Definition and Description Pica is the ingestion of nonnutritive items for an amount of time longer than a month, which is out of place for the person 's developmental age, not culturally practiced to consume that item, and involves clinical attention (Hagopian, Rooker, and Rolider, 2011). Because of the definition, pica is known as a feeding problem, nutritional deficiency, and/or an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (Bryant-Waugh, Markham, Kreipe, and Walsh, 2010). Pica is a self-injurious behavior that can cause high-risk medical issues, including parasites, led poisoning, intestinal blockage, and surgery from a blockage (Ferreri, 2006). Sturmey & Didden (2014) define the term "self-injurious behavior" as intentional harm to one 's body that is severe enough to damage tissue without the help from another person. There are less dangerous health risks that can be associated with pica that include nutritional deficiencies, oral and/or dental problems, irritable bowels, enlarged colon and constipation (Call, Simmions, Mevers, and Alvarez, 2015). This eating behavior continues to occur because of automatic reinforcement (Sturmey & Didden, 2014). Cosgrave (2016) defines automatic reinforcement as the reinforcement that occurs from the direct person completing the action without the involvement of another …show more content…
(2015), diagnoses of Pica can "occur across gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, and geographic region." The difficulty with finding the prevalence of pica occurs because, in most cases, pica is explained when there has been a serious medical consequence (Delaney, Eddy, Hartmann, Becker, Murray, and Thomas, 2015). Approximately 25-45% of typically developing children and up to 80% of children who have a developmental delay report to have a feeding problem (Bryant-Waugh et al. 2010). Kahn and Tisman (2010) found that people with pica are often secretive with their habits due to the shaming brought on society for the
Drinking alcohol at hazardous level may cause depression among youth people. Alcohol significantly worsen the symptoms of depression
The exact cause of pica is not known, but there are a number of theories that might explain this kind of obsession and behaviour. Nutritional deficiencies like iron or zinc may trigger specific cravings, although the craved items generally do not make up for the lacking minerals. People who diet sometimes tries to calm their hunger by eating non-food items, which do not contain any carbohydrates, fiber, fat, or other important parts for a healthy diet, but still acquire a feeling of fullness. Children who live in poverty and are deprived from food will sometimes be so desperate for nutrition that they will start eating anything they find, like dirt and clay, which are most commonly found in poor areas. When in the process of pregnancy, some women may start craving foods, and every so often, nonfoods, but this is ...
Pica is, for the most part, defined as the desire to consume non-nutritive substances. However, it can also cover an abnormal appetite for food ingredients and sometimes even the mouthing of substances of a non-nutritional nature as well. Though in order for this behavior to be considered pica, it must occur for an amount of time equal to or greater than one month at an age where it would be considered developmentally inappropriate, which would be greater than 18-24 months old. Unfortunately there are no known causes of pica so it’s virtually impossible to get a full grasp on the disorder but there have been some hypotheses as to why it occurs.
Smolak, Linda, Michael P. Levine, and Ruth Striegel-Moore. "Media as Context." The Developmental Psychopathology of Eating Disorders: Implications for Research, Prevention, and Treatment. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1996. 235-53. Print.
The three most commonly known eating disorders of today are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Anorexia nervosa is a disease connected with abnormal eating; it is not brought on by excitement, delusions, overactivity or a bad habit, it is a mental illness. Development of anorexia usually starts in the early teenage years, however it can go undiagnosed for thirty to even forty plus years. Another eating disorder is bulimia, people who are bulimic have no time to think about daily life; all that is on there mind is their next meal. Someone who has bulimia often l...
In some cases, it will result in developing an eating disorder.
"Prevalence vs. Funding". Get The Facts On Eating Disorders. NEDA. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
There are many more reasons to developing an eating disorder other than the media. After looking at the affects of media and how researchers explore the concept of development: we will now focus on the other key opponents to the development. Ultimately, if a person’s life situation, environment, and/or genetics leave them open to an Eating ...
