Google “Pica is a very dangerous disorder characterized by cravings or ingesting inedible items”.
I was awakened at 2:15 AM by the sound of Micah getting water in the kitchen. I had known that he was still awake when I went to bed at 11:00 but he seemed to be settling down, so I headed upstairs. It was highly unusual for him to be awake at 11:00 PM much more so at 2:15 seeking water in the middle of the night. I headed downstairs to help him get yet another glass of water and to make sure he went back to bed. Once he was settled back in bed he did sleep until morning, however he refused most food the next day and wanted to sleep for hours. I thought he might have a stomach bug, but my concern level rose when he was still eating very little the next day after. Micah is a big guy and generally likes full meals plus snacks. For three days he was clearly unwell and, at most, ate one meal a day.
As the days went on, it seemed a stomach bug was unlikely to be causing his lack of appetite and restless sleep. On the fourth day Melody was back to help care for Micah so I asked her if she would ask Micah if he knew why he was sick, specifically asking because of Micah’s history of pica. As I have mentioned in this blog, years ago Micah craved gasoline, and we were constantly on alert to make sure he did not have access to any cans of gas, to the point that the windows in his room had to be secured shut as one night he went out his window to the barn to seek out gasoline in the cans for the lawn mower. That craving fortunately just disappeared long ago, but pica has dodged us with many other random substances such as hand sanitizer, dirt; mouthwash; coffee grounds; rubbing alcohol etc… causing cravings that suddenly seem to control Micah. For years we have been on alert, but often one step behind in figuring out what he was consuming unless we observed him with the inedible item.
The big change this year is that Micah can finally communicate with us via his letter board, thanks to Spelling to Communicate (S2C). But at this point, Micah is still only openly communicating with Melody so I asked her if she could ask Micah questions about how he was feeling and what made him sick. Melody started by asking Micah what pica is. Micah responded ” Pica is eating things that are not food. For example, paper, teabags, coffee grounds, cleaning supplies, mouth wash, dog hair and litter”. Melody asked him if he likes to eat those things. Micah said “Yes”. Melody then asked him if he knew it was unhealthy to eat those things and again, he responded “yes”. She then asked him if he could help her understand why he eats those things given that he knows it is not healthy and Micah responded, “I can’t control it”. When asked what we can do to help, Micah responded “lock them away”. Then she asked him if he ate any of those things lately as he has not been feeling well and he responded, “cleaning supplies in the home closet”. Melody immediately texted me this information and I asked her to ask him one more question, ask him when he consumed the cleaning supplies. His response “Sunday”, which was the night he could not sleep, and I heard him up at 2:15 AM.
I literally ran to the hall closet and pulled out a few different cleaning supplies, all of which could make him very sick or worse. All of which had been in that closet for years without a problem. But at some point, for some unknown reason, Micah took note of them and could not control the urge to consume. Needless to say, the cleaning supplies were immediately moved from the closet, and I contacted his doctor’s office to report his symptoms and shared what Micah had told Melody about consuming the cleaning supplies. Although we knew it had been a few days, and we still were not sure how much he consumed and exactly what he drank, I was instructed to take Micah to the ER as soon as possible. I expressed concern that Micah does not wait well, so waiting his turn in the ER might be close to impossible but was told that was the best way to get tests done quickly.
The bad news is that we waited a bit over four hours with Micah’s eyes filling with tears at one point. This was an additional concern for me as Micah rarely cries, and he has such a high pain tolerance that years ago, he had to live through his appendix rupturing before the physicians knew why he was so sick. Back then we did not have S2C, if we did, perhaps he would have been spared a five-week hospitalization. The sort of good news was that Micah was not seen as having a critical need by the ER staff as he was sitting fairly quietly and after a couple of hours, began to eat some snacks from the vending machines, indicating his appetite was returning at least a little bit. The hard reality was that he was less of a priority with all the other presenting needs at the ER. When I went up to ask when he would be seen as just about everyone else who was in the room when we arrived had gone in, and others who came after us were going in, I was told that they were taking the more critical clients first. This made sense to me intellectually but infuriated me as a mother waiting with her son with Autism. We left after about four and a half hours. The positive outcome was that he was able to eat a full lunch after leaving the ER and slowly over the course of the next two days he began to eat and sleep on his regular schedule. Another crisis averted, thanks to the prayers of many who were lifting him up and to the passage of time during which he seemed to finally escape the toxins he had consumed.
The best news is that we have this priceless gift of S2C to help us better understand what drives Micah’s behaviors and learn from him how to help keep him safer. S2C has given him a voice, now we need to help him open up with others about his cravings hopefully before we are in crisis mode. Enabling his communication via S2C has been life changing for Micah, but increasing his openness may very well be life saving as we do not know when or how pica will strike again.
Jan Lessard Peightell April 11, 2025