May I Borrow Some Toilet Paper? I'm Hungry!

Yes, you read the correctly and I typed it correctly. She had eaten toilet paper for years. She came to the ER for of all things a stomach ache. While the doctor watched she held a roll of toilet paper and was eating pieces of it! Of course the doctor assumed it was toilet paper causing her pain. But just to be safe he ran some tests. It turns out her pain had nothing to do with toilet paper. She had an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic means "out of place." In an ectopic pregnancy, a fertilized egg has implanted outside the uterus. She was treated for the condition and as far as the doctor knows she is still eating toilet paper even though he warned her it was unsafe.

I found this very interesting that someone would eat toilet paper. As a child at times my friends and I would eat tiny rocks & stones! When I was expecting my children the midwife would always ask me if I had weird cravings for non food items like bleach. I always said no and had to laugh at her suggestion. But she told me that some women while expecting will have cravings for items that are not food.

Pica is a real eating disorder. Pica is a pattern of eating non-food materials (such as dirt or paper). This pattern should last at least 1 month to fit the diagnosis of pica.

Symptoms - Eating of non-food substances. Clay, dirt, ice, sand, animal feces, paint, and hairballs are just a few examples of what children and adults with pica have been known to eat.

There are no tests for Pica. But usually blood tests reveal abnormal nutrient levels and in some cases malnutrition, blood levels of iron and zinc should be tested. Also depending on what the person eats tests for lead should be tested too.

Treatment depends it can range from psychotherapy and can also include mild aversion therapy. Medications can help reduce the abnormal eating behavior if pica is from a developmental disorder.

This is most common in babies & young children but there are stories of this happening in teens and adults too as you saw in my story above.

Teens & adults who eat nonfood items:

There is one story of an art student who ate clay. She would eat the clay when it was dry and in powder form.

While looking on Yahoo Answers one day I saw a message from a 20yr old who said she would eat fabric. She said she had been doing this since was 14.

Other people eat things like chalk, raw rice, talcum powder & baby powder.

As weird as this disorder is it is a real problem for people and can cause serious health risks. If you think you have this disorder as embarrassing as it may seem please contact a doctor.