6/20/11

I've got a new craving! In the first trimester I wanted Italian sausage. This trimester I want fruit! Mostly strawberries. I've always liked strawberries, but I've gone overboard with my strawberry purchases at the grocery store lately. I got strawberry yogurt, strawberry applesauce, 2 pounds of fresh strawberries, strawberry breakfast bars and cranberry strawberry juice. Besides strawberries I've also been eating pears and cherries both of which I have always liked more than strawberries.

At least it's a healthy craving. Some women crave things that aren't even food. Someone told me about someone they knew who craved the smell of gasoline when they were pregnant...YUCK! 

What's worse than craving smells is a disorder called Pica. Pica can happen to anyone, but it can appear in a small portion of women just during pregnancy as a craving. Pica is a disorder that causes the sufferer to crave things that have no nutritional value and often aren't even food, like dirt or chalk.

From an article published by the American Pregnancy Association (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/unusualcravingspica.html):

"There is currently no identified cause; however, according to the Journal of American Dietetic Association there may be a connection to an iron deficiency.

Some speculate that pica cravings are the body's attempt to obtain vitamins or minerals that are missing through normal food consumption. Sometimes pica cravings may be related to an underlying physical or mental illness."

Some of the typical Pica cravings during pregnancy are dirt, clay, laundry startch, charcoal, cigarette ashes, burnt matches, mothballs, toothpaste, plaster, coffee grounds and baking soda. Eating these types of things could be harmful to the mother and baby. Of course they hold no nutritional value, but they could also be toxic.

Do you know anyone that had an unhealthy craving during pregnancy? (maybe not to the extreme of Pica, but more along the lines of the smell of gasoline.)

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