophagia and has been associated with pregnancy, iron deficiency anemia and, sometimes, other nutritional problems.
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