Swallowing Gum

[RUDisney]

I always thought it was an old wives' tale, or something that parents just know that they are supposed to tell their kids, BUT...

My boss' 12 yo DD had surgery to remove a blockage in her stomach the other night that was caused by gum that she swallowed. Since gum doesn't digest, it can allow other foods to get trapped in it. This calcifies and grows. He said that the mass was removed in one solid piece and took up 2/3's of her stomach.

It also had hair in it, since she is a hair chewer.

She's fine now, but will remain in the hospital until next week.

I had a long talk with my kids about this last night. My DS is a big gum chewer, although he doesn't swallow it, and my DD loves to have her hair in her mouth.

Let you're kids know that this isn't a fallicy.

 

[zurgswife]

WOW I thought it was a wives tale too....

 

[SuiteDisney]

I've always swallowed my gum.

Hey, maybe I'm not really fat! Yeah, that's it... it's gum. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

 

[phamton]

I suspect the main cause of her problem was hair swallowing. Hair has caused many problems in the digestive tract with blockage and even a few deaths. Swallowing gum occasionally should not cause any problems. It's true that chewing gum base is indigestible, but humans consume a great many things that are indigestible. All such roughage is simply eliminated from the body after the usual jog down the alimentary canal.

Snopes debunks the gum chewing myth here:
http://www.snopes.com/spoons/oldwives/chewgum.htm

But there have been a few cases where gum swallowing has caused problems.
Large wads of gum can block the digestive tract (intestinal obstruction), causing dangerous constipation. In rare circumstances other swallowed items, like coins, may adhere to swallowed gum and lodge in your child's digestive system. We're talking large wads not a once ever so often thing.

I read a few years ago of a girl who developed a habit of chewing bits of paper and then swallowing them. The paper ended up forming a blockage in her intestinal track.

 

[RUDisney]

The funny thing about this situation is that the doctors from the ER came to see the blockage after it was removed because they had read about it in school but had never actually seen one. They told my boss that the primary non-digestible items that cause trouble are gum, fingernails and hair.

From what another one of my boss' kids told him, his ill DD, swallowed gobs of gum each day, not just occasionally, just like you pointed out.

 

[Pop Daddy]

Im sueing my grade school teachers, they MADE me swollow that stuff

 

[browneyes]

I hope she's doing ok. That sounds gross.

 

[Minniespal]

Wow!!!