Pica By Evelyn Attia, MD, Columbia University Medical Center; B Timothy Walsh, MD, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Reviewed / Revised Jul 2022 | Modified Sep 2022 View Patient Education Diagnosis Treatment Key Points Pica is persistent eating of nonnutritive, nonfood material for ≥ 1 month when it is developmentally inappropriate (eg, pica is not diagnosed in children < 2 years) and when it is not part of a cultural tradition (eg, of folk medicine, religious rites, or common practice, such as ingestion of clay [kaolin] in the Georgia Piedmont).