Don't Eat the Furniture

When Autumn and Megan were 16 months old, they began to chew on the furniture. At first the twins' mother wasn't worried. All babies chew on things. But the Beavers twins never stopped. And every time they chewed on the furniture, they swallowed the wood. They were eating the furniture!

First the twins chewed on their cribs. Their mother moved the cribs out of the twins' bedroom. The twins slept on mattresses on the floor. Then the twins ate the wooden handles on their dresser. Their mother moved the dresser out of the bedroom. There wasn't any wooden furniture in the bedroom, so the twins began to eat the door. In the dining room the twins chewed on the chairs, and in the living room they ate part of a rocking chair.

The twins also ate dirt. When they were in the house, they ate dirt from the houseplants. When they were outside, they ate dirt in the garden. Their mother said, "No!" again and again, but the twins didn't stop. They kept eating wood and dirt.

Finally the twins' mother took them to the doctor. The doctor did several tests. What did the doctor learn? The twins didn't have important minerals. Wood and dirt have these minerals, so the twins ate wood and dirt. The doctor immediately prescribed some medicine. The twins took the medicine, and gradually they stopped eating wood and dirt.

The twins don't need to eat wood and dirt anymore. They need to take their medicine. And their mother needs to buy some new furniture!