The Nutritional Value of Plaster by Military Momma

My daughter, “Punka”, has a lot of behavioral problems that are not uncommon for children her age, such as being a picky eater, throwing tantrums, refusing to sleep, insisting on being naked, etc. She seems to take the phrase “Terrible Twos” as a challenge, and is determined to find the weirdest, most frustrating ways to test our parenting skills.

At this point she’s winning. It seems every time I make progress with Punka, her daddy goes to the field or participates in some other Army related event that takes him away for long periods of time, disrupting her schedule and setting off a chain reaction of bad behavior.

Her newest tactic in the quest to drive mommy insane is to gnaw the paint and plaster off the corner of her closet. Thankfully our house is less than 10 years old, so I know she’s not consuming lead paint. Just the same, this can’t be good for her. The frustrating part is that I don’t know how to prevent it.

It always occurs when she’s supposed to be napping, and so we don’t discover it until it’s already happened. I have no clue how to stop her. I’ve wondered if there were some sort of bumper to place on the corners, but that makes me think it would just make it appear more like a teething toy and an invitation to chew. I wonder what a liquid thumb-sucking deterrent would do to the paint? There’s got to be some sort of solution.

I tried to research it online, and hidden in between articles about how to get your puppy to stop chewing on your furniture, I found a few articles that suggested some toddlers may partake in this unusual behavior of eating non-food items when their nutritional needs are not being met. Very plausible considering my daughter’s recent refusal to eat anything that isn’t in hot dog form slathered in ketchup. What am I going to do with this kid? I wonder if there is any nutritional value to plaster…?