Pica, or the ingestion of inedible items, is a constant risk for some members of the developmentally disabled population. Within this population, two subsets of patients engaging in pica behaviors is evident: The severely to profoundly mentally retarded (lower functioning individuals), and the mildly to severely retarded with a co-occurring psychiatric diagnosis (higher functioning individuals).   This essay will present this writer’s personal observations of pica behavior during the course of 3+ years observing inpatient populations with developmental challenges. However, this writer has not employed formal research methodology to validate the hypotheses here to be offered.