How did we survive? It is amazing that anyone over the age of 35 or so is alive. We grew up drinking out of the hose, riding bikes without helmets (doing everything without helmets), putting stones and grasshoppers in our mouths when we were toddlers, riding in cars without carseats or airbags or sometimes even without seatbelts. I'm not advocating those behaviors, but geez louise!

eating paste and play-doh, playing in the woods all day long until our mothers rang the bell or blew the whistle for dinner, going to the beach on our bikes without a grownup as soon as we were off training wheels, riding the bus down into Philadelphia to go to the "big" library-which involved then walking several blocks-on our own at age 13--I know.

Oh! the dangerous world in which we used to live.
I remember that my brother and I would stand on the car's front passenger seat with our heads sticking out of the sun-roof as our Father drove to town. From the age of eight I would be off on my bike or playing in the surrounding countryside quite on my own and no-one was worried. Before I was old enough for school I played on the river bank by my Father's boat yard and had to be rescued from a watery grave a couple of times. But once I had been scooped up and squeezed-out I was never forbidden to play there again.
I have noticed during the unusually snowy weather we have in the UK now, that groups of children are to be seen making snowmen, tobogganing etc but always with a parent in tow. And as for getting to school under their own steam . . . have these kids lost the use of their legs?

Sort of gives new meaning to the phrase "devouring books," doesn't it? Did anyone ever actually eat the pages?

One of the downsides of modern science is that we can now measure toxins at an incredibly low level. We think that if a lot of something kills us, so will a little. Did you know that arsenic, in very very low quantities, is found in groundwater? Seaweed? Seafish? Rice? We all have ten to twenty milligrams of the stuff in our bodies. Humans evolved ingesting arsenic. But now that we know about it we are busy trying to get rid of it. I remember reading long ago that it did serve a use in our bodies, but cannot find anything in a quick web search to support it. I'm not denying that drinking contaminated water is a bad, bad thing. But for most of us, and for most of our drinking supplies, it is simply not a problem. Yet we still have hysterics insisting that the levels in drinking water be zero. Zero. We must spend 99% of our resources getting rid of that last little bit of measurable toxin that is less than toxic to us.

Getting off my soapbox now. Back to your regularly scheduled day.

Carolyn, I think your question is meant for me. I buy all the books for my classroom of autistic children at the Goodwill because if not stopped they will eat them! I mean it literally when I tell people my children consume the books. Never til now did I think about lead!!

I looked to see if there was a name for this disorder, but couldn't come up with one. Did come up with these though, which I found to be interesting:

* Amylophagia - consumption of starch
* Coprophagia - consumption of feces (euuuw)
* Geophagy - consumption of soil, clay or chalk
* Hyalophagia - consumption of glass
* Mucophagia - consumption of mucus
* Odawa - consumption of soft stones by pregnant women in Kenya
* Pagophagia - Pathological consumption of ice
* Trichophagia -consumption of hair or wool
* Urophagia - consumption of urine
* Vampirism - consumption of blood
* Xylophagia - consumption of wood

Pica is the overall name for the disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive (soap, clay, etc). To be considered a medical disorder, it must last more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate. Comes from the Latin word for "magpie", a bird reputed to eat almost anything.

(Taken from Wikipedia.)

Smallcoffee, I've been insensitive. I haven't dealt with children the way you do. I have great respect for you and others like you who work with children with special needs. God bless you!

Before I had a child, a friend's two-year-old son ate the burnt end of matches (back when lots of people smoked, obviously) at every opportunity. Her doctor said the child needed charcoal. I thought I would have tried to find a better way to get it for him.

Carolyn, I didn't find what you said at all insensitive! Before I started with this group 4 years ago, it never would have occured to me that I'd have students that eat the teaching materials especially since they like to look at the books too. I and my aides just try to keep a sense of humor about it. To me thinking about the 2 ways my kids "consume" books just lightens the situation a little especially when I find a class favorite with a huge bite taken out of it. This kind of work is challenging but at least there is never a dull moment!
Susan