Food rituals to eat less, such as eating in secret, Eating foods in a certain order, excessive chewing, playing with food, and eating unnaturally small amounts of food
Such emotions that can cause harm to an individual is depression and sadness. When an individual overconsumes food, the individual may express such emotions that causes harm to their health. Becoming addicted to food can harm the life of an individual as the emotions that are express from overconsuming food can easily affect their daily life. Such experience is normally shown in the life of a teen who loves food but chooses to ignore the consequences that comes along with the
Eating disorders are a serious health problem. Personal Counseling & Resources says that eating disorders "are characterized by a focus on body shape, weight, fat, food, and perfectionism and by feelings of powerlessness and low self-esteem." Three of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating or compulsive eating disorder. According to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, a person with anorexia "refuses to maintain normal body weight for age and height" and "weighs 85 percent or less than what is what is expected for age and height." A person diagnosed with bulimia has several ways of getting rid of the calories such as binge eating, vomiting, laxative misuse, exercising, or fasting. The person might have a normal weight for their age and height unless anorexia is present. The signs of a compulsive eater include eating meals frequently, rapidly, and secretly. This person might also snack and nibble all day long. The compulsive eater tends to have a history of diet failures and may be depressed or obese (Anred.com).
Reinforcement is a motivation which depends upon a performance and increases the chance of a performance being frequent. Positive reinforcement can increase the chance of not only necessary behavior but also unwanted behavior. For example, if a student complaints in order to get attention and is successful in getting it, the attention helps as positive reinforcement which increases the possibility that the student will remain to complain. Positive reinforcement is one of the important ideas in behavior inquiry and it is something like rewards, or things usually work to get (Fahimafridi, 2016).
A pica may be eaten in many different forms. Callahan (2013: 164) suggests the idea of eating dirt for children and even for people later in life as most foods have traces of dirt in it. He explains the trend of toddlers consuming dirt and in western cultures it being looked down on. People who consume large amounts of non-food items are often referred to as diseased or abnormal. To be labelled as diseased for eating dirt it is defined that you must consume more than 50 grams of dirt per day. The idea of non-food items being consumed as abnormal behaviour is expressed further by Sharma (2011: 2375) who explains the case of an elderly dementia patient eating her own feces and she was admitted to a hospital because it is an abnormal and possibly sickening action. This is a type of pica because the non-food item has no nutrition value and is considered very abnormal to eat. In most societies around the world eating feces is abnormal due to the health concerns behind it. Piazza (2002: 235) explains a variety of picas that mentally handicapped girls are consuming such as: car keys, rocks, sticks, rubber gloves, batteries, plastic, fabric, soap, fece...
Exposure to disordered feeding styles manifest physical and emotional effects. BN and BED mothers had children with higher weight-for-age. Although a general finding was that the children of mothers with eating disorder weighed less than controls and this was related to the amount of mealtime conflict.13 Subjects with BN had a birth weight below the 10th percentile significantly more often than controls, 30% vs 17%, respectively, as well as a birth length below the 10th percentile significantly more often than controls 17% vs 9%, respectively, and subjects with AN 17% vs 6%,
Diet has stated that “Individual, social, cultural, religious, economic, … all influence people’s eating habits.”(1). Studies show that social, religious, economic factors have a large impact on a person’s nutritional status. Studies also have shown that social factors has led to disorders that affect a person’s nutritional status, as well as economic, religious factors, and lack of exercise. The nutritional status of a person refers to the status of a person’s health in terms of the nutrients in his or her body. Anorexia, which is a disorder in which a person lacks or loses their appetite, is considered a mental condition. Binging is the actual action taken by a person to force themselves to throw up what they eat in order to not gain weight. These conditions affect a person’s nutritional state greatly. A person’s nutritional state can be affected through religious practices, social customs, economic factors, and lack of exercise.