Pica

[KnarfKS]

So I come to work today and take report for one of my patients. I am given the warning to not give her baby powder unless I supervise her. First thing, as soon as I walk in the door she asks me for baby powder. I give it to her, then do my assessment and sneak it accross the room I come back in about an half an hour later, there is white around this woman's mouth and half a bottle of baby powder there.

Another nurse and I ask her what she is doing with the powder, she says her lips are dry, so she uses baby powder. Half a bottle. All of this is going on while she has a room mate in the room. The funny part is that the room mate's daughter watched her eat the baby powder, by the way, the room mate's daughter is a psych nurse in the hospital were I work. She was afraid she would soon see this patient on her floor.

Has anyone else caught a patient eating anything weird?

[1Tulip]

Many years ago when I was a nsg. student in the very deep south, there was a notorious place on the Mississippi River Bank at which an amazing number of people harvested clay to eat. A pt. came in with bowel obstruction and her flat plat abdomen looked like a Barium enema that went waaay up into the small bowel. We asked her, and she said, yes... she like to eat the clay from that spot. But she preferred to batter it and then deep fry it.

Sadly, she perforated and we couldn't save her for the subsequent sepsis. I sometimes wonder if they're still eating clay from that bit of river bank.

[Jennie2010]

Why did you give her something that you were advised not to?

[mizfradd, CNA]

When I worked psych, some of the most common cravings I've seen in pica pts. have been:

1.talcum powder

2.laundry starch

3.chalk

4.dirt

5.soap

6.clay

And now that I'm dealing with a lot of pregnant pts. in public health, I see a lot of cravings

particularly for talcum powder or soap as the the top 2 cravings.

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

Makes me glad all I craved when I was pregnant was Tobasco and lemonade. OK, that sounds disgusting...Tobasco with pregnancy #1 and lemonade with pregnancy #2.

[jynxa17]

when i was pregnant i had craving for all kinds of crazy stuff. my ob/gyn told me it was because i had an iron deficiency. (i've been anemic forever). so she put me on a strict diet, changed my vitamins, and the cravings went away. it was only pickles after that

[herecomestrouble]

I worked with a CNA who would eat Kleenex,you'd be standing at the nurses desk talking to her and she would pluck a tissue out of the box and shove it in her mouth.weird.

[Cherybaby]

My husband was in the hospital after a broken femur caused him to throw a PE to his left lung. While he was in ICU...he used to get cravings for tomatos...covered with sand! Of course, I didn't bring it to him...but once he got out of the hospital, sure as anything...he was dipping tomatos in sand anytime we went down to the shore. I don't know why he does it. It's weird!