From cleaning products to eyeshadow – these are the weirdest things women have craved when pregnant
A group of Reddit users have confessed their bizarre and unusual cravings while they were carrying their children. Pens, dirt, and anything with pickles...nothing was off limits of the blooming mums during their pregnancy
WE'VE all heard stories about women who demand ice-cream and pickles when pregnant, but it turns out cravings can get a lot weirder than that.
Here are some of the craziest cravings some women have confessed on Reddit to having while they were expecting...
Cleaning Products
Rhiannon Cole, 25, suffers from Pica disorder – which involves a craving to eat non-food items, such as chalk or soil – but oddly, the condition only strikes Rhiannon when she is expecting.
At her lowest, the mum of three even began to get withdrawal symptoms and sought help from an addiction counsellor.
Mum-of-three Emma Snowdon also admitted she had the same problem - and munched on fourteen sponges during her labour instead of requesting gas and air.
Emma's habit is so severe that she gets “shaky” if she doesn’t have a sponge to chew and has sent her husband, Mark, to a 24-hour garage in the dead of night to buy them.
Dirt / Sand
Another popular request from ladies expecting was soil - another common side-effect of Pica disorder.
"I sell dirt specifically for pregnant woman at my store," user .
Another user suggested eating dirt could mean you're anaemic, which is apparently what an ice craving means too.
Refrigerator_critic added: "I craved clean, soft, white beach sand.
"I didn't want to eat it persay, just have it in my mouth.
"Even writing this reminds me vividly of how strong the desire was to just hold sand in my mouth."
Eyeshadow
One user confessed: "I craved eye shadow. It was so strange. I told my doc and got my blood work done, I was anaemic," mfwater said.
"It was loose powder eye shadow, I looked at it and it looked good to eat.
"It was a very strange feeling.
"I didn't eat it, I called my doctor. The hormones can make you crave strange things."
Meat and Blood
In a storyline straight out of Friends (remember when Phoebe was pregnant and wanted meat?) a strict vegetarian was compelled to have tuna.
"Currently pregnant. Realised while re-watching Buffy the other day that I was craving blood," user FunQuestion added.
"Made myself some beef broth and it almost hit the spot.
"Already mentioned this to my doctor and my iron levels are being tested."
Lit Matches
Many of the ladies wanted to eat more normal food, like chocolate or olives, with one recalling the bizarre impact pregnancy had on her aunt.
"My aunt would strike all the matches in a matchbox, lick the part where the matches were struck and then break it off and chew it," emmaloux said.
Some mums remembered becoming obsessed with things they'd never normally have.
Weird food combos
One mum admitted: "I was babysitting while pregnant with my first daughter. The kids wanted a snack. They loved the big, half-cut, kosher dill pickles. So I’m looking at them thinking, I think I want one too!"
The resulting concoction sounds not for the faint-hearted, as she revealed: "I carved out the middle with my teeth then filled the ‘pickle boat’ with grape jelly. It was spectacular!! The tang, the vinegar, the sweet, the crunch.
"Now, however, it sounds disgusting."
Other mums have dipped pickles into things including ice cream, frappacinos and ice-cream in order to get their fix...
