Hello dear moms

How is life treating you these days? I know it’s been a while since I have enquired after you. What can I say, life happened. But I hope everything is under control and well managed by you. I know you have been doing your best!

So, what happened is that a few days ago mother of one of my very adorable and regular patients, let us call her Baby M who is 1.5 years old, has developed a very harmful habit (in the words of the mother) of eating mud/ soil from the various planters that adorn their house. Now this has led to the fellow mom being worried for Baby M’s overall health & specially the bad effects it can have, in fact being a very detail-oriented mother she was even curious why the younger one of her babies eat the mud while her elder one (who is also my regular patient by the way) has never had.

Now do not confuse it with Pica (I have already mentioned Pica in one of my previous articles if you remember in context with worm infestation). While Pica term includes eating of any non-nutritive non-food substance such as clay, paper, ash, charcoal, chalk etc. that also includes mud/dirt/soil technically this situation with Baby M cannot be termed as Pica, you will understand why by the time you finish reading this article.

Did you know that eating soil/ mud has been given a specific term called Geophagia. This can even occur during pregnancy in some women. 

But what is it that leads to children eating non edibles?

So let us deep dive into this habit of dirt eating that a few children adapt and why.

The very important criteria being, that for it to be called pica the age of the person should be atleast 2 years and the behaviour must be going on for atleast a month.

1.   It is quite usual in children younger than 2 years of age to be found eating mud (and chewing or sucking on other inedible objects) as it is their way of exploring objects by mouthing or swallowing.

Around 10 -30% children in India have been found to be eating mud, dirt eating (in fact Pica) is also common in children diagnosed with epilepsy, autism or with other developmental disorders but in all the above the habit will continue beyond the age of 2 years.

2.   Deficiencies of iron and zinc may play a role in why some people eat dirt specially children. Scientific studies have been done to establish this connection of deficiency with mud/dirt eating (Geophagia).

One such research was done in 2023 about the study of children from Sri Lanka suggested that pica could indicate a zinc deficiency because the average zinc levels in the children with pica were significantly lower than the average zinc levels in the group without pica.

3.   Factors such as stress, child neglect, and maternal deprivations may play a role in the development of pica among children. There have been studies done to corroborate this connection.

Yes, you read it, stress can happen in a toddler. Stress could be due to any factor like separation anxiety when both parents work for prolonged period of time, changes in familial surroundings, overwhelming schedules, illness, etc. which only a mother with her observation and maternal instincts can figure out with the help of a paediatrician.

Now child neglect is often seen in ailing mothers or working mother where the child is left with outside help for the majority of the day and being still too young to speak or express through words this child may undergo stress and start to exhibit geophagia.

Maternal deprivation is one less common cause wherein the mother is too unwell to tend to her child, prolonged working hours of mother since the kid was an infant, etc.

Your child may have been eating mud or soil more than you have seen and he or she may start to show symptoms like, abdominal pain, constipation, loss of appetite, vomiting or diarrhoea, and other symptoms may include mouth injuries as well. When you observe any of these signs & symptoms it is time to give your friendly paediatrician a visit.

Now you all must be wondering what happened with Baby M, well let me tell you what I told the mother and that is, Baby M is absolutely fine she should indeed be discouraged from eating mud, should be distracted when she does that, must be taught about edible and non-edible items and must be regularly dewormed till she let go of her exploratory oral phase. Everything else is normal for any child her age i.e. below the age of 2 years. And that she will grow out of it.

Hope that was helpful in understanding your child better.

Adios dear Moms, till next time!