[kyartz]

I'm a bit flabbergasted by DD's delight in chewing on rocks that she can find. She's 13 months with just a few teeth, and seems to delight in gnawing on our fireplace hearth, which is made out of real stone. The other day when we were out on the porch playing she had a good chew on a rock we had out there. ?? Is she missing something in her diet? Is it just a weird phase? I'd appreciate your collective thoughts on the matter, as DH and I are feeling slightly concerned about it.

 

[intensity_too]

It could be a condition called Pica . . . . I might give her doctor a call and ask his opintion. My cousin's little girl suffered from this but she would chew/eat on more than just rocks. She would eat dirt, rocks, paper and cigarette butts.

Here's a link to a explaination of Pica.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotion...vior/pica.html

You can Google "pica" if you need more info.

I (personally) wouldn't be too worried if it was just rocks. Exploring with the mouth is the normal mode of exploration at this age. If it branches out to include other nonfood items, I may begin to worry.

 

[annethcz]

YES!!! But then, she's just a very oral little girl. My DD is about the same age, and EVERYTHING goes in her mouth. Moreso than most children, moreso than my other kids. She bites everything. I catch her chewing on the fireplace bricks on a regular basis. But then, I also catch her chewing on shoes, the coffee table, the countertop, my toes (seriously! almost every day!). So I don't think it's a nutritional deficiency in DD's case. She just has a need to chew ALL the time.

It was pretty funny last summer. We spend a lot of time outside, and we have landscaping rock all around the house. Every time I put DD down, she'd make a beeline towards the rocks (man, that girl could crawl fast). By the time I'd catch up to her, she'd have a rock in her mouth and one in each hand. LOL

At this age, exploring the world around her by putting everything in her mouth is totally normal. I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[hunnybumm]

I wouldn't worry about it either. I am always finding stuff in DSs mouth. I found a rock once, cigarette butt (DH got a nice 'talking too' about that, he doesn't smoke inside but throws his butts in the garbage which DS can reach into), plastic, bugs, etc. One of his favorite gnawing areas is one of the wooden bars on our rocking chair. When he is teething bad he will walk over to it and just bite it as hard as he can. It is the perfect size to fit in his mouth and there are grooves in the wood.

At this age I think it is too young to seriously consider Pica (which is extremely rare and more of a psycologicaly problem in many cases than mineral inbalance from what I have read). At 13 months anything and everything, except most foods (darn picky eatter), goes into the mouth. As the PP said, it is the way they explore this neat new world.

 

[zaftigmama]

My son loved to chew small rocks. My sister has a driveway that's not paved, it's covered with small white rocks. I don't know exactly what they're called. Going over there in the summer was a nightmare, Ari would crawl over to the driveway and put rocks in his mouth.

He doesn't do it as much any more, which I attribute to him (finally!) having all his teeth. So, in our case I'd say it was a normal part of the terrible teething process.

Take care!

 

[Jenny_adoptChina]

My dd does love to put the smaller sand and rocks in her mouth because she plays with them all the time, gathering them into her purse everywhere we're walking. I remember eating rocks as a kid too, with my friends (one of my earliest memories) so I'm assuming lots of toddlers do it. I try to discourage it a little, but am not really that worried unless I see her put a rock big enough to choke on toward her mouth. Then I get it away really fast.