[Maribellin]

Mum's suite tooth is killing her

By HARRY HAYDON
Published: 31 Mar 2011

ADELE Edwards is a woman with a killer SUITE tooth — she's addicted to eating SOFAS.







Instead of having normal cravings for chocolate and crisps and other junk food the mum-of-five is hooked on eating household items.

She regularly snacks on elastic bands, rubbers and other objects she finds lying around her home — but her guilty pleasure is the polyester stuffing in sofa cushions.

And incredibly Adele reckons that in her lifetime she has munched her way through EIGHT sofas and FIVE chairs — and says she has consumed nearly 16ST of cushion.

Doctors have warned the 30-year-old her strange addiction is DEADLY — but she says she is unable to stop.

The medics say she is suffering from an eating disorder called Pica — from the Latin word for magpie — where sufferers are compelled to consume non-food items.

In recent months she has had to have emergency treatment to remove chunks of foam from her intestines.

And now doctors have told her if she doesn't stop eating the foam it will eventually poison her.

Adele's boyfriend Chasney, 26, has also begged her to stop the deadly habit.

Adele, from Florida, said: "I was ten years old when I was first introduced to cushion.

"At first, I thought it was strange but, after sucking it for a while, I came to like the texture.


"I started chewing cushion regularly and would swallow whole chunks as though it was candy floss. It sounds strange but, to me, foam tasted like sweets."

But after nearly 20 years of suffering from the addiction Adele is now fearful the disorder will leave her children motherless.

She said on US TV show My Strange Addiction: "I'm scared. I've never eaten cushion in front of my kids, I don't want them to copy me.

"They don't know what I'm doing to my body but I'm terrified that one day, they'll have to tell people: 'Mummy died from eating too many sofas'."