He has never tried a chewing gum, but he asks you because he has seen you chew and chew and he also wants to. "Be careful, don't swallow it ... when you don't want more, you tell me," you explain. He puts it in his mouth, begins to chew it, begins to notice how the taste comes to him and, as you do, he chews it and moving from side to side of the mouth.
The minutes pass, you realize that you have understood immediately how the subject works. All you have to do is wait for him to say he doesn't want anymore to take it from his mouth. However, suddenly you realize that you don't move your mouth. You keep looking at him waiting for him to take another bite. But it doesn't come. You run to look at his mouth, open it and realize that the gum is gone. You look around, you search the ground, but it doesn't appear anywhere. "Have you swallowed it? Tell me!" He nods. Your skin suddenly loses color, you've heard terrible things, especially when you were little, of children who ate gum and things happened to them. You don't know what things, but something happened to them. Then you say to yourself: "My child has swallowed a chewing gum: now what?"
You start to think what to do, if it causes vomiting, if you take the child on blasts and run to the emergency room, if you call your partner to explain it to him, knowing that he is going to get angry a lot because it seems that everything bad that happens to the child It happens when it is with you.
Think fast. "What does the body do with the things it does not absorb? It eliminates them and period. But no, it cannot be, because I have heard that a gum can remain in the body for years. That must be very dangerous!"
A chewing gum leaves just like wine, it doesn't stay
I said "think". The body, when you receive things that you don't absorb, you delete them. The stomach is not able to dissolve or break down a gum. But don't think he cares too much about it either. If it has entered and there is no possibility of destroying it or taking advantage of it, it expels it. Through intestinal transit it is transported abroad to be eliminated in the following deposition. Come on, it enters through the mouth and comes out through the poop.
And does not the gum stick to the walls?
This should be the greatest fear of all, that the gum sticks to the