Pica (disorder)
Pica is an abnormal appetite for earth and other non-foods. The condition's name comes from the Latin word for the bird English-speakers call a magpie which is reputed to eat almost anything. Pica is common in small children, certain animals, and occasionally in pregnant women. In extreme forms it is regarded as a medical disorder.
Examples of pica are:
- geophagy (consumption of soil)
- mucophagy (consumption of mucus)
- trichophagia (consumption of hair or wool)
- coprophagia (consumption of excrement)
- amylophagia (consumption of starch)
- pagophagia (consumption of ice)
- xylophagia (consumption of wood toothpicks)
- coniophagia (consumption of dust from Venetian blinds)
- gooberphagia (pathological consumption of peanuts)
- acuphagia (ingestion of sharp objects)
- lithophagia (ingestion of stones)
- lead poisoning from the lead in the paint. In additon to posioning, there is also a much elevated risk of gastro-intestinal obstruction or perforation. This is also true of animals.
