Take 5 readers reveal their weird pregnancy cravings…
Jaime McDonald, 45, Medowie, NSW.
In bed beside my husband, Jamie, I opened a copy of Take 5.
“Smells amazing!” I gasped.
It was 2017, and I was eight weeks pregnant with our first bub.
Attempting to read, I couldn’t ignore the aroma.
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Is this a weird pregnancy craving? I wondered.
I’d been reading Take 5 for years and it’d never smelt this good.
Then, I took a big sniff of the glossy page which filled me with euphoria.
Jamie was wise enough not to comment.
Next evening, I had to know if it tasted as good as it smelt.
A little lick of the contents page didn’t disappoint… but Jamie busted me.
“I won’t make a pregnant woman cry,” he grinned, holding up his hands.
On a cruise before the baby was due, I sat by the pool with my Take 5.
Checking the coast was clear, I tore off a small corner and placed it on my tongue.
This is crazy! I thought. It could be poisonous.
Still, I let the delicious wafer slowly dissolve. It became a regular habit!
After our son, Hamish, was born, my craving vanished.
But a year later, I caught him putting paper from a book in his mouth.
“Hamish! No!” I gasped.
“Well, you did that,” Jamie reminded me.
Perhaps my Take 5 samples gave him a taste for paper!
Natasha Willetts, 41, Seville Grove, WA.
My hairdresser gasped at the uneven ends.
“I’ll shave it all off if you don’t stop!” she threatened.
“But I’ll go hungry!” I joked.
It was 2005 and once morning sickness had stopped, I’d developed a habit of eating my hair.
I had long, brown tresses which, at four months pregnant, I sucked and chewed until it broke off in my mouth.
This is so gross, I’d tell myself. You need to stop.
But I couldn’t.
After a couple of weeks, I felt a lump starting to build up in my throat.
“You have hairballs back there,” my doctor told me. “Like a cat.”
Soon, I began getting stomach cramps and I knew why, but it didn’t stop me from chewing.
Even after Tanayah was born, I still occasionally sucked my locks, but no longer swallowed them.
When I was pregnant with Cooper four years later, my craving for hair was replaced with less weird pregnancy craving: lemon Icy Poles.
Emilia Rossi, 41, Melbourne, Vic.
Popping an ice cube into my mouth, I bit down hard.
I’m going to break my teeth doing this, I cringed.
It was winter 2019 and I had a persistent desire to crunch ice.
I knew it had to do with the child I was carrying, even though I hadn’t had cravings with our first baby, Hercule, two.
One night, my husband, Socrates, suggested we get dinner delivered.
Polishing off the ginger beer that came with our meal, I couldn’t resist popping an ice cube into my mouth.
It shattered easily.
I realised takeaway stores somehow have hollow ice cubes, perfect for my need to crunch without chipping a tooth!
Next night, I recruited Uber Eats again to order a large McDonald’s Coke.
Fill the whole cup with ice, I specified.
When it arrived I tipped out the dribble of drink, squeezed some lime over the ice and began chomping. It brought my mouth to life!
“Do what you gotta do,” Socrates laughed.
I saw out the third trimester ordering three large cups of ice a week.
But once our daughter, Olympia, arrived, my desire for Macca’s ice cubes completely melted.
Samantha Murdoch, 37, Gympie, Qld.
Walking into the café on my lunchbreak, I nervously approached the counter.
“Do you have any dirty, raw potato skins?” I asked the owner.
She seemed alarmed.
“I’m not sure why, but I really feel like them,” I explained.
“We don’t, I’m afraid,” she answered.
Dissatisfied, I returned to work.
It was 2006 and I’d discovered my craving for dirty potato skins after popping a peeling into my mouth while preparing dinner one night.
That’s so good! I’d marvelled. It must have to do with the baby growing inside me.
Next morning, I returned to the café for a cold drink before work.
“We’re doing potato bake!” the owner smiled at me. “I put it on the menu so we’d have skins for you.”
I was so grateful for her thoughtfulness.
Lunchtime couldn’t come fast enough.
At the café, the kind lady handed me a cold takeaway container full of peelings.
Dashing to the park, I devoured the whole lot.
Because they’d been kept in the fridge they were crunchy and refreshing but the flavour combo of potato and soil still coating them was strangely satisfying.
From then on, when my work mates would invite me to join them for a kebab at lunchtime my response was the same.
“I can’t, I’ve got to have my dirty potato skins,” I told them.
“You’re a freak, Sam,” they teased, but they soon clocked my lunch choice was pregnancy-related.
This pining for dirty potato peelings stopped once my daughter, Kaitlyn, was born but I’m sure my colleagues kept laughing about it long after!
Did you know?
- Cravings are a normal pregnancy phenomenon which usually start at around 12 weeks.
- Although these cravings are not fully understood, they are likely linked to the heightened sense of smell and changes in the salivary glands and tastebuds during pregnancy.
- Weird pregnancy cravings for non-food items is a condition called pica. It may indicate a mineral deficiency or severe anaemia. Pregnant women with pica should notify their doctor or midwife.
- Common, not-so weird pregnancy cravings include ice cream, peanut butter, and pickles.
