Pregnancy food cravings more common than before
Categories: Pregnancy & birth, In the news, Weird but true
What are all you pregnant women eating out there? A recent survey by gurgle.com found that one third of respondents reported craving non-food items such as coal, soap, toothpaste, and sponges. Tell me, what happened to pickles and ice cream?Eating non-food items during pregnancy (or anytime, really) is known as pica. It's of course, generally recommended that you stay away from non-food items that could be toxic (coal? really?) and try safer items, like ice, instead.
Beyond soap and sponges, women in general were far more likely to report having food cravings during pregnancy than in generations past. Up to 75% of women reported a strong desire for one food or another, while 50 years ago, that number sat at about 30%. Experts don't have an explanation for this trend, except possibly that food is just easier to come by now than it was then.
What about you -- did you have strong cravings during pregnancy? What's the weirdest thing you craved?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eva 5-02-2008 @ 9:29AM
I had pica at the very end. I desperately wanted to eat soap. Ivory soap in particular. It went away totally after the baby came. Very weird. Some link pica to nutritional deficits, and I had preeclampsia, too, which some also think has to do with nutritional deficits, so I don't know what to make of that.
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SuwaneeGirl 5-02-2008 @ 9:48AM
Ummm.... nothing? I haven't had any strange cravings. I still have 69 days to go, so maybe something will pop up between now and d-day.
I did go through a phase where I drank grapefruit juice every day for about a month, and where pasta was the only thing that tasted good for dinner. But I would have done that even if I weren't pregnant.
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Tricia 5-02-2008 @ 12:05PM
I didn't have anything strange, no pica either. I craved burgers, pork chops and milk. I think I ate more meat when I was pregnant than I ever have. I also don't like milk all that much, so it was strange that I craved and drank tons of that.
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Crystal 5-02-2008 @ 1:53PM
The weirdest thing that I craved while pregnant was a plain taco from Taco Bell (no other taco would cut it) and a brownie. If I couldn't get the brownie, I wouldn't have the taco. It was the weirdest combination, at least I thought. I also drank TONS of milk. I'm a big milk person already but when I was pregnant, I could easily go through a whole gallon or more by myself in one day.
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Kellie 5-02-2008 @ 3:59PM
I had it toward the end with my son and it started in the middle with my daughter. Comet, Soft Scrub, dish soap, detergent, Armoral. Basically cleaning supplies. I wanted to eat them so badly. I cannot explain it at all. I had to remove myself from situations when I had to clean because it was such a struggle not to ingest this stuff. As soon as both kids were born, the cravings went away. Completely. The other day I was cleaning the car out and smelled the Armoral. It was so gross. It's amazing what pregnancy does to us.
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Kelly 5-06-2008 @ 9:05AM
i craved grapefruit juice too. vitamin c deficiency?
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