Clay baby powder/kids eating it
Debra Wills
I'm here in New Mexico & have read all the books i can on pottery made by
Indians, (being a Cherokee myself...) all the little Indian kids think clay
is a treat ...to eat.., they run up while their mothers & grandmothers are
coiling & snitch a bite to eat...I always wondered if it could be they lack
minerals in their diet??
Debra
<< Eating clay is an accepted cultural practice, especially in central
Africa, from
where it spread to the New World with slavery, and it is still practiced
both
places. The term is geophagy. For a succinct explanation, go to
www.miningco.com, and type in geophagy in the search window. Probably
lots
of
other stuff about it to be found on the internet also.
Gail Sheffield
Covington, LA
>>
Funny this subject should be approached all of a sudden. I just read an
article in the Sunday paper about two weeks ago about geophagy STILL being
prevalent in some of the poorer areas of Georgia. Comments in the paper
mentioned it's ingestion being a "habit" causing heavy constipation and
other
gastroenterological problems from long term use. But since the clay isn't a
banned substance by the FDA or anyone else, it is commonly sold in bags at
many convenience stores for a buck or two.
I wish I had saved the article so I could reproduce it here...but I used
that
section of paper in my ferret's litter pan.
One other thing, when my first baby was born in 1972, the class I took at
the
hospital said not to use baby powder as it did something in the lungs of the
infant. I didn't pay much attention. They recommended using cornstarch
(cheaper but didn't smell as nice) and to keep diaper rash away not to use
the "new" disposable diapers unless for a short time during traveling, not
using plastic pants (?) allowing the baby's butt to get air, and using only
diapers washed in hot soapy, bleached water, rinsed with vinegar and rinsed
again, hang in the sunshine to dry. No wonder I didn't have time to do much
of anything. BTW - I used baby powder anyway .....AGGGH.
KC
dodging tornados today
_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
Roger Korn
My friend, George Wright, has been around clay, mixing it, making tile,
making bricks, making pottery clay all his life. He eats a spoon of clay
every day. He loads 100# bags of Lincoln #60 Fireclay into my pickup "so
you won't hurt your back". George is 80.
Roger Korn
McKay Creek Ceramics
PO Box 436
North Plains, OR 97133 - where it's raining again/still, and the
OPA POTTER'S SHOWCASE, the largest pottery show on the Left Coast opens
tomorrow at the Portland Convention Center. Runs through Sunday. Lots of
ClayArters.