Eating a soap is not a good idea unless you know what exactly you are doing. Sometimes, it could be your child that made you read this post, as children’s way of knowing and exploring the world around them is taking objects to their mouths.
Eating a soap can cause poisoning, and although it is not deadly it can cause serious health problems for both children and adults.
That said, we can now comment on the good news, most soaps are not toxic. With the exception of black African soap, all soaps are made using bleach, this is a product strictly necessary for the union of water with oils, when the process reaches the point of saponification and is cured, the bleach is neutralized and no longer It causes no damage since after this process it is no longer caustic. Mentioned this, does not mean that you can go and eat all the soaps that you put in front, surely you will not like the effects that the fact of eating soap brings. Here we will discuss the consequences of eating soap.
Gastrointestinal symptoms
If you swallowed the soap, you may have pain or swelling in the throat, lips, and tongue, in cases speech is impossible due to the great pain caused by the substances that make up the soap.
You may experience symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort or severe abdominal pain.
Another of the symptoms that could cause the soap ingestion would be to start vomiting repeatedly, you can even vomit blood. Stools can also be accompanied by blood being this other symptom of soap intake.
If the soap that was consumed has chemicals that are quite strong, you may have burns on the esophagus as well.
Cardiorespiratory System
If you used some type of soap, your blood pressure may be too low or your heart rate may fall quickly. With products that have chemical ingredients that are strong, it could bring serious consequences by collapsing your heart when you come in contact with such chemicals.
Blood tests have shown that the acid level or pH of your blood undergoes a change by ingesting some products, causing serious damage to your vital organs. This does not usually happen with household soap products, but it could happen with many other types of cleaning products.
Now, if you find your son with soap scum in his mouth or pieces of soap near his face, he has probably been intoxicated. You must remain calm and act quickly, the first thing you should do is to remove the soap residue on your face or hand. Have the child spit if he can already do it. You should not try to remove the soap residue from your mouth with your fingers because you can cause a lot of pain. Then you must call the emergency service or your trusted pediatrician. It must be noted that you should not make your child vomit, as this could cause much more damage. The doctor or the emergency service will tell you what to do or if you should take the child to a health center.
Highg Degress Stress
On the other hand, if you are a person who has an addiction to soap or consumes it at times when you are suffering from a high degree of stress, it is advisable that you visit a doctor to verify your current health status, as is recommended. to visit a mental health doctor who can help you counteract that addiction that may cause problems in the future. Then we will talk a little about how this could affect your long-term health.
The above mentioned is clearly a behavior associated with pica. The pica is nothing more than the craving to eat non-nutritious and non-nutritious products. Despite much research that has been carried out, it is not entirely clear why some people adopt pica behavior. This causes people to ingest dirt, clay, glue, ice, hair, sand, toothpaste, among other things, being some more toxic than others. Fortunately, soap is not toxic and is much less likely to cause poisoning, but it could cause serious health problems if you ingest large amounts of it over time. A long-term effect that could cause soap intake could be a blockage or damage to the digestive tract, which may require a medical intervention to repair or eliminate the problem caused.
The causes of pica behavior are not well known despite the wide variety of substances that people can consume and the difference in ages at which this behavior can appear. Despite this, there are factors that directly influence the desire of people to eat this type of non-food or non-nutritive substances:
- Nutritional deficiency: some researchers have come to the conclusion that pica could be a way in which the body manifests the need for some key nutrient that is not being supplied to it. Many people with pica who underwent studies were found to be deficient in iron, calcium, vitamins C and D. However, this is not the only reason we can attribute to pica behavior.
- Cultural and family influences: in certain cultures and social groups it is a tradition to consume non-food substances. In addition, if a child is encouraged to eat this type of substance, that child is likely to have the need to consume these substances as an adult.
- Mental, developmental or cognitive health conditions: in some cases, this behavior has been associated with autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, brain injuries or epilepsy.
- Stress: People who suffer from a high level of stress during their day often look for ways to cope, pica behavior is one of them. Perhaps the sensation or taste of the substance that they ingest alleviates the stress. But this is a factor that is still under investigation.
Among the most common treatments are for this problem we can find:
- Administration of nutritional supplements.
- Supply of drugs that control some factors such as anxiety, stress or depression.
- Psychological counseling.
- Psychological therapy to correct said behavior.
Our best advice is to go to a doctor so that in this way he can examine the health condition in which the person who consumed the soap is and send it to a specialist if necessary and find the best solution for it.