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Do you remember, way back when in elementary school, how there was that kid who ate paste? Not a little bit, not like oops, hey, a splat of paste got in his mouth—I mean the kid who took furtive bites every time there was a craft project. Didn’t you always wonder what on earth would possess a person to eat paste? Why paste, of all things? I would sooner eat construction paper, myself, but I can remember even in the sixth grade, two or three kids eating paste.
Now, as an adult, do you kind of look back and think, what was up with the parents, that they never told their kid not to eat paste?
Ahem.
None of my kids has ever even used paste, that I know of; we have white glue, sure, but it’s not really the same thing as that big tub of kindergarten paste.
However.
I have had toddlers, I will tell you, that ate handful after handful of playground sand. Intentionally. As fast as possible. Because the rule was (and is), if I see you eat sand on purpose, it’s time to leave the park.
I have had a toddler—you’ll notice I’m leaving them anonymous here, so no one has to be eternally branded as The One Who Ate The Weird Thing—I have had a toddler who ate chalk. Nibbles of chalkboard chalk, bite after huge chunking bite of sidewalk chalk, whatever. Is there some secret nutrient in chalk? I do not think so.
One of my kids, as a toddler, would eat salt, pinches of salt stolen from the open cup in the spice cabinet. (Yes, this involved climbing. For salt. No, I am not raising llamas or guinea pigs or any other thing that might reasonably be offered a salt lick, these was a plain old normal toddler. Who snuck bites of salt.)
Don’t get me started on stories about eating toothpaste. Or licking windows. And I think they all went through a phase of either trying to suck the ink out of markers, or biting the tips off markers, or eating the beeswax crayons.
And then there was the time one of them ate a button off my mother’s mobile phone, but that was just the one time.
So no, I’ve never had an elementary schooler who ate paste (at least, not yet). But I no longer wonder about the parents of the kids who did.
Now I just wonder how the parents got them to stop.
“No, I’m not raising llamas…” I almost choked on my coffee!
I remember vividly the time when Miss D. (about 2 at the time) licked her way around JFK airport during a layover. I almost orbited, it made me so freaked.
You know the chalk thing, it does have some value, most people who do that or want to do that have Pica. I love the eating handfuls and handfuls of sand, that’s just hilarious. I hope they didn’t chew, that’s just like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Love this article Melissa. I can relate oh so well.
I was so totally that kid who ate the chalk. (I think someone once mentioned iron deficiency or something.) And it wasn’t until HIGH SCHOOL and I can’t believe I am admitting this. And it wasn’t just any chalk. It was the chalk from physics class. Yeah, figure that out. Figure it all out.
I shrug my shoulders now. Obviously didn’t give a shit back then, either.
I understand completely what you mean. My oldest daughter eats diaper rash cream. I cannot leave a tube within her reach or she will eat the whole thing. When kids eat things like this it is called pica. It usually suggests that they are missing something in their diet. (Like how pregnant women crave weird things.) Here is an article on Wikipedia about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_%28disorder%29
I have been following you on Twitter for a while and this is the first time I have been able to check out your blog! What a shame because I love it! You will definitely see my back here again!
(But not in a creepy stalker type way.)
Anyways — twitter username = poisongrl. Just so ya know!!
When I was a kid, I did the exact same thing with the salt. I loved salt. LOVED! I also used to eat milk bones. Yes it’s embarrassing now…but my mom once found me and the family poodle sitting under the kitchen table happily gorging on the entire box of milk bones.
As for my kids, James and Hayden are too picky to eat anything that isn’t one of their four favorite foods, but Silas will eat anything that LOOKS like food. The grossest thing I’ve had to fish out of his mouth so far is play doh. That stuff is NASTY when softened with saliva.
My mother-in-law gave me my husband’s school memories scrapbook that had all his report cards and notes home from the teachers, etc for all thirteen of his school years. In second grade, a note came home from the teacher that said, “I will not be giving [hubby] anymore pencil erasers. He has eaten the last five I gave him.”
I’m not sure he’s forgiven me yet for how hard I laughed when I read that.
Masked Mom: I bet that’s more creative than what most the other kids did with theirs.
Joanie: Mushy play-doh, eeeeew!
Sarah: And you lived to tell the tale. I find this encouraging.
And just to be clear– so nobody worries about my strange non-food-item-eating children– so far they’ve only ever done that as toddlers, and only as a short-lived phase. (And it’s not just one kid who did all the weird-item consuming.) But it still freaks me out.
My high school science teacher ate chalk in front of the class once. He was making some point, but I don’t remember what. Might have been about chalk being mostly calcium.
Me? I licked metal. And those rectangle batteries. Yeah.