What is the condition that make pregnant women crave dirt? Symptoms?
Answers:
Its called Pica. And the symptoms are lately cravings for things that are iron rich...clay, potting soil, etc. I think it have something to do with iron defect.
Vitamin deficiency. But don't guzzle it, you will get pin worms
Pickles and ice cream. Cheese Whiz on steak. Brownie mix -- straight from the bowl. While these may not exactly give the impression of being like gastronome fare, if you're pregnant they can seem approaching heaven on a plate.
The basis: Pregnancy cravings - those seemingly unquenchable longings for oftentimes eclectic combinations of foods that you might never otherwise even dream of eating!
But what's losing these mysterious food fantasies, and can they ever be harmful? Doctors speak the answers depend a lot on what you are craving.
"No one really know why pregnancy cravings occur, though nearby are theories that it represents some nutrient that the mother may be lacking -- and the crave is the body's course of asking for what it needs," say Andrei Rebarber, MD, associate director of the division of maternal-fetal medicine at NYU Medical Center within New York.
When that overwhelming desire for pickles or processed cheese hits, Rebarber says it could be the body asking for more sodium. That tender for a Big Mac and a plate of fries may be your need for more protein, sodium, or potassium. The burning in your belly for a double helping of chocolate double latte rime cream may be signaling a need for more calcium or curvy.
"It's not that the body actually wishes the specific food you are craving, but it may need something in that food. And your partiality buds just interpret it as a craving for something specific," say Rebarber.
What's more, many experts enunciate our taste buds do in reality play a role in how we interpret our body's wishes. Studies show that the high hormone level present during pregnancy can alter both a woman's sense of taste and smell. So undisputed foods and odors can not only be more enticing but in some cases more unpleasant; a problem that often plays out as a pregnancy food aversion.
"Food aversions are most commonly associated with impulsive pregnancy -- when they are likely to touch past its sell-by date a bout of morning sickness -- with nausea and vomiting," say Rebarber.
While some pregnancy cravings can certainly seem to be a bit odd, within most instances, they don't represent any real threat to mother or the little one. This, however, can change dramatically, when the craving is for a nonfood item. The condition, particular as pica, can lead to an overwhelming desire to consume any number of substances, some of which can be extremely destructive to both mother and baby.
"During pregnancy a woman can crave -- and put away -- things like dirt, laundry starch, crayons, ground up clay pots, rime scraped from the freezer. As bizarre as it seems, the desire can be overwhelming," say Peter S. Bernstein, MD, MPH, medical director of obstetrics and gynecology at the Comprehensive Family Care Center of Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y.
While pica -- eating non-nutritive substances -- is not resourcefully understood, Bernstein say sometimes these cravings represent a nutritional deficiency, conspicuously a need for iron, though he say there are no studies to prove this is other the case.
In some instances, Bernstein tell WebMD that the cravings can also have a cultural or ethnic component, one which truly fosters eating these precarious nonfood items.
"The craving is there, and after fulfilling it is encouraged in certain cultural communities," say Bernstein.
Among the most dangerous aspects of pica is the consumption of front -- particularly when women chomp through dirt or clay. This can lead to infant and child developmental problems beside low verbal IQ score, impaired audible range and motor skill development. Other research have shown an increased risk of learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders surrounded by infant exposure to lead in the past birth.
"I've had women and their babies develop organize poisoning from eating dirt during pregnancy; the neurological deface can be overwhelming," says Bernstein.
If you do find yourself craving any nonfood item, experts read aloud see your doctor immediately and be tested for iron fewer anemia or other nutritional deficiencies such as zinc, which have also been associated to pica.
For most women, pregnancy food cravings fall into freshly a few categories: sweet, spicy, briny, or occasionally sour. Surveys show only a scant 10% of pregnant women crave fruits and veggies during pregnancy, near a desire to gobble down foods such as peaches, blueberries, or broccoli not high on the "must have" mount.
And in reality, that's one reason doctors sometimes elevate a red flag about pregnancy cravings.
"My biggest concern is when food cravings replace honest nutrition -- in other words, a woman will pack up on the foods she craves and skip the nutritious foods her body and her baby really stipulation," says Rebarber.
Not solely can this cause serious deficiency in both babe-in-arms and mom, since oftentimes the foods we crave during pregnancy can be laden near empty calories, it can also organize to gaining too much counterweight; a problem that doctors say is on the rise.
How much blood is certainly lost when women have their extent?
It's called Pica and Pica strikes adjectives races and socioeconomic groups, however, within are cultural tendencies towards this disorder. While it is also associated near nutritional deficiencies, pica can turn out when there are no deficiency.The most frequent deficiency noted is anemia. This does not have it in mind that everyone who has anemia will crave non-food substances, nor does it mingy that everyone who craves non-food substances has anemia.
