Why on earth does my 3 year old insist on eating cotton out of medicine bottles?

Question

I just don't get it. Tylenol, vitamins, you name it she gets in there and likes to eat the cotton. do you think the coating from the pills makes it sweet or something? anyone else have this problem ever?

Answer 1

Why are you letting your 3 year old have them?  Its not that hard to keep that stuff away from them.

As for why she is eating them I can only assume its because she is a little kid and they do that stuff.

Answer 2

no, but keep ur medicine bottles up high, since she's three, she'll forget, lol it'll make a great story for when shes a teenager!

Answer 3

First - that is SO dangerous. The cotton can get stuck and clog her digestive track, making digestion painful and could require surgery to remove. Not to mention that she'll be eating less is she's getting full from cotton and could end up malnourished.

Second - That Is SO Dangerous!! What do you mean your 3 year old "gets in there" and eats from medicine bottles!! She should not have access to pills of ANY kind. Medicine in any form is supposed to be kept away from children.

Finally - yes, I have heard of it, it's classified as an Eating Disorder named Pica. Which is basically the desire to eat non-nutritional substances. It's a pretty common stage for toddlers and some children up to about the age of 10. Kids will eat cotton, Q-tips, cigarette butts, paint chips, the corners of pieces of paper or napkins, lollipop sticks, straws and so on.

It is also found in some people with intellectual disabilities, and used to be very common among pregnant women in the past. Eating paint off the walls, it turns out, results from a mineral deficiency.

Kids usually grow out of it, but in the mean time, keep cotton - and definitely the pills! - out of reach.

Answer 4

Some reason i find that funny when i know its not.

Just give her a bag of cotton balls for dinner tonight-she will be ok.

Answer 5

probably thinks its candy or something