pica

[jay]

Sigh... our son David (age 9) was picking up objects that had been swept out from under the living-room futon. We have an ongoing issue with him putting foreign objects -- called "pica" -- into his mouth... it's a constant battle of "spit that thing out!" with him. Most kids outgrow this when they're toddlers, but David's autism means that he stubbornly clings to some behaviors that are typical of a much younger child.

Tonight, he picked up a small socket (lost from a ratchet set) from the dust pile, and was playing with it. At some point (I was in another room, and Pat had her head turned in the kitchen) he popped it in his mouth... it is cylindrical and smooth, and he swallowed it. After a call to the after-hours pediatric nurse, and an attempt to swallow bread (he gagged, so is probably partially blocked) he's off to the emergency room with patgreene. (shakes head)

Comments

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

Yeah.... the folks at "Poison Control" used to know me by first name.
*hugs*
best of luck for a fairly untraumatic visit to the ER.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Good luck. :/

[who-is-she.livejournal.com]

hope everything goes ok.

what do you do to try to extinguish this behavior?
does rewarding him for not doing it affect his behavior at all?

it must be, in some way for him, a very enjoyable behavior.
and I know, sometimes it's hard to find a reward that is more rewarding than a given behavior!!

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Good luck to him!

I can remember as a kid inhaling a round oval boiled sweet and blocking my own windpipe. Not being able to breathe for a couple of moments until I womped it out with a powerful exhalation (it actually flew across the room) was something of a nightmare. I became rather less keen on boiled sweets after that. Not that I'm recommending such an approach to bahavior modification!

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Gah. What is it with the emergency room this week?

I'm so sorry to hear it. I hope he is okay and he stops the pica.

[geekchick]

Yeesh. I hope he's okay.

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

Having a 9 year old who also puts everything in his mouth, I understand, hopefully everything goes ok in the ER, and the iteam is cleared with little pain.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Oy. I can't tell you how many times we've had to say something similar to Allegra. Then again, I chew my pencils, so there's not a whole lot of high ground for me here.... *wry smile*

Glad to hear via later post that he's basically OK. What a joy.