Help! Which foods resemble cardboard!?

[whatifs1]

I promise there’s a reasonable reason to ask this question..

DD (3 next week) has suspected autism/delay whatever else. She is currently not speaking and has no understanding to go along with this.

she also has pica, one of her favourites is she likes to eat cardboard. We’ve obviously tried to remove all cardboard like things but sometimes you forget and she’s bloody quick!

the HV has said about trying to find a food that resembles the feel and look of cardboard. 🤢 she also likes paper, for that one I’m going to get some edible rice paper!

No judgement! You have to have been there to understand about making your child not be able to withhold at all.

I never found lactulose helpful for my post-natal phase nor for my dcs’ long-term constipation/witholding, but of course we’re not all the same. I found movicol much more effective. Things that helped my dc: making it up with strong cordial or squash, keeping it in the fridge, drinking it through a straw. Because it has a slightly salty taste, one of my dc preferred to take the unflavoured one in water, with a bite of pesto sandwich in between glugs of movicol.

Have you tried sensory chew toys? Perhaps one of the thinner, smoother designs might help, or a fabric one. At least with the chewing and biting, if not the breaking off and swallowing.

Thank you! Yes we started off on the lactulose to mo avail, the GP has now said try that and the movicol. I have just got her some straw cups, she takes a sip as normal and then pulls a funny face then won’t touch it again. 🙄 we’ve tried chilling it which was marginally better for her but still no where near the dose she needs. It doesn’t help I can’t explain to her what it is and why it’ll help.

we have a little sensory chew stick man but she doesn’t always take to it, I need to get some more to see if there’s a particular one she’d like.

She will have a tiny bit of yoghurt but only out of the tube style ones, I was going to attempt to transfer it out of the tubes style one to the pouch one. I got some reusable ones from Amazon for the job.

I was going to say lots of gluten free foods taste like cardboard… but actually she may have coeliac disease, it can cause pica due to underlying anaemia and also diarrhoea and constipation, worth having a blood test. It’s autoimmune so you may see other family members with autoimmune diseases such as hypothyroidism or type 1 diabetes.

Pitta bread

Matzo?
Rice cakes are like polystyrene so you could get her into that then but her some rice cakes?

I used to love chewing polystyrene cups as a kid and my mum got rice cakes and it felt very similar!

Came to say ryvita and bran flakes too!

Dry Shreddies. Bran flakes.

The veggie fake duck was like cardboard.

Thank you for all the suggestions, she has actually had a blood test for iron and it did come back low. Of course we can’t get the lovely iron liquid down her! She tolerates some iron gummies, it’s not equivalent exactly to the liquid but I figure anything is better than nothing!

The type of pancakes you get with duck pancakes go a bit harder like card after a while. Might be a food option as much thinner and less crispy than something like ryvita.

My DD eats cardboard. Like you, our first response was to stop her. She is a teenager now. We have over the years moved to being more pragmatic - the rules are that she can't eat cardboard or paper that is being used for anything or is not clean! While I understand all the suggestions, it is definitely a texture thing for her, not a taste thing. Rice paper, though she likes it, is nothing like proper paper. Cardboard is not crunchy, doesn't have a strong taste, is actually really fibrous.

I know that other parents are horrified by our approach, but the medics don't really care! We pick our battles - definitely no plastic, no metal.

Probably more helpful would be a referral to an OT as I am sure there are other sensory issues as well!

If she will drink apple juice, check out spatone. It's water naturally high in iron. Ludicrously expensive of co.

Movicol is truly disgusting. We were told.to dissolve in water, but once dissolved, can add to anything.

High carb gf bread with nothing on it.

If your dd likes mango, it’s a natural laxative. Fenugreek is also a mucilaginate. I used to take it by the tsp just with water (for breastfeeding support) but in Australia, it’s also available as a capsule. https://lamclinic.com/blog/is-mucilaginous-fiber-all-it-is-cracked-up-to-be/

Linda Mc Cartney's veggie sausages.
Oatibix

Can you still get Crackerbreads? Came in a box, not especially crispy!

Oh yes - I had some old tortillas, just the plain white wraps. If you put them on a plate in the fridge without a wrapper they go really cardboard-like!

That’s a really good idea, because you can use wholewheat wraps, which would add fibre to her diet.

Fig rolls

Wholewheat pitta bread - warm up so they puff in the middle and you can slice it apart easily. Let the 2 halves cool until chewy.
Good luck x

Came here to say these!

They were my favourite!!

Gluten free pizza bases.

M&s 1 ingredient cornflakes, special.flakes and bran flakes are apparently very cardboard like. Imagine if you let them go soft they will be even more. Cornflakes are gf too. Waitrose ones are cheaper.

As well as rice paper you can get edible wafer card, for example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-Wafer-Paper-plain-sheets/dp/B01CLRW82M/

I've no idea how closely it resembles cardboard though!

I was going to say this. They have very little flavour and go chewy if you let them go stale.

Also rice paper, specifically the type where it's like a stack of money? If you gently wet the edges of the pile all the way around and then let it dry, it sort of seals the stack together and gives that layered corrugated cardboard effect when biting into it.