I have been pregnant 6 times. And every single time I have suffered from a condition called "pica" (the need to eat non food items such as clay, chalk, bark and dirt). My doctor tells me it stems from an iron deficiency and that makes sense. I KNOW I have that!!
Anyway each and every time that I get into my car, I have to literally fight the urge to run my finger along the outside and then indulge in the collection of delicious goodness on my finger. I will admit that on SEVERAL occasions (the number of which I will NOT divulge) I have caved.
One time when we were at Costco and I was pregnant with Peyton, they were laying down fresh bark. I may have casually mentioned that the smell of the fresh pine was delightful or something like that and Raleigh went over and got a piece and threw it to me. "Here, I know you want this" he said all smuggly, like he's never had a craving before. I had to put it in my pocket so that I couldn't smell it and then I threw it in the nearest trash can, so that I wouldn't be tempted to suck on it in PUBLIC. Because that's what I really wanted to do.
So, last night at 2:43 am, I woke up and I could literally smell COMET. You know the green, chalky bathtub cleaner. I could smell it as if someone was holding it under my nose. It was a very intense and strong dose of it too. And I went berserk. I got up immediately and began searching all over my house for the source of the smell, not because I was trying to get rid of it, but rather because I wanted to find that can and lick the top clean. It had to be somewhere. Why would I be able to smell something that wasn't there?
As it turns out, since I promise I looked in every place in the house and for a really long time too, I don't have a can of COMET, which was horrible news for me, although probably saved the life of my unborn child. Poor girl, THIS is the nutritional sustenance her mother chooses to provide for her?????
In my defense however, I am insanely compelled and I cannot stop it, no matter how hard I try or no matter what supplements I take. It is an insatiable need. And I am weak. Besides, I have done it with all six of them now and five of them have turned out quite nicely and they are very smart and healthy children and none of them have ticks or any outwardly noticeable side effects.
Thankfully, you will be happy to know, it goes away and immediately disgusts me at the exact same second the child pops out of my body. Just in case you were on the verge of ending our friendship or judging me harshly over this new and enlightening information.
And so my conclusion is this: Number 1: A person can positively dream smells. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind. And Number 2: I need to get this baby out before I start craving something like battery acid or toilet bowl cleaner.
Cuz, that probably wouldn't be good.
Horse Country
7 years ago
5 comments:
I think you've mentioned this to me but I thought you were kidding...I guess not. Remember when we used to have bark out in our front garden area? When Savanna was a little girl I used to find her out there eating big pieces of bark and I thought she was going to die, she didn't so I guess it's all OK. She must've had an iron deficiency too, poor thing, I just thought she was weird. Whatever you do, don't buy any Comet for at least another month, we can't have you eating that in the night!
Oh you poor thing! I can however, relate to you to somewhat of a degree. I have a huge craving for ice ALL the time!!! I don't know why, I just constantly want to chomp it. Sometimes it's so bad I just think I've got to get ice, NOW! I've got to chomp it NOW. Very strange, I know. My doctor told me that it was also related to an iron deficiency. Kind of wierd. I guess being low on iron makes you crave wierd things. Good luck to you, it's almost over.
Take Care,
JoLynn
Yeah! Stay strong girl! I have a friend who had similar cravings. However, hers was real intense with chalk. She would bring a piece of chalk to work with a small chalk board. She would scribble and whipe down the board then sit and smell the kleenx she whiped it with.
My sister in law ate bubbles out of her kitchen sink when she was pregnant... pica was the reason given to her as well. Funny what pregnancy does to us. I love the smell of Comet even when I am not pregnant. I used to want to lick it as a little girl all the time. Just a few weeks left. I am excited to see this little girly.
OH MY GOSH!!! I just laughed and laughed at that post. I was anemic with each of my pregnancies, and I too experienced a pica... mine was ice. It's a miracle I put any kind of nutrition in my body because I was always so full of cup after cup after cup of that "rabbit pellet" ice that I could get down at the nearby Lucky Greek. I would say (three to four... sometimes five times a day), "Can I please have an extra large Dr. Pepper? And can you please just fill the whole cup up with ice and then if you can fit any Dr. Pepper in there too, that's fine." One day, when I was pregnant with the twins, it was so bad that I purposely decided to defrost my freezer so that I could eat all the ice from the ice-maker AND any that had built up around the inside edges AND get all that frosty goodness from the inside walls with my fingers. At the time it was AWESOME!!! But now I think... HOW DISGUSTING!!! :)
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