PICA or something else?

[BFPDec21]

Our 4 year old keeps nibbling on cardboard, paper, tissue, hair, etc. absent mindedly whilst distracted. Other times when she's not distracted, she just takes a bite, tells us and laughs because she knows we ask her not to do it so it seems like an attention thing sometimes.

She's generally a chewer and if she's watching TV or focusing on something, she's got to chew something. If there is nothing nearby then it'll be clothes, her nails or hair. The thing is, she might chew it, realise and spit it out or nibble and swallow a very small amount of whatever she's chewing. It seems more of a need to chew more than anything.

Could this be PICA or something else? For anyone with experience of this, what can be done about it?

Bump

It could be. DD had PICA from anaemia but with her it was crunching ice.

I'd probably check it out.

My DD went through a phase when she was 2/3 of getting into the freezer and crunching ice too. Luckily, we have a different fridge freezer now and there's none on tap which might be where it changed actually! I'd ignored it for a while due to age but as she's getting older it doesn't seem to be getting better.

I'll have a chat with the GP.

Could it be sensory related? My son is asd and has sensory issues. Chews on lots of things.

Maybe get some fiddle toys and chewllery, some kids need to chew!

Go to GP and get a specialist referral. MN isn't the place for a diagnosis.

I wasn't looking for an armchair diagnosis but more if anyone else had this. Just a bit of reassurance or to prepare myself really. Hopefully the GP can get to the bottom of it.