12. 3 Reasons Your Child is Eating Non-Food Items
Is your child afraid of trying new foods, but will put just about anything else in their mouth like rocks, dirt, paper, and play-doh?
Your child could be trying to tell you something more. In this episode, I will be giving you 3 reasons that your child with autism could be eating non-food items!
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IN THIS EPISODE
How sensory input could trigger your child to eat non-food items
Developmental stages and their correlation with oral sensations
Defining pica and what this could mean for potential nutrient deficiencies
LINKS
Join the Autism Nutrition Library
Follow @AutismDietitian on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Nourishing Autism Podcast where you take a deep dive into the research on autism and dietary changes, nutrition supplements, and lifestyle modifications. Every week, we break down nutrition topics and an easy-to-understand way for you to feel less overwhelmed and feel confident on your nutrition journey with autism.
Hello everyone! And welcome to the Nourishing Autism podcast. I'm your host Brittyn Coleman, the Autism Dietitian. And I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family, and that is was very, very nourishing and full of fun memories. This week, we are digging into three reasons that your child is eating non-food items. And believe it or not, this is a, very, very popular topic. I have so many parents ask me why their child won't eat any new foods, but then they will just put about anything else in their mouth like rocks, dirt, paper, play-doh; you name it. And there are three reasons I often bring up and I thought it would be a great podcast episode. So we're going to start with going over a quick overview of those three, and then I'm going to dive into each one of them.
So number one, it could be that it's a developmental stage. Number two is that they're looking for sensory input. And number three is that it's a condition called PICA and I'm going to dig into each of those in just a second.
Kids with autism commonly have sensory processing difficulties, which can cause them to crave or avoid sensory input. And craving sensory input can be one way of self-regulating when they feel really overwhelmed. So this mouthing behavior is pretty common in kids with autism or developmental disabilities.
And we'll talk more about why that is, but this can really manifest in a few different ways. This craving sensory input could be satisfied by a weighted blanket, it could be being in a small confined space, or it could be this oral sensory seeking behavior, like putting non-food items in their mouth is a way of doing this. It could also show up as a child sucking or chewing on their sleeves and collars biting on a pencil chewing on a toy. Sometimes this can also mean eating a non-food item, like rocks or dirt. So, let me be clear that oral sensory seeking is a normal part of development, babies, often mouth on items, or use sucking to calm themselves and self-soothe and self-regulate.
And from there older children and ages 18 to 24 months will put many things in their mouth. And this is great because it helps them develop their sensory-motor skills and tell their brain more about their surroundings. It could also be because new teeth are coming in. So there are many different, very typical reasons why kids are putting things in mouthing on them while they're young. Now, these mouthing behaviors typically reduce and stop after two years of age. But for some kids, they don't. And this could be if a child has a developmental delay, even if they're physically older than two, their developmental age may still be exploring items as an 18-month-old and developing their sensory-motor skills.
So keep that in mind, that developmental age is also important here. They may also be using this input to self-regulate or self-soothe, especially if they are experiencing sensory overload. I once had a speech therapist colleague of mine explain to me that our mouth is one of the most sensitive places on the body and our jaw muscles also provide a very powerful source of sensory input. So take note the next time that your child is mounding on a non-food item or they are overwhelmed? What is their environment like?
And they very well could be using the sensory input to help self-regulate and give some kind of sensory feedback, or that oral sensory stimulation that could be calming them down, and providing that input that they're looking for. So these first two reasons could be a developmental stage,, it could also be a self-regulatory behavior. So absolutely talk with your different therapists and your healthcare team. And to figure out if this is just a part of the developmental stage that they're in, or if they are looking for that self-soothing behavior.
And then, like I said, again, take note of the environment around them when they start to chew on their shirt or on their toys? Is it self-soothing? Is the environment around them loud? Is it overwhelming? Is it something that makes them anxious? Maybe being around foods is one of those triggering behaviors that cause a lot of kids to start feeling anxious, and so they resort to chewing on their shirts or having some kind of self-regulatory behavior to help calm them down.
So the last reason is a condition called PICA. Some people say Pika, I will say PICA. PICA is an eating disorder and it's defined as a persistent, inappropriate consumption of non-nutritive substances. So, that means just constantly eating or chronically eating these non-food items. And this usually includes the consumption of earth substances like clay or soil. But it can also include ice, raw starch, paper, chalk, and more and pica may be indicative of nutrient deficiencies; namely iron and zinc.
There are two suspected reasons why PICA is linked to both iron and zinc deficiencies. And the first reason is that the ingested non-food items block the gut from absorbing both iron and zinc. And the second is that nutrient deficiencies stimulate the intake of these non-food items. Perhaps it's both, we're blocking the absorption that also causes us to have the nutrient deficiency, which then causes us to crave that non-food item.
So, if you think your child may have PICA ask your pediatrician to test for possible nutrient and mineral deficiencies, especially serum iron and serum zinc. And you can also ask for them to add on an iron lab, called ferritin, which is a marker of your iron stored in your liver and can give us a better representation of their total iron stores in their body.
If you want to explore this further in relation to autism in my membership called the Autism Nutrition Library, we have an entire note all about PICA and the next steps for diet, supplements, and environmental considerations. What you do when you log in, you might have to become a member first. But you log in and you click on library symptoms and you'll find PICA there.
You can also find it by searching PICA in the search bar. So if your child is mouthing or consuming non-food items, definitely speak to your pediatrician or other healthcare providers, like a dietitian, speech therapist, or occupational therapist about the next steps to determine if this is a developmental stage, if they're looking for sensory input or if it is PICA, and from there, you can determine next steps to help get to the root of it and help them feel their best.
So for the next steps on taking the guesswork out of nutrition for autism, you can join the Autism Nutrition Library by going to autismnutritionlibrary.com or you can visit my Instagram page @autismdietitian. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving last week and I look forward to talking with you next week on the next episode of Nourishing Autism. Please click subscribe so you can be notified when new episodes are published, and I'd be so appreciative if you left a five-star rating!
This podcast is brought to you by the Autism Nutrition Library, a one-stop hub and community for all things autism nutrition created to help you explore evidence-based nutrition approaches that have proved to be effective to help individuals with autism feel their best, do their best, and be their best.
Join now by clicking Autism Nutrition Library or by stopping by my Instagram @AutismDietitian. See you next week.
Transcribed by Descript
ABOUT Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, CLT
I’m a Registered Dietitian, Autism Nutrition Expert, and the Creator of the Autism Nutrition Library.
I work with parents of children with autism to optimize their child’s diet, supplements, and lifestyle based on their unique needs. I help expand accepted foods for picky eaters, improve digestion and gut health, find the root causes of many symptoms, and ultimately help them feel their best so that they can do their best and be their best.
Not only do I relate to families on a professional level, but also on a personal level. I have been a part of the autism community for over 20 years, as my younger brother was diagnosed on the spectrum at a young age.
I look forward to working with you to uncover the root cause of your child’s symptoms and help your child be the best version of themselves!
