PDD-NOS and PICA

[Mommy26]

Just wondering if anyone here has had issues with your child consistantly eating non-food substances and how you handled it?

I've just placed a call to our neuro's office, and the nurse had absolutely no idea of the answer to my questions...1.) Does this have to do with the PDD, the OCD, the mental retardation, or all of theses? and 2.) Is there anything that might help medication-wise?

My son is 15 and pretty high functioning. I cannot seem to get through to him though, why this is dangerous. It's been going on for quite a while though I thought it had stopped...he revealed yesterday that it hasn't, he just got caught. We had been taking him to a psychiatrist that supposedly specializes in children on the spectrum several years ago, and his big intervention was, "Don't eat that - it is dirty and can make you sick." As if I hadn't said THAT a time or two. Brilliant.

Any words of advise would be greatly appreciated just now. I am so tired of dealing with all these wierd issues. I had really hoped that by this stage of the game things would have gotten better. Actually they haven't, and in some ways are worse. What could pass off as cute when he was little, is just plain out there at this stage, and alienates him even further from other people. I really, really hate this.

[peglem]

Long time since we've talked about PICA here. Seems to me like it indicates some mineral deficiency. Let me poke around a bit and get back to you.

[peglem]

Okay, I found this:

http://www.eas.asu.edu/~autism/Research/Completed.html

But also, lots of sites said iron deficiency and/or the 3 things you listed as possible causes. Allie has had episodes of this- stuffing her mouth with tissue or paper towel- it just sort of resolved itself and it's been years since.

The chewy tube never worked for Allie. I don't know what else to suggest.

[Lara]

The problem with PICA is the damage it can do to the body. I don't know much about it at all except for what I've read here in older conversations. There are quite a lot of articles about it online. Maybe talking to a psychologist might be more help than the psychiatrist that you were seeing. The psychologist might be able to help with some behaviour modification. I just read one interesting article where they say "Consistent with previous research, an oral stimulation function was hypothesized.", so that might be a start.
That was from an abstract I found. Can't get the full article as I'm not registered with them, but here's the url for the abstract.
http://bmo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/2/135?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&minscore=5000&resourcetype=HWCIT
http://bmo.sagepub.com/cgi/search?qbe=spbmo;30/4/456&journalcode=spbmo&minscore=5000

I don't know if any of that is helpful at all. If he's still doing this at 15 and he was my son, I'd talk with a professional about it and that would be a psychologist where I live as they're more likely to have some knowledge and advice about how to help with the behaviours.

[tgrimes]

Hi mom26 -
Just wondering if it is several nonfoods or one specific thing he has it limited to, that would kind of tell you whether it is simple delayed oral stimulation/exploration or compulsive behavior. In the first case you will have to just wait it out, in the second you would probably have to treat it behaviorally/medically or both.

[Mommy26]

Good morning, ladies! I'm so sorry it took me this long to get back - busy few days around here! Thank you all for your input.

I've decided to try him on some vitamin/mineral supplementation to see if it makes a difference. I looked through the links about that, and boy, those vits are expensive!!!

He's always had issues with eating/food - usully eats anything to excess as he seems to be starving all the time. I lean toward thinking it's a complusion for him, but I just wish I could be sure.

Thanks again! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

[Keggy]

I have a few clients who have PICA. It seems to me, from what I have seen, that there is no medicine that can help this. SOme of them eat things that are absolutely disgusting and some just dangerous like one who eats metal and glass.(Of course both are ultimately very dangerous).

I think this warrants a comprehensive evaluation from a nutritionist, too see if he is mineral deficient. Your regular MD can also do this, if you can get em to do it. I think for some people it is purely psychological and others a physical need. Hopefully for your son it would be a physical need that could be satisfied.

[Isabelle]

Absolutely, I think is Zinc what might do the trick, it would take a while until it is effective, though.

My son has been on Zinc 50mg a day for the last 6 years and the trend to pick up and eat things like batteries, chewed gum, eating clothes, etc. has gone down tremendously. His PICA started at about that age 15,he is now 32. I remember taking him to school and coming off the car ahead of him to look at the ground and kick and hid all chewed gum. Group home caregivers taking him to the ER for x-rays and drs finding watch batteries and coins in differents parts of his gut.

He is not only on Zinc, he is taking all the vitamins Bs. For light chelation he is on Alpha lipoic acid. He is on large amounts of fish oils, to repair his brain from the use of antipsychotics and anticonvulsants (and from severe headbanging). Basically, he was given all those supplements (there are more) not to cure him from PICA or autism, just to reverse the damage done by those drugs.

Trying to repair his digestive system he is on large amounts of probiotics, digestive enzymes and Milk Thistle (to repair his liver).

He is off the last med for the last 3 months and 21 days and is showing clear improvement. Cross your fingers I hope it continues.