In early March, a piece of news caught the attention of the editor:
Recently, Henan Provincial Children's Hospital admitted a 5-year-old girl with thinning hair on both sides, and when she was admitted to the hospital, the child had stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and inability to eat. After examination, the doctor found that there was a lump in the little girl's stomach, and a closer look at this lump was a "stone" formed by the combination of hair, food and gastric juice. After careful questioning, the little girl told the doctor that she often couldn't help but pull her hair and eat it.
This news has caused many comments from netizens, and some netizens said that they or their families often ate "strange" things such as dirt, paper, and nails when they were young.
After searching, it was found that the situation of the little girl in the above news is not unique:
Yuanyuan, a 9-year-old girl in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, because she ate something she shouldn't have eaten, her stomach hurt so much that she rolled at home, had no appetite for eating anything, and wanted to throw up. After surgery, doctors removed 650 g of hair from his stomach.
An 8-year-old girl in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, had repeated abdominal pains for nearly 1 week, and her stomach was also very swollen and hard. When she went to the hospital to check, the doctor found a tennis tennis ball-sized stone in her stomach, and on closer inspection, it was a large clump of hair.
In June 2021, a 12-year-old girl in Fuzhou loved to eat her hair and ate herself as a "bald head".
……
According to the doctor, this behavior of children who like to eat hair is actually a kind of pica!
Pica patients usually show that they love to ingest "strange" things other than food, in addition to those who love to eat hair, there are cases of love to eat nails, paper and even love to eat soil, and patients are often accompanied by symptoms such as anorexia, fatigue, yellow face and malnutrition.
What is pica
The most typical manifestation of pica is the continuous intake of non-nutrients. Some parents have questions, is it that the child eats strange things even if it is pica? Of course not!
Doctors have a strict definition of pica in the diagnosis:
First, if pica occurs in children under two years of age, it is not pica.
Because humans in infancy will use the mouth as a way of knowing the world. Usually at this time, the child may put anything in his mouth when he sees it. For example, many people have been complained by their parents about what messy things they loved to eat when they were young. Therefore, it is more seen as a normal developmental phenomenon. However, parents should stop it when they find it to avoid damaging the body.
Secondly, children over the age of two still have persistent pica behavior, and parents should be careful.
For example, there have been media reports that there is a 5-year-old boy in Wanzhou, Chongqing, who loves to eat soil. As he grew older, the amount of mud he ate increased unabated. No matter how much his family persuaded him, this "strange" boy chiseled the dirt on the wall every day to eat.
Finally, the doctor must confirm that the person's "eating habits are not the product of some cultural or social norm."
For example, if a social group regards eating soil as a normal behavior, the little boy's soil eating habit is not an abnormal disease.
In the scientific community, what is the explanation for pica?
Physiologically
Some people physiologically believe that pica may be caused by lack of nutrients, especially lack of iron, zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, cobalt and other trace elements. However, it has also been suggested that pica can cause maladaptation of nutrients in children, leading to trace element deficiencies.
However, regardless of causation, this type of pica is curable with nutritional supplementation and is not prone to recurrence.
In addition, physiologically, pica may also be due to special diseases. For example, lead poisoning can lead to pica, which is likely to be due to the neurotoxicity of lead causing taste disorders in children. Another example is ascariasis, hookworm disease, etc., because parasites can cause malnutrition symptoms such as iron deficiency anemia.
mentally
In addition to physiological factors, pica is more caused by various disorders of mental processes.
According to statistics, children with mental retardation, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia have a higher probability of developing pica. Some children use pica as a means of relieving tension and anxiety, similar to small movements such as shaking legs, clenching fists, and pulling hair.
For some children or adults, major psychological injuries or mental abnormalities caused by stress can also lead to pica.
The dangers of pica in children
The harm of "pica" in children is far more serious than imagined, and it will not only cause damage to the child's body, but also affect the child's mental health.
Symptoms of physical discomfort
1. Poisoning
Consumption of foreign bodies in children is likely to cause the consequences of poisoning, and acute poisoning or chronic toxin penetration are possible.
2. Infection of the digestive tract
If your child eats something beyond his ability to digest, it is easy to cause gastrointestinal discomfort and cause digestive tract infection.
3. Malnutrition
Always eat foreign bodies instead of eating normal food, in the long run, there will be loss of appetite, do not like to eat, the body function declines, resulting in the consequences of yellow muscle thinness, malnutrition, affecting the normal growth and development of the body.
