A 5-YEAR-OLD boy eats everything from stones, sand, soil and mortar to toilet paper, sponge, paint and fabric conditioner due to a rare disorder.

    Eoin Collins, from Chester, in Britain, has an impulsive and untreatable craving disorder called Pica — an appetite for non-food substances.

    He was diagnosed three years ago when he started to chew on sand from the beach in Cornwall during a family holiday.

    His insatiable appetite means he consumes cleaning products, wallpaper and has even started to chew on his 9-year-old brother Finn’s Comic Relief red nose.

    His disorder keeps his single mother-of-three Ceri Collins on her toes and she has to watch him constantly to keep him from eating something that could make him seriously ill.

    Collins, 32, a childminder, said: “You can’t turn your back on him for a second without him sticking his hand in the sand or mud.

    “If I leave cleaning products out for a second then he will eat them or try to drink them and he’s always picking paint off the walls,” Collins said.

    “And I had to give a plant that a friend gave to me as a present to my mom because he was always at the soil. He will eat literally anything.”

    Eoin has picked paint off the walls all around their home and risks eating his way through to his grandmother’s house next door.

    Collins has to keep all potentially fatal products on the top shelf and even uses stair gates to keep her son out of cupboards.

    Recently, Eoin has developed a taste for sponges and even toilet paper — and his cravings show no sign of stopping.

    She said: “I just thought that it was a phase and that he would grow out of it when I first saw him eat sand. The real danger is that he will eat something that will make him sick.

    “But thankfully that hasn’t happened yet and he’s not gained weight.”

    Pica, the Latin word for “magpie,” is most common in people with learning disabilities and during pregnancy.

    It can cause a range of serious complications if the person is eating something that is poisonous or indigestible.

    They can also damage their teeth, or have part of the body obstructed — something often seen in people who eat hair.

    Eoin has one-on-one assistance at Broughton Primary School in Chester to keep him from eating bizarre items when he is away from his mother.

    (SD-Agencies)