Is there some sort of vitamin or mineral missing from my son’s diet that causes him to want to eat every. single. paper product in sight? Is this some form of Pica I’m unaware of? Should I be supplementing his diet with fiber….tree pulp?? Maybe I missed the tree pulp section on WholesomeBabyFood.com. I get the wanting to put things in his mouth out of curiosity. I get wanting to bite on things to relieve teething pain. I do not get him biting off chunks of board books and corners of junk mail daily in an all out attempt to chew and digest it. I feed the kid – well. Mangoes, squash, edamame, yogurt…it’s not a boring or bland diet. Perhaps that’s what he’s craving, though. Maybe his mouth waters at the thought of taking a big juicy bite out of a tasty Sandra Boynton book. Snugglepuppy is thisclose to becoming unreadable.
A trip to the local mega evil mart today led us down the toy aisle. I saw him glance over at one of the elentybillion types of creepy Elmo, and a big smile spread across his face. I picked it up and pressed his tummy. “Hug Elmo!” it said (at really quite an alarming volume). Kendall reached out for it while making this sort of noise of joy that sounds like he’s coughing up a hairball (but I assure you there is no hairball to come, it’s just his happy noise, oddly enough), his eyes got bigger and bigger. For a second, it was adorable to see him light up that way. I was even thinking to myself, “Damn. He loves the thing. I could get it and call it a Valentine’s gift, I guess. I wonder if there is a volume control.” As his sausage fingers drew near, I anticipated he would try to pet Elmo or squeeze him, or even draw him close and give him a kiss. No. The kid reached straight for the paper tag on Elmo’s hand that said “Squeeze my belly!” and tried to rip it off and shove it in his mouth. “Well,” I thought, “that settles that. I’m not paying $18 for a paper tag attached to a borderline annoying licensed character.” He cried as I put Elmo back on the shelf, but stopped when I gave him the box of Mum Mums to chew on.
Kendall is 9 months, 1 week and 4 days old
T, too! I swear she instantly tries to eat any kind of paper product.
Oh my goodness!! Both of my kids have had a love for eating paper. I have no idea why they just do.
Yes, yes. I did not know my DS had a love for board books until I went to get him out of his car seat after a 5 minute drive and half of the cover was gone. Oops!
We don’t read non-board books to C anymore. She has ripped, licked, and eaten too many paper pages. At least the board books are a little bit harder to destroy.
You are hilarious! I can’t wait to be a funny mommy like you.
Thanks, Talia! And good luck with your blogging experiment. I feel the opposite. Totally comfortable with blogging, but Twitter has me a little confused
I caught my 8 month old baby eating magazine paper and I’m just worried that it might harm him. Can any one tell me if i have anything to worry about?
My son is 2 1/2 & has not yet outgrown the paper eating. Although I sometimes wonder is he just really enjoys my reaction to it more than the taste. He thinks it’s so funny. Sandra Boynton board books were a favorite at our house too.
My concern is that I can’t get through a page of reading to my DD without her trying to chew the corner off. As a result, we do not read together often. I tried giving her a cloth book while I read the paper/board book, but she wants nothing to do with the one in her hand. I am at my wit’s end with this. I see other children sitting through a book with mommy and wonder why mine cannot! Any suggestions/explanations? Thx.
My 10 month old is similar… We used to read all the time but we hardly read anymore due to the fact that as soon as I pull out a book he grabs for it. I try to read, thinking he’d just like to hold the book and turn pages or point at the pictures but no, he wants to hold the book so that he can shove it into his mouth and devour it. If I try to pry his vise-grip hands off, it’s a one way ticket to tantrumsville. We can’t just sit nicely and read together. Ever. If I try to read it while keeping it out of his grasp, he cries because I’m teasing him by holding up his favourite “snack” and not letting him have it. Sigh.
Well I definately feel better knowing we’re not alone but what’s the answer? None of these stories surprised me, I think I’ve experienced them all! In fact, I’ve had to rearrange my pantry because my two year old gets in there and eats the corners off of anything packaged in a cardboard box! I got tired of having to prepare food we had no intention of eating that day just so it wouldn’t go bad! One small step, we recently found out he loves that awful, cardboard tasting, ultra healthy, high fiber cereal, like Kashi!
Has your kid grown out of this? Mine is 9 months old and ever since he could figure out how to get things in his mouth he’s been a paper eater. Yesterday he managed to get hold of a box of tissues and had yanked out 3 and shoved in his little mouth by the time I got to him!
My friends 9 year old daughter eats paper non stop at her dads house, at first I thought it was maybe because of a painful divorce now after reading all these responses I am wondering if there is a chemical in the manufacturing of cardboard and paper that is addictive to the human body??? Because these products are not made for consumption they are not regulated for addictive chemicals? It’s just a thought. I have been studying Holistic and Natural Health and Medicine for 30 years and this would not surprise me in the least. Years ago there was an article about what they put in commercial ice cream in the 60′s and 70′s most of the flavorings came from the manufacturing of adhesives, just smell blue painters tape some time it smells just like a banana I arrest my case. Maybe I should start making healthy edible paper you know find a need and fill it?
Well it sounds like my two year old son isn’t the only one who eats paper. I’ve tryed everything to get him to stop, but nothing works. If he even thinks theres paper around him all he does is scream and cry until he gets it. Everyone keeps telling me that he’ll grow out of it so the only thing I can do for now is wait and see.
I LOVE PAPER! ITS DELICIOUS!
My 2 year old girl, loves any type of paper product, I’ve had to take all of her books away and only let her have them when I am right there, I believe it is the glue that is found in the pages its salty. She prefers paper to food and I am at a loss for what to do, I am very worried that this will continue and go past the “anything in my mouth” stage. Any ideas on how to get her to eat food without locking every little scrap of paper up?