My 1yr old is obsessed with eating Dirt, and every non edible food item!

[mylittlecherubs]

My 1yr old is obsessed with eating non edible items. Cat biscuits are his favourite, followed closely my paper and toilet roll tubes. Its got so bad that I've banned him from playing in the garden, which is sad because he needs his fresh air and play time, but I'm just constantly pulling things out of his mouth....CONSTANLY. The things he has eaten are, snails!!! Which have frothed up green slime pouring out his mouth...GROSS, I've pulled a crushed up ladybird out his mouth. He loves chewing on stones, dirt, flowers, grass, bugs. Indoors he will eat anything he can find on the floor, crumbs, fluff, cat hair etc. Its very very frustrating. Even more frustrating as believe it or not....He is a fussy eater!!!! Yes that's right meal times are hard work with him. He won't eat any thing put infront of him, spits out good tasty meals, throws it on the floor. An example, I gave him cheese sandwich for lunch, throw it all on the floor, then I caught him in the kitchen bin, eating some stale bread I threw away!!!! He will only eat a few select foods. Anything else he spits out or throws on the floor. I've got 2 other girls and they were never like this. I actually find it quite horrible sometimes. Help how do I stop him doing this!!!!

There is a childhood eating disorder called PICA kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/pica.html so if this has been going on for a while might be best to discuss with your GP.

But could of course just be toddler behaviour. Might he be doing it because it leads to him getting a lot of attention? Try acting very bored when he does it and just stopping him, cleaning him up with blank expression Then give lots of praise and over-do enthusiasm for other things he does which are good no matter how small or daft they are (eg holding your hand nicely when out, sitting nicely in buggy).

Mine is the same I have lost count the amount of dasies dd has eaten. She spits most out then tries another. We also had a garden ban last week as dd was eating handfulls of sand and drinking water from the sand and water table. Dd tried eating a box earlier. Dd1 was never this bad and I think by dd2's age (14 months) she wasn't putting as many things in her mouth. Dd is actually a fab eater, she would certainly never grow hungry iygwim.

I think it is just a phase that we just jave to wait out. :(

If it's not just normal 'toddler tasting everything' (I had to constantly remind my daughter at that age not to eat the cat...) then eating dirt can be a symptom of anemia in children. It's an easy(ish) thing to check.

Does he have low iron? As this could be the cause as well.

Are you me miaow? I'm not potty training but I seem to be either stopping dd2 from climbing anyhing that can be climbed or stopping her from eating 'stuff'. Playgroup this afternoon was interesting.

Ahhh thanks guys for the lovely comments, some of them made me laugh! Sorry bout that, don't mean it in a bad way, just Glad I'm not the only one with a kid that has grit and dirt smudge all round their mouth...lol. I don't think their is anything wrong with him, maybe if in a yrs time he is still doing it I might need to investigate. Its just it drives me crazy!! The live snail has to be the worst, it was actually foaming green slime!!! Not good. It also means I'm just having to be super vigilant watching over him, as he just sucks on stones and pebbles like their sweets! Not good to choke on. That would scare me. I'm gonna be abit tougher at meal times, as that's very frustrating when he refuses food! That's the worst thing for me aswell I think. How can he refuse good nutritiuos food then munch on Cat biscuits! Kids!!