My 13yr old has been chewing icecubes this past year. I first had his teeth checked and dentist said every thing fine. I had felt it was because I had stopped letting him drink water at bedtime(because he has occaional bedwetting problems). Last night at my AS parent support meeting it came up and someone mentioned P.I.C.A. 2. and also sensory changes. Anyone with input on this? Bonnie

Bonnie..
Maybe he is chewing ice cubes because it it fun. I know that I always overthink my son's actions. But..I have to remind myself ( or be reminded by others ) that he is a kid, and a lot of what he does is kid stuff.
I have heard of PICA in regards to pregnant women craving things like clay and stuff...
I loved to chew on ice cubes ( still do )!!
Megan

I am not AS but I do chew ice. I have done it ever since I was pregnant with my first child 15 years ago. It is just something that I do and I guess you could call it a compulsion but not a major one. I would not worry about it. It is a great way to relieve stress and I think that is why I do it.

Donna

Yes. Better to suck icecubes than to get frostbite through having a fixaton with snowflakes (which can happen).

Well, for what it's worth... I've chewed ice my whole life. No harm to me and I have no idea why I do it. Maybe it's just stimulating for your child. It's crunchy and cold... I don't think I'd worry about it.

Ever tried swallowing a small icecube? It's a strange aensation, and interesting in that it tells you where you have cold-sensing nerves even though there seems no use for them.

I used to do this as a kid as well.
Haven't done it in decades, probably, had forgotten all about it.

i would never try to chew ice. the idea is very disturbing to me.
i do not like the taste of water because water has no taste.

i will drink pure water if i am very thirsty and there is no alternative (like at 3am). otherwise i drink things like lemon squashes or juices.

if i am hungry for solid foods, then a block of ice is not on my menu.

it has no calories at all.
there is no sensory stimulus that i like that would come from a block of tasteless ice in my mouth being chewed.

i eat some things that are like "stims".

uncooked hard spaghetti sticks i really like to chew on. i do it carefully

i used to (when i was a child) like eating a raw sausage and then the skin of the sausage becomes unchewable after a few minutes and becomes like a salty, sausage flavored chewing gum.


my dad used to buy big sacks of oats for the horses and i liked to take a scoop of the raw oats and de-husk them and eat the oat germs.

i had to nibble each oat germ with my front teeth. (like chewing fingernails)
it was a "nervous energy" release i think, but i liked the taste.

i got no meaningful calories from each little oat, so it was a silly activity i used to do. i only ate about 100 oat grains in each sitting.


i can not imagine chewing boring ice.

When I crunched on ice cubes, I liked the sound inside my head.

Megan

My son used to chew ice cubes all the time. We thought it was interesting because he said it was because he was hungry!?! He stopped on his own over time and no harm was done. :-)