A young girl who is suffering from a rare medical condition is so addicted to eating harmful objects that she ate an entire lightbulb.
Natalie Hayhurst, 3, who suffers from Pica, a disorder characterised by an appetite for non-nutritive substances has eaten rocks, sticks, bricks, house plants and an entire light bulb.
While her favourite delicacies are rocks and sticks, the girl has been known to wolf down almost a whole brick, ‘like it was a chocolate chip cookie.’
Her mother Colleen, 31, says every day is a constant battle of wills as she tries to stop her daughter eating something that could kill her.
“I have had to call this poison helpline so many times that it's on my speed dial. You name it Natty's tried to eat it,” the Daily Mail quoted her mom as saying.
Colleen, of Terre Haute, Indiana, revealed the moment her daughter's disease nearly killed her after eating an entire lightbulb that she tore from a bedroom night-light in February.
Since the accident, Natalie is watched around the clock by Colleen, father David and brother Andrew, 5.
“My big worry is that one day she'll eat something poisonous and we won't be there in time,” said Colleen, an office manager.