My Super Weird Pregnancy Craving

So I was doing laundry yesterday and Mari came in and did what she’s been doing since she was but a little pea in my womb: She shoved her face into the Tide bottle, inhaled deeply, and proclaimed her love for the scent of our favorite laundry detergent. Okay, well, she couldn’t have possibly done that while in-vitro. But Lord knows that when I was pregnant, I couldn’t walk past a laundry room without wanting to crunch on powdered Tide, liquid Downy and all manner of cleaning product, especially Mr. Clean.

No, I never actually ate or sipped any. I might have inhaled deeply, but none actually touched my lips. Um, not really.

Of course, later in my pregnancy, I found out that my craving for powdered Tide was a symptom of an iron deficiency. But even as I swallowed those constipation-inducing horse er, iron pills, I knew deep down on the inside that it was my Mari who wanted to have a Tide pie. She proves me right every time I do laundry and especially when we walk down the laundry aisle at Kroger. Girlfriend’s got it bad.

Anyway, yeah. So what was your weirdest pregnancy craving?

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Denene Millner

Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.

29 Comments

  1. I’m not pregnant but I love the smell of powdered Tide even now! I really do feel like eating it sometimes. Lol! I wonder if the same will happen when I’m with child?

    • Girl, probably! I found that any craving I had was super exaggerated during pregnancy. I came to learn that my craving was because of an iron deficiency, which made me want to chew on things like laundry detergent, laundry starch, dirt. It was nuts. It kind of got better when I took the iron pills, but um, yeah. Those cravings were HARD to kick!

  2. I had a craving with my son that was probably borderline pica–slushies. I really wanted that slushy ice and would go to 7/11 almost every day for one. It was bad. Real bad.

  3. I loved the smell of Sharpie pens… It was terrible and I felt bad every time I opened a Sharpie… So bad, that I finally, threw away the Sharpie I had at home and work! AND I imagined myself chewing on chalk. All the time!!!

    • Oooh… Sharpies! Do you still like the smell of them? And YES! I wanted to chew chalk. Like, in the worst way!

  4. With my first child I craved cashew chicken (chinese food) and caramel cashew sundae from Culver’s…LAWD, them things was OFF the chain and I had a sundae EVERY day of the second and third trimester…My pocket books were none to pleased. After I had my son, I went out and wanted some cashew chicken and almost had it come back up.

    With my second pregnancy I craved Dairy Queen’s Peanut Buster Parfaits…oh, I swear I tried to have one everyday but my hubby wasn’t going for it…

    And with my last pregnancy I didn’t crave anything but always got SUPER annoyed with any and EVERYONE! I was deemed the mean pregnant chick… I just think it had something to do with always being tired and the fact that the two younger ones are 14 months apart…

    • Oh snap—I think my nickname was Evilene by the time I made it halfway through my second pregnancy. Something about chasing after the first one with another human rolling around in your stomach just didn’t make me the most pleasant person in the world. But I’ll tell you this much: cold ice water and popsicles certainly helped tame the lion! LOL! (Dairy Queen Peanut Butter Parfaits. Yes, girl. Yes.)

  5. More than anything else, I craved those colorful, delicious cupcakes from Winn Dixie (when they were still open). We were living in the boonies at the time, and the only one was a half hour away across town. I drove my husband nuts making him drive over there to buy them by the dozen (and sometimes 2)!

    But my strangest craving, which I still occasionally have, is soap. I never wanted to take a bite of the soap bar itself, but when it was all lathered up and soapy in my hands, smelling fresh and delicious, it took everything in me not to taste those bubbles…lmao!

    • Denene@MyBrownBaby

      Girl, I know what you mean about the Herculean strength it took not to taste it! LOL! I would sniff and then close my eyes and imagine what the gritty powder would feel like on my teeth. Insane!

  6. Barbara Soloski Albin

    It is so long ago for me, but for those who know that I don’t eat red meat, I craved hamburgers during my entire first pregnancy. That on top of wanting that horrible instant ice tea, you know the old powdered kind that tastes terrible, it was the only thing I drank through both my pregnancies,.

