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Mum-of-five revealed she started to eat toilet paper following a strange pregnancy craving.

Jade Sylvester shared that she developed the urge to eat toilet paper during her first pregnancy and then could not stop.

She first developed the habit while she was expecting her youngest son Jaxon, but 15 months after giving birth she still couldn’t stop eating the paper.

“Two months into the pregnancy, I started craving toilet roll. I still don’t know why,” said Jade from the UK.

“I like the feeling of the texture in my mouth, rather than the taste. I like the dryness, she said in 2014.

“My family tell me it isn’t very good for me – but I can’t help it!”

“While I was pregnant I went to the loo and looked at the toilet roll and thought ‘I have to eat that’ – I know it sounds silly,” she said.

“I usually eat around eight pieces per visit – sometimes I go to the bathroom just to get some toilet roll,” she said at the time.

“It does fill me up quite a bit.”

“Different brands taste different. I have one roll in the bathroom for eating and one to be used normally,” she said.

The mum is actually suffering from a condition known as Pica.

What is Pica?

Pica is the term used to describe having an intense craving for – and eating – nonfood items, such as soil, clay, laundry starch, ice, ashes, plaster, paint chips, and coffee grounds.

Pica, which comes from the Latin word for magpie (a bird known for eating almost anything), is a worldwide phenomenon that seems to be more common during pregnancy.

No one knows what causes these unusual cravings, but a combination of biochemical, psychological, and cultural factors may be at work. In some studies, pica has been linked to iron deficiency.

Did you suffer with any weird pregnancy cravings like this mum?

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  • I think this is something that really would need to be discussed with a Doctor

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  • Wonder if this is great for weight loss, filling up on toilet paper instead of food. Yikes.

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  • If this is caused by an iron deficiency I think I’d be taking iron supplements very fast.

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  • Mine was quite simple. I only craved fish and chips with heaps of tomato sauce.

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  • I hope she wet the toilet paper with clean water or other healthy liquid so it didn’t completely block her intestines. People ( including pregnant ladies ) who crave dirty may have a mineral deficiency that contributes to it Food cravings I can understand. One Mum I know craved Turkish Delight……We need milk for calcium but many don’t realise is that some other dairy products contain phosphorous which deplete your iron levels. I found out the hard way, collapsed and had to have blood transfusionS, not just one.

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  • Yeah ok. I only wanted to eat watermelon!

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  • Glad my craving were just pizza crust lol

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  • I didn’t crave anything weird but was turned off the sight of some foods, not the taste, just the sight!

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  • Nothing this in it sounds awful

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  • I haven’t heard of that one before.

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  • Oh that’s interesting, not me…

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  • Wow, I have never heard of this and would have been so concerned. I just craved, at differing times during my pregnancy, potato chips, then paddle pops, nectarines… nothing too unusual.

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  • That is so weird!
    I craved maccas cheeseburgers my first pregnancy.

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  • Whole rotisserie chickens. Entire chickens. One every single lunchtime.


    • I did enjoy eating BBQ chicken too – a meat I could tolerate during pregnancy too.

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  • I didn’t have any strange cravings during pregnancy but I did have cravings in breastfeeding: four months for milk and then four months for mushrooms.

    Reply

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