4. Inflammation
Some toxic or chemical-rich foreign bodies can cause local infections, such as oral infections, laryngitis and other inflammation.
In addition, some children will eat their own urine or even feces after convenience, which will cause parasites in the stomach and intestines; some children like to eat stones and hair, which will cause intestinal obstruction...
Symptoms of psychological discomfort
Just like the story of Yuanyuan, a 9-year-old girl in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, as mentioned earlier:
After the operation, when the tube bed nurse, as a big sister, carefully asked Yuanyuan why she ate so much hair, Yuanyuan said sadly: "Mom and Dad are usually busy at work, rarely accompany me, and the most asked is my study." It turned out that going to an interest class to learn to draw was something I really liked, but in order to improve my academic performance, they wouldn't let me go. The sadness in her heart cannot be said, and Yuanyuan said that she only feels more comfortable when she eats her hair.
No wonder some netizens suggested that parents take their children to see a psychologist:
Originally, Yuanyuan lacked the company of her parents, and because she wanted to learn to paint, her parents did not let her go in order to improve her grades... She was sad and unable to talk, and eventually relied on eating hair to ease her emotions.
Psychology believes that when a person has too many negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety and frustration, it is easy to turn these negative emotions from outward aggression to internal attack, resulting in self-punishment, self-injury, self-abuse and other behaviors.
Yuanyuan's pica seems to be a bad habit, but in fact, it is to alleviate anger and sadness, and to turn the attack on the outside of the original response to herself. This kind of internal attack is to transfer psychological pain and to protect oneself.
What parents should do
Remind parents that while paying attention to their children's learning, they should also pay attention to whether they have some abnormal behaviors, and find problems to be solved in time so as not to cause harm to their children's physical and mental health.
In order to avoid pica in children, parents should do the following:
01
Boot properly
Help children understand the harm of eating foreign bodies and effectively prevent "heavy taste".
02
Observe carefully
Pay attention to observe your child's behavior. If the child has the performance of heteroetic food, such as eating smaller things at will, the larger things will be licked with their tongues, do not listen to people's discouragement, hide aside and quietly swallow, you must pay more attention.
03
Nutritionally balanced
Pay attention to the child's comprehensive diet and balanced intake of trace elements such as zinc and iron. The body lacks these trace elements, and people may have a desire to eat some non-nutritive items, which in the long run may induce pica.
04
Psychological companionship
Every day after work, parents should have enough time to be intimate and play with their children to meet their children's emotional and psychological needs, so as not to cause them to develop internal aggression.
First of all, parents should be more sure of their children.
For children, internal aggression mostly stems from their parents' disapproval of him, and their affirmation can reduce their denial of themselves. Therefore, in daily life, parents should encourage their children more and affirm their thoughts and behaviors.
For example, when a child gleefully shares the fruits of his labor with you, don't ignore the child, and don't discourage the child and say, "What's the use of this?" Instead, we should stand in the child's perspective and discover the highlights behind the child's behavior.
Second, start with simple things to build your child's sense of value.
Children who like to attack themselves have a low sense of value. Parents can start with simple things to help their children build a sense of value. For example, carry out family cleaning together, let the child help the family collect the courier, or let the child take charge of the family 's financial power' for a few days.
Finally, recognize the child's emotions and teach the child to release emotions reasonably.
Some parents think that tantrums are a bad thing. Under the influence of parents, children will also form similar cognitions and are reluctant to show their inner emotions.
As parents, we need to tell our children that anger, frustration, and joy are normal emotions. If you feel angry or frustrated, you need to release these bad emotions, don't press them in your heart.
There are many ways to release emotions, such as chatting with friends, writing a diary, crying, drawing, singing...
In daily life, parents should give their children more care, avoid simple and rude, and not punish their children, so that not only can not lift the habit of heterophilia, but will make them "steal" strange items.
At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to children's living habits, abnormal behaviors and psychological changes, and if it is found that children have abnormal behaviors such as eating hair, they should seek medical treatment in time.
Please indicate the source of "Capital Education (ID: bjedunews)"
Some of the materials in this article are synthesized from SME Technology Story, China Psychological Counselor Growth Alliance, Student Safety Education Platform, BGI Applied Psychology Research Institute, Guangming Network, Sina Weibo, etc.
EDIT: Joyful
Proofreading: Pleasing to others
Review: Fisherman's Student