Eating non-edibles

Post Reply New Topic

Hi wondering if any parents or aspies can relate to this. My 3 year old daughter is obsessed with our cat and I can't keep her out of the cat food. Every day its the same thing, I've tried punishing (time out) and explaining (this food is just for kitty, your a big girl and you eat big girl food) and giving her human food with similar texture (corn nuts etc), but nothing seems to be working. Usually I just have to put the cat food on top of the fridge and then she has a meltdown (and the cat won't go up there to eat, she just meow's untill I bring the food down again. She does this at home and when we are visiting friends. She also eats sand, dirt, boogers etc. Very orally fixated.

Wondering if anyone has any insight as to why she does this and what I can do to limit this. She has delayed speech so any tips that don't depend too heavily on language are appreciated. Thanks!

I couldn't tell you WHY she does it, but my son is similar (he is almost four years old). In fact, we just went to the psychologist last week and she gave me two of the BASC-2 forms to complete; one for me and one for my sons daycare. One of the questions was "Eats things that are not foo" and the daycare answered "Almost Always". He will *try* to eat gravel and playdough at daycare. When we take him for a walk, there is this particular part on the walking path where he will always stop and try to eat the moss that falls from the tree. It's odd, yes, but as long as your daughter isn't eating things that are potentially dangerous and as long as you keep reinforcing the fact that there are certain things meant to eat and certain things that are not, hopefully it will eventually click (I hope so before my son cracks a tooth or actually swallows gravel). Have you brought this up to your daughters doctor?

My son is almost 5 and we go through phases of this. Every time I think we are past it, it comes up again. The only thing I can suggest is to just keep saying "NO" and redirect them to something that is actually good to eat. Eventually they will put something in their mouth that will probably taste really gross, and then maybe they will get it. I think mouthing things is just a way of exploring. All children do it, but I think maybe it takes our children a little longer to grow out of it. I hope so anyway!

I don't know what cat food you have but it is not usually the texture of corn, nuts, etc. Some can be like coarse pâté, or fish paste.

When I was a kid I used to eat mud, and off other people's plates. We used to fish for our cat in the local reservoir, so it was too posh for tinned cat food, though it also caught most of the ornamental fish in our pond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_%28disorder%29

I'm wondering at this point the OP's daughter is drawn to that paste-like and/or flaky texture of cat food. In this case, giving her some actual fish paste. It's found in many world cuisines: Jewish communities have gefilte fish, Scandinavia has caviar in squeeze tubes, and Japan has fish cakes. Or perhaps she might enjoy the braunschweiger or leverpostej (types of liver pate). In all these cases, she will get a healthy food item that will satisfy her craving for that paste texture without exposing her body to actual cat food.

My son is 13 and still does it, but now he knows if he is going to sneak cat food he has to do it on the sly because it grosses everybody out. It's not Pica because he doesn't usually swallow (except the catfood), though that is definitely worth looking into. Some vitamin deficiencies can cause people to crave odd things like dirt or ice cubes (not that ice cubes are odd, but eating lots of them can be) is a sign of iron deficiency. My son has never outgrown the oral fixation stage. He's moved on in other areas but not that one.