    • Denene@MyBrownBaby

      Oh man—I used to dream about my mom’s roast beef, and i’ve never seen a piece of red meat I could turn down. LOL! And is it wrong that I actually like that iced tea? Still ? *ducks into a corner*

  7. Ok, I’m gonna admit this pregnancy craving quick and say nothing more.
    I would get a wash rag, soap it up and suck on it.
    Yep. Did it. Done it. Oh well…
    And no I did NOT wash my body with it first!! LOL
    Oh yeah, and I used to chew on toliet paper.
    Don’t judge me.
    🙂

    • Denene@MyBrownBaby

      *insert an image of denene pinning a big, gigantic “WOW” award on Kia’s shirt*
      And that’s all I have to say about that. LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. LOL!!! Thank you for this post!!!
    With my first pregnancy I craved D-I-R-T!!! Potting Soil, Pebbles, Gravel. My mouth would literally water at times if I was outside and got a “whiff” of some dirt or if I saw a rock sitting in a potted plant I would image grabbing it quickly and rolling around my mouth like an atomic ball. One day I was in my Mother den around her lush greenery and I convinced myself that her dirt was safe and I stuck my finger in one of her potted plants and was in my glory…lol!!!
    With my second pregnancy the lust was back, this time I researched and figured out that it was linked to low iron, but just because I knew what it was that did not satisfy the craving. A long with my research I learned that eating clay or dirt was a regular practice in some African Cultures, so now that I wasn’t “weird” I had to figure out how to get some clean-vitamin rich dirt…lol. I never figured it out.
    I did find that Brazil Nuts, sucking on the shell and then nibbling at the nut itself provides joy and satisfaction…the grit taste and smell. So here I am with baby number 3 in the making, and I keep a secret little bag of organic Brazil Nuts in my purse. Every once in a while I will see a pebble or a small rock with a smooth finish and think, if I grab it quick enough, no one will know…lol.

    • Denene@MyBrownBaby

      WOW! Now I knew all about the low iron thing and that making us want to chew dirt/clay/laundry starch. But finding satisfaction in the Brazil Nuts is a brilliant touch! And I quit you over digging in your mother’s pots! LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!

  9. A tide pie! Adorable! I have heard of these weird cravings before…not just loving the smell, but wanting to snack on cleaning products! Ha. For me, it’s just chocolate. All day, every day. The Tide would probably be better for my hips.

    Love the look of your blog. Found you via your amazing Parenting.com article.

    • Denene@MyBrownBaby

      Hey there, Brooke! Welcome to MyBrownBaby—I’m so glad you’re here. Grab a cup of coffee (or some chocolate!) and take a look around and be sure to come visit often.

      Oh gosh—don’t get me started on the chocolate… Love it all day, every day—pregnant or no. I think I have issues. LOL!

  10. I was feening for sand like nobody’s business with my oldest child.

  11. I loved the smell of tar from a freshly laid roof. I loved ice, would eat by the bag.

  12. OMG I thought I was the only one that had this weird-ness going on. I had an obsession with dry clorox detergent. So much so that one of my co-workers made me a car sachet to hang in my car. I had a cup of it on my desk for my regular sniff and I kept it in the house. My Dr said as long as I didn’t ingest it I was fine. Haven’t seen any results of it on my son. Although he’s freakishly smart and spends his spare time crunching numbers (no joke) LOL

  13. I haven’t succumed to my craving… but I’m DYING to have some Tide… ugh. I smell it and I see that powder and I just want to take a handful and munch on it. I’m 36 weeks along and have never wanted to eat any form of cleaning product. Also I’m craving Irish Spring soap! I haven’t used that soap since I was a little girl. Whenever I was my face with Biore I love the smell of that too and just leave it on my face for a good minute before rinsing it off. Madness!

  14. First baby it was dirt off the ground, off the car, wherever i could get it from. nobody knew because i didn’t want people to think i had gone mad lol. This pregnancy its all about Johnson baby powder and chalk. they taste terrific and i can’t stop it.

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