Do you suffer from pica, or care for someone who does?

[StillMedusa]

I'm trying to understand it.. and decrease it.
My DS2 has autism, he is verbal but also has some learning difficulties (he is a little bit RainMan like though the stereotype irks me) He is an adult.

He has always eaten inedible things... wood, paper, plastic. He has chipped his front teeth badly doing this. This week we discovered he has now added metal to his diet.. ring pulls off drink cans . HOW he can eat (yes he swallws them) is beyond me, but despite in theory understanding that this is dangerous.. I know he will continue.
He also has inflammatory bowel disease and is on a ton of meds. I know that's an autoimmune disease but I can't help but think that the pica isn't helping, and metal has to be the worst.

I wish I could understand WHY he does it, and if anyone has any tips to help him reduce the habit?!!

You have very possibly already got this sorted, but I would think he should have blood tests for deficiencies. IBD can cause deficiencies as he might not be absorbing too well, and some medications for digestive conditions can too. I believe deficiencies can make pica worse, basically the body is looking for the nutrients it doesn't have.

Sorry if this is all known to you already.

Was going to say the same as @Strathyre . Iron deficiency, for example, can make people crave things like brickwork. Well worth checking for anything like this.

Thank you for replying... yes he literally had his bloods done 10 days ago (as he's moving up the meds ladder sadly) and barring low Vit D...everything else was fine, not even anaemic, despite his IBD flareup! A few years ago they did even more extensive tests and the only found was excess (!) zinc which even the doctors had no idea about (not sure which of the inedibles might even contain zinc!)
I think it's more likely sensory than anything, but when he was a child we tried to persuade him to have sensory chews instead but no, pencils and his headboard were his go to ..he also eats sponges, my shower squeegee, his t shirts, hoody cords don't last 5 minutes. Yet he can have a decent conversation about many topics that interest him.

I just worry about the damage he's doing to himself :(