Pica Syndrome Treatment

Pica Syndrome is a recurring behavioral disorder that often begins in childhood or even infancy and continues into adulthood. However, it is a treatable disease.

Pica occurs with the urge to eat, which is not food other than normal foods, and foreign matter. Even if patients know that they can be harmful, they cannot free themselves from the desire to eat these substances. Most of the time, elements such as iron, zinc and copper, which are missing in the body, are tried to be eliminated with this behavior disorder. This behavior disorder causes irreparable results over time! (detail information: pica syndrome harms )

Pica Disease Treatment
Pica is a treatable disease. For the treatment process of pica syndrome, it starts with investigating the root causes of the disease and planning the process of removing the minerals needed in the body. The first thing to do is that the diagnosis is reliable as a result of a good observation. For this, the causes of the syndrome must first be found and the appropriate treatment method must be selected. If there is a mineral deficiency such as iron and copper in the body, appropriate drug therapy should be initiated; In addition, nutritional supplements should be made with natural foods. If iron deficiency is detected, the patient should definitely consume liver, eggs, legumes and red meat.

Nutrition in Pica Patients
If Pica syndrome is due to iron deficiency, the diet of the patients is very important. Iron resources; liver, all red meats, eggs, legumes, molasses, black grapes (fresh or dried), green leafy vegetables. But the best iron absorption is provided from foods of animal origin. While consuming a food with a high iron content, adding a salad, tomato, and freshly squeezed orange juice containing vitamin C to the same meal will also be very beneficial for nutritional supplementation.

If the source of the disease is zinc; It is abundant in seafood, whole wheat flour and dried legumes. Foods that can be consumed if there is a copper deficiency; It can be easily taken from foods such as liver, eggs, cocoa, dried legumes.

Psychological Treatment in Pica Syndrome
A person's diet has a significant effect on pica syndrome, as it does in every disease. however, it is very difficult for the soul and body to find healing at the same time. Experts believe that patients should be taken into psychiatric evaluation as well as the treatment of iron deficiency anemia. Because it has been observed that these people change their eating habits for reasons such as stress, anxiety and depression. For this reason, the person has to review his diet and habits along with the treatment.

Pica Syndrome Treatment in Children
Although nutritional supplements remain an adequate treatment method for some children, psychological support and therapies are also necessary for others. The course and causes of this ailment may differ in each child. It is very difficult to talk about a common treatment method for every child. There is one thing in common during the treatment, which is; patience and dedication! For this reason, for the health of our children, it is useful to keep patience and self-sacrifice and to apply the necessary treatment methods without wasting time.

Therapy in foreign body ingestion gives successful results. Other methods await those who lose their hair due to stress and those who eat newspapers out of unhappiness. However, especially children can overcome the disease much easier than adults with "play therapy" . It is sufficient to make the game hours suitable for this purpose. For example, painting with a paper-eating kid, sculpting with a mud-hungry kid, are ways and methods worth trying. Getting help from experts is, of course, one of the first things to do.