Which disorder is characterized by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive?

And here, all these years, I thought pica was a typing font. Who knew?

It's also prevalent in animals - one of my cats has it and tries to eat plastic. We have to hide anything plastic in our home.

I must be showing my age ! (80 soon) as I knew all about PIca. The word was thrown around a lot just after WW2 when people were short of food.

My sister had Pica. We knew something was wrong with her when she started craving gasoline. She would carry it in a baby food jar everywhere she went so she could constantly smell it. When we would hide it from her, we would find her removing gas caps and sniffing it from cars. We made her see a doctor, and found out she had colon cancer. She also started craving onions, which she absolutely hated before the cancer. After the cancer was removed her cravings went away. The doctor told us, some people get cravings for terra-cotta pots! Very strange thing Pica is.

Marcella Kosse, pronounced like "PIE-cuh" This is "PEE-cuh"

My cousin used to eat clean toilet paper. There was a women at my job who used to eat paper and plaster. She passed away a few years ago.

I'm suddenly reminded of the latest Uber Eats commercials: You can gets anything from Uber Eats, but you can't eats everything you gets from Uber Eats.

I learned something interesting today. Thanks..

I had a cat with pica. He liked to chew on plastic bags.

Shailaja Nair, After the puppy phase...

I think my new pet Rottweiler is suffering from Pica..he drinks gallons of water and eats aost all of the things listed above. Is 5here a cute for this?

William Laughlin, excellent explanation. There's no need for me to add to it.

Wow -- I thought some cats only had Pica. I was incorrect.

Iron deficiency predisposes to pica. The mechanism for this is not known.

A small word with undesirable outcomes.

I had a child in my classroom who would eat her hair and anyone else's. It was Disturbing 😒