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Think a hankering for pickle juice is just a weird pregnancy quirk? How about a whiff of dish liquid paired with a glass of ice?

That’s what’s on the menu for one pregnant mom who’s taken to TikTok to share her unusual craving. Lathering up a soapy sponge over a kitchen sink, @Yannigiles promises a tantalizing treat for the senses, combining the smell of soap with a mouthful of ice–and her followers are eating it up (if you’ll pardon the pun).

The TikTok, currently sitting at over 950K views, has gained a lot of attention from the curious as well as the concerned, wondering what’s the deal with pregnancy cravings.

It’s Not ‘Crazy’, It’s a Craving

“It smells so good, it’s like you can taste it almost,” Yanni explains in the TikTok as she inhales the scent of the sponge.

While a number of the 400+ commenters on Yanni’s video are a little taken aback by her newfound passion, many are backing her recommendation, sharing similar experiences of pregnancy cravings for cleaning products. And they’re not alone.

While an estimated 50%-90% of American women experience cravings for specific foods during pregnancy, non-food items are occasionally coveted too.

Pickles and ice cream! Food cravings in pregnancy: hypotheses, preliminary evidence, and directions for future research. Frontiers in psychology. 2014. 

The tendency to compulsively desire things that aren’t edible or typically considered foods that have any significant nutritional value is known as pica.

The combination of scents and textures is just one example of non-food related cravings that some can have during pregnancy. Some specific cravings can include clay or dirt (also known as geophagia), ice and frozen substances (pagophagia), hair, chalk, and cornstarch. Some even fancy the smell of burnt matches, mothballs, or cigarette ashes.3

Craving the combination of dish soap and crushed ice commonly falls into this pica category, says Hayley Estrem, PhD, RN, a nurse scientist from the University of North Carolina Wilmington specializing in nutrition, family health and feeding disorders. She’s also the Research Consortium Project Lead for Feeding Matters. 

She says pregnant people, like Yanni, are more likely to experience pica than non-pregnant people.

“Some people experience pica before and after pregnancy, but pregnancy is a marked time of increase and vulnerability,” explains Dr. Estrem. “It is believed that this could be because of the natural increase in inflammatory response that occurs with pregnancy.”

Dr. Estrem adds other lines of thought suggest pica could be activated by an increase in emotional stressors or vitamin or mineral deficiencies. 

Though Pica May Be Harmless, It Could Be a Sign of Other Issues

So is there any harm in getting intimate with a little soap and ice? Well, potentially. Dr. Estrem reminds us that everything we ingest matters–including ice, which may seem harmless and most “food-like.” 

“Craving ice may indicate that there is a deficiency, most often an iron deficiency, but there could be other underlying issues,” she says. 

Doreen Marshall, PhD, psychologist and Chief Executive Officer of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), says there’s limited understanding of what contributes to pica. However, she agrees iron-deficiency anemia and malnutrition are thought to be related.

“In pregnant individuals in particular, pica can be a sign that the body is trying to correct a significant nutrient deficiency,” says Dr. Marshall. “Treating this deficiency with medication or vitamins can address the problem, though it is important that a medical professional is involved in assessment and treatment.”

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Parents/Natalia Gdovskaia via Getty Images

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