What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Discussion, in general

Did you eat non-food items in middle school?

Yes, one or two.
7
58%
Yes, lots.
1
8%
No.
2
17%
Not unless you count [penis/vagina] *snickers*
2
17%
 
Total votes : 12

What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby cmsellers » Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:19 am

In a Discord discussion on Tide pods, I observed that as an autistic child I probably ate a wider variety of non-food items than I ate actual food items.

Tess said that she didn't think it's unusual to eat non-food items, so I've tried to compile a list of all the non-food items I still ate as of middle school.

The following list is probably still incomplete, and a small number of these items (I won't tell you which) I still eat. At least some I'm sure you'll find gross, so I'm spoilering the list.

Things sellers shouldn't eat but totally did
  • Regular erasers
  • Plastic erasers
  • Vinyl erasers
  • Kneaded rubber erasers
  • Rubber bands
  • Silly putty
  • Wall putty
  • Gum (swallowing)
  • White paper
  • Kleenex
  • Cardboard
  • Wood from pencils
  • Candle wax
  • Ear wax
  • Snot
  • Fingernails/toenails
  • Hair
  • Dandruff
  • Scabs
  • Leather
  • Modeling clay
  • Plastic game pieces
  • The plastic bits of my glasses
  • Cherry pits (when eating cherries)

In elementary school I ate nearly all that plus crayons, Play Doh, and the edges of my shirts. Weirdly, despite calling myself the weird kid who sat in the back eating paste (since that's a cliche I've heard), I never actually ate glue.

I guess the question is: is eating non-food items as common as Tess seems to think it is? Did you eat non-food items as a kid and what did you eat? Do any of y'all still eat non-food items?
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby sunglasses » Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:28 pm

The school lunch napkins.

I ate the fuck out of them.

Oh, and straw paper. And lollipop sticks.

PICA is more common in children with developmental disabilities.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby Cpt._Funkotron » Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:34 pm

The "Land Before TIme" movies led me to believe it was fine and normal to eat leaves straight off the tree branch when I was in kindergarten. I was quickly and firmly disabused of that notion when the kinder-minders found out that I as encouraging other kids to do it as well.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby Lindvaettr » Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:57 pm

I remember eating sand at least often enough that I knew what tastes and textures to expect when eating sand. I also remember just taking my little plastic shovel and using it to remove the cat poop from the same sandbox. I've never been sick beyond a mild cold (and food poisoning once) since before I was a teenager, so I think it might have worked out. Parents: Feed your children sand from the cat-poop-filled sandbox.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby jbobsully11 » Tue Jan 16, 2018 7:13 pm

I remember eating onion grass as a kid, and I've been told that I used to eat wet dog food when I was really little until the dog barked at me one day, but I don't think I ate any other non-food items. My sister ate a lot of crayons.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby cmsellers » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:07 pm

sunglasses wrote:PICA is more common in children with developmental disabilities.

It's so common in autism that it doesn't merit an actual diagnosis unless you're going to hurt yourself by it. Given that I ate hair and hair risks forming trichobeozars, you could make the argument that I was risking hurting myself. But given that I really only ate the roots of my head hairs (I did eat my eyebrows, eyelashes, and nose hairs in full), I'm not sure that risk was ever really there.

Cpt._Funkotron wrote:The "Land Before TIme" movies led me to believe it was fine and normal to eat leaves straight off the tree branch when I was in kindergarten. I was quickly and firmly disabused of that notion when the kinder-minders found out that I as encouraging other kids to do it as well.

As a kid I would eat pretty any plant that I knew to be edible that wasn't a "vegetable." Indian cucumber root, shamrocks/wood sorrel leaves, red clover flowers, and eastern hemlock needles were all things I consumed with regularity. I also ate sassafras and black birch bark despite not liking the taste, because they were edible. However Queen Anne's lace roots were wild "carrots" and my father made salad out of dandelion greens, so both of those things stayed off my menu (actually, I tried QAL one time and it tasted awful, more so than sassafras or birch bark). Since I only ate plants I knew to be edible (and not vegetables) I don't count this as eating non-food items, though. I think as a little kid I ate marigold flowers though, which are edible but I didn't know.

jbobsully11 wrote:I remember eating onion grass as a kid, and I've been told that I used to eat wet dog food when I was really little until the dog barked at me one day, but I don't think I ate in any other non-food items. My sister ate a lot of crayons.

I mean, dog food is food, even if cultural norms say humans are not supposed to eat it. I once ate parrot pellets in an attempt to get my Senegal on a pelleted diet. And I think onion grass is edible too. Though Tess pointed out that leather is also technically digestible, and I suspect some of the other things I ate may be as well.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby Aquila89 » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:16 pm

Well, looking at your list... I did chew on my pencils, but not with the purpose of eating the wood, I just liked to chew on things. I chewed up toothpicks into wood pulp, but I didn't eat it. I also chewed on my fingernails, and the skin on my fingers (I still do, unfortunately). And yeah, I ate scabs and snot. But how can you eat earwax? That's stuff is bitter.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby iMURDAu » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:19 pm

I've eaten a piece or two of notebook paper.

I have a friend who had a cat with PICA. He had the cleanest apartment. My friend, not the cat. But the cat lived there. Never mind.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby cmsellers » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:25 pm

Aquila89 wrote:But how can you eat earwax? That's stuff is bitter.

Tess asked the same question.

I've never eaten the pure, undiluted earwax direct from my ear canal. What I've eaten is the earwax from the outer ear, and by the time it gets there it's mixed with dandruff and lost all of its bitterness.

You see, I am a true connoisseur of dermal delicacies.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby iMURDAu » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:33 pm

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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby Absentia » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:35 pm

I ate notebook paper. Once because I was curious, and subsequently because other kids saw me do it and asked me to do it again. I actually kind of like the taste; it's the texture that's a problem.
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Re: What non-food items did you eat as a kid

Postby cmsellers » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:38 pm

iMURDAu wrote:
Spoiler: show
Image

But when have I ever denied that?
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