Bubble gum myth or truth?

Nurses General Nursing

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When you were a child did your parents tell you to "Never swallow your bubble gum because it will ball up in your stomach and you won't digest it for seven years?" Well, I just told my son the same thing. Come on, is this really true or just a myth?

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Specializes in CV-ICU.

Gee, I was always told it would stick in my appendix forever! Are there 2 different stories? Then it must be untrue, huh? ;)

Seriously, I've never understood the idea that gum was different than anything else one ate. I find I still swallow gum if I'm not aware of the fact I'm supposed to be chewing gum instead of eating. (Course, maybe THAT'S why I'm overweight! It's just a ball of gum in there!) ;)

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Specializes in Geriatrics, LTC.

So instead of Gastric Bypasses maybe they should be doing bubble gum bypasses!!! :party: :uhoh21: :nurse: :idea:

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Chewing gum, I learned a few years ago is actually rubber!!! So it is a protien substance. It is not digestable by humans and will pass through the GI system like any other indegestible bulk substance.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Yup, my mom told me the same thing...seven years, big ball in my stomach. Same with eating seeds (ie. apple), possibility of a tree growing in my stomach. When I was a kid, my girlfriend used to have pig tails and she'd constantly chew on them, and her parents told her she'd get a big ball of hair in her stomach. We were traumatized. Her with the hairball, me with an apple tree growing in my stomach. :eek:

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My parents told me the same thing, but I'm stubborn...I did it anyway.

:p :D ;)

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My mom also told me the bubblegum story. I once was making cookies and ate a large portion of the raw cookie dough. My mom told me that the ingredients in the dough that cause it to rise (baking soda and powder?) would make my stomach explode if I really ate as much dough as I thought I did. I layed awake all night thinking my stomach was really going to explode!!!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

So no one was told that bubble gum was made from cow's hooves?

Of course if you swallow the appendix would clog up and you would need an operation.

Plus the watermelon seeds would sprout and give you a big belly.

Oh and eating raw jello or Kool Aid will give you gas.

No, I heard that BISCUIT dough eaten raw would give you worms.

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Specializes in ER.

My swimming insrtuctor told us that if we ate popcorn and then swallowed a lot of water the popcorn would swell up in our stomaches and block off the windpipe. He claimed it took a few hour for the popcorn to expand so you could go home perfectly well and then die in your sleep from popcorn suffocation and nothing anyone did could help you- because it would just keep expanding.....

Hence the rule to wait an hour after eating before swimming.

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This is kind of sick, no actually REALLY SICK. When I was a kid I would bite my toenails. My parent's told me that I would get worms in my stomach if I continued to do such a thing. Needless to say, I haven't chewed on them since!!!! The even better news, I don't have worms either! YEAH!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

The toenail thing might really have a basis. Hookworms love bare feet. Somehow if you went barefoot BEFORE June 1 you could get them..... It was only June 1 and afterwards you were safe.

Hmmmmm. Oh yeah the hookworms ARE real and they DO enter between the toes. I doubt that they keep daytimers though.

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Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.
Originally posted by Paprikat

When I was a kid, my girlfriend used to have pig tails and she'd constantly chew on them, and her parents told her she'd get a big ball of hair in her stomach. We were traumatized. Her with the hairball, me with an apple tree growing in my stomach. :eek:

There's alot of truth to the hair eating thing. We've actually had kids in here who had to go to the OR to have "hair balls" removed from their stomach/intestines. One kid came in and the ER docs thought she had this massive cyst..turned out to be a hairball the size of a tennis ball.

I was a chubby kid, tomboyish. Loved to climb trees, ride motorcycles, etc. My sister, who was a teen when I was 6 or so, told me if I fell out of a tree or crashed on my motor that my stomach would pop like a watermelon. Was terrified of falling and popping my stomach for years after that...ya gotta love bigger siblings, eh? :)

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