Soil ingestion rates in children identified by parental observation as likely high soil ingesters

Abstract

Soil ingestion was estimated over seven consecutive days in a soil tracer‐based mass‐balance methodology in 12 children, aged 1 to 3 years. The children had been identified by parents as likely high soil ingesters based on retrospective observation of daily soil ingestion behavior over the past 30 d. While one of the 12 children displayed high soil ingestion (0.5 to 3.05 g/d) on 4 of 7 d, median soil ingestion rates for the 12 children were comparable to those published in other soil ingestion studies of young children selected for studies based on age and not assumed or observed soil ingestion behavior. The lack of ability of parental judgments to predict high soil ingestion rates represents both an important observation and a significant limitation in current methods to efficiently and accurately identify children who ingest high amounts of soil.