14 DAY TRIAL // Mothers are well aware of the fact that strange things happen to one's body during pregnancy. However, Kelly-Marie Pearce's odd cravings were nothing like what most women experience while pregnant.
Long story short, it appears that, about five months after becoming pregnant with her first child, a boy named Lucian, Kelly-Marie started craving sand.
What's more, she also developed an incredibly sweet tooth for sponges, Daily Mail reports.
According to the same source, the woman first realized that she was craving sand while observing her mother-in-law clean up and change the sand in the family parrot's cage.
“I kept getting this weird taste in my mouth. I knew I was craving something but could not put my finger on what until I saw the sand and that’s when I knew I wanted it.”
“Then when I saw her change the sand in the parrot’s cage I thought 'I could just eat that' and I asked her if I could have some and I started eating it. She thought it was mad but let me carry on,” the 28-year-old woman from Wolverhampton, England recollects.
Later on, the sand stopped doing the trick, and the woman turned to sponges instead. Eventually, she combined the two treats.
“I was in the bath one day and I looked at the sponge. It was new and I just started eating it. I would have a small bite then chew it for a bit until it went soft. I even dipped them in the sand – it tasted really good,” she explains.
About three years after she had given birth to Lucian, Kelly-Marie Pearce got pregnant with Lola, a baby girl who is now 7 months old.
Her cravings started to once again manifest, and the woman returned to eating sponges and sand.
Oddly enough, both her children were healthy at birth, and none showed any signs of having been affected by their mother's peculiar diet.
Doctors explain that, according to their investigations, Kelly-Marie's need to eat sponges and sand while pregnant was brought about by the woman's developing a rare medical condition dubbed Pica syndrome.
People suffering with this condition feel compelled to eat objects that are not food, and do so despite being fully aware of the fact that the things they are gulping down have absolutely no nutritional value.