Pica is the ingestion of non-food items. It doesn't happen just in pregnancy. However, it is most common in childhood and pregnancy (remember the kids in your kindergarten class that ate paste or glue? *That's pica too*) Common types of pica include: geophagia-ingestion of dirt or clay amylophagia-ingestion of starch pagophagia-ingestion of ice trichophagia-ingestion of hair lithophagia-ingestion of stones or gravel Most of my experience with caring for moms with pica occured in nursing school in Louisiana and early in my OB nursing career in Georgia. The effects of pica on both mother and baby depend upon what she is ingesting. The main concern I have are the fetal effects of pica-increased incidence of miscarriage, stillbirths, and prematurity, all of which can be related to poor nutritional intake. I am unaware of problems with breastfeeding and found nothing in my references that said anything about pica and breastfeeding. My reference is High Risk Maternity Nursing by Buckley and Kulb (editors) 1990. Perhaps our resident Lactnet dietitians could provide additional comments. My opinion, when in doubt, breastfeed. Maurenne Griese, RNC, BSN, CCE, CBE Manhattan, KS USA [log in to unmask] *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html