# Nutritional reason for kid eating chalk & crayons?



## fuller2 (Nov 7, 2004)

My 4.5 y.o. has started eating chalk and crayons occasionally. He says he won't tell me why he's eating them but that they "taste good."

I told him maybe he needed some minerals, and tonight he actually asked me for a vitamin.

What's up with this? He has a pretty good diet I think, but maybe lacking in calcium or something?? He does eat yogurt almost every day, but maybe it's not enough. His veggies are mostly peas, carrots, corn and the occasional basil leaf he picks out of the garden. I avoid white flour but he has been getting at at his new preschool (grrr) -- twice a day, 5 days a week, a white-flour based cracker snack. With fresh fruit, but still.

Any ideas??


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## Becca917 (Oct 1, 2006)

It sounds like pica to me - when someone craves an unnatural substance.

Usually it is related to an iron deficiency. What does he eat that has iron?


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## kittywitty (Jul 5, 2005)

Well, it could be pica...

He could just have an oral fixation. I know I do/did. I was the kid who regularly ate glue or just about anything to see how it tasted and would keep doing so if I were allowed. Especially play-doh


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## fuller2 (Nov 7, 2004)

I wouldn't be surprised if it was iron--he tested fairly low not that long ago. I give him a supplement occasionally but I think I will start ramping it up.


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## astrophe27 (Aug 27, 2007)

I don't know what crayon and chalk indicate, but I do know eating ice obsessively/pica-ishly could mean a need for iron.

A.


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## StormySar (Jul 21, 2006)

I used to eat chaulk as a kid and it DID taste good. But then after a while it lost it's flavor - I don't know if it was a phase or a nutritional deficiency and once that void was filled the chalk no longer tasted good? I also ate sand once in a while then, but really think I liked how it felt in my mouth.


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## WeasleyMum (Feb 27, 2007)

I was going to say, crayons really do taste good. At least that's what I remember!














:


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## timneh_mom (Jun 13, 2005)

I used to eat paste, paper, play dough, sand, crisco







: (thank GOODNESS I outgrew that!!), when I was little (1970's) the kind of paste that came in a jar with a stick on the lid tasted like mint and I loved it!

I think there is a difference between kids eating non food things because they are kids, and actually craving them (IE, eating them uncontrollably or in place of other foods).


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