I'm anemic and was wondering why anemics eat ice??!
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To OPUS: What does eating fingernail do to a person. i know several people who do and i do not believe that they have a learning disorder or have schizo. In fact, they are highly intelligent members of society and WELL adjusted people.
I really would like to know what the psychology books say about eating fingernails.
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Lack of iron in the tissues will cause you to crave ice.
I once heard that water has a small amount of iron in it, but the body percieves that iron better in ice. SInce anemia is iron deficency, you need iron from somewhere, and ice usually delivers.
Pica is an eating disorder typically defined as the persistent eating of nonnutritive substances for a period of at least 1 month at an age in which this behavior is developmentally inappropriate (eg, >18-24 mo). The definition occasionally is broadened to include the mouthing of nonnutritive substances. Individuals presenting with pica have been reported to mouth and/or ingest a wide variety of nonfood substances, including, but not limited to, clay, dirt, sand, stones, pebbles, hair, feces, lead, laundry starch, vinyl gloves, plastic, pencil erasers, ice, fingernails, paper, paint chips, coal, chalk, wood, plaster, light bulbs, needles, string, cigarette butts, wire, and burnt matches.
Although pica is observed most frequently in children, it is the most common eating disorder seen in individuals with developmental disabilities. In some societies, pica is a culturally sanctioned practice and is not considered to be pathologic. Pica may be benign, or it may have life-threatening consequences.
In children aged 18 months to 2 years, the ingestion and mouthing of nonnutritive substances is common and is not considered to be pathologic. Consider pica when the behavior is inappropriate to the developmental level of the individual, is not part of a culturally sanctioned practice, and does not occur exclusively during the course of another mental disorder (eg, schizophrenia). If pica is associated with mental retardation or pervasive developmental disorder, it must be sufficiently severe to warrant independent clinical attention. In such patients, pica typically is considered to be a secondary diagnosis. Furthermore, the pica must last for a period of at least 1 month.
sometimes when a person is low on something important, they eat/crave things that seem unrelated. It won't help (like when they eat ice - it doesn't have nutritional value) but their body is asking for something, and the request is sometimes misunderstood and involves something different. Some people eat/crave rather odd things when something is missing. This is called pica. Are you sure you are anemic, or is it something else? In any case, if you have lab tests that show you are anemic from too-low iron, you can get iron from your diet and supplements (don't take iron supplements with tea, it limits absorption, but take them with a vitamin C source, that helps. If you have pernicious anemia, that is a different thing - you need B-12 injections , and can't absorb enough from your diet alone. Be sure you know what you have, how low it is, and then take steps to fix it.
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