What is a pica?

There are many potential complications of pica, such as: Certain items, such as paint chips, may contain lead or other toxic substances and eating them can lead to poisoning, increasing the child's risk of complications including learning disabilities and brain damage. read more

People with the disorder pica compulsively eat items that have no nutritional value. An affected person might eat relatively harmless items, such as ice. Or they might eat potentially dangerous items, likes flakes of dried paint or pieces of metal. read more

Pica is a psychological disorder characterized by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive, such as ice ; hair (trichophagia); paper (xylophagia); drywall or paint; metal (metallophagia); stones (lithophagia) or soil ; glass (hyalophagia); or feces (coprophagia); and chalk. read more