Chewing Ice!!!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

What does everyone actually KNOW about the connection between being anemic and the insatiable appetite for chewing ice?? I know that it is generally acknowledged as a symptom of anemia, but no one can tell me WHY, an actual physiological reason. Hmm.

I LOVE the smell of bleach!! I guess because it is just SO clean. I think it reminds me of hotels and swimming pools from vacations, esp. when I was a kid.

When I was little, we didn't have a self-defrosting freezer, so I'd take a knife and SCRAPE all that wonderful ice off of the walls of the freezer and eat it up like candy.

I think of all the FREON I ingested:idea: ...no wonder I'm so sick now.

Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

From Dictionary.com :

pagophagia.

Main Entry: pa-go-pha-gia

Pronunciation: "pA-g&-'fA-j(E-)&

Function: noun

: the compulsive eating of ice that is a common symptom of a lack of iron

From Dictionary.com :

pagophagia.

Main Entry: pa-go-pha-gia

Pronunciation: "pA-g&-'fA-j(E-)&

Function: noun

: the compulsive eating of ice that is a common symptom of a lack of iron

oh gee thanks, now I have another issue to talk about with my therapist:chair:

I am one of those that loves to eat ice... when I get a class of water when the water is gone so is the ice. Same as if I stop at a drive thru and get a drink I eat the ice when I am done. My bloodwork all came back fine in April though and I was an ice eater even before that... I remember one of my old professors stopping me on campus one day when I was chewing on some ice to tell me that chewing ice was a sign of sexual frustration! :eek:

OMG, when I was pregnant with Hyper Emesis that is all I wanted.....Ice. I used to crave ice from certain places too. Would drive my hubby crazy.

Specializes in ER, NICU.

I don't think eating ice is actually pica.

Pica is eating of things that are not considered part of nutrition.

Ice is water, so part of nutrition.

Pagophagia is eating ice compulsively.

I think people crunch ice to either "do" something; because it feels good to crunch"; they are thirsty and don't like drinking water; it relieves nervous tension.

Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

Did a quick google search and came up with a few pages:

http://www.dietitian.com/iron.html

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2004/11/i-eat-lot-of-ice.html

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1188.htm

Hope that helps :)

is it just chewing ice? or any hard material

:nono: chewing ice may be annoying to some people, but it is not as gross as smelling cigarette smoke on nurses when they come back in from their breaks.

I don't know the correlation, but both my daughter-in-law and a coworker do it, and yes, they are both anemic.

I was SEVERELY anemic a few years back ( typical h&h were about 7.0 and 21.0). I always chewed ice. It drove everybody crazy (including me). But, I always did it. I think thirst might have something to do with it. I had a hysterectomy, which pretty much rid me of my anemia and my need(?) to chew ice. It was strange, but, I would chew on ice all day and evening long in those days.

Specializes in Operating Room.

I LOVED Sonic when I was pregnant! (For those of you who do not knos what Sonic is, they have the best ice ever!) lol

I got in a habit of eating the ice from there when I was pregnant, but then I had to eat regular ice.

Between ALWAYS having something dental on my teeth due to a cleft palate & cleft lip, the ice habit, and the baby using so much calcium, my teeth are ruined. My dentist actually told me to NOT have any more kiddos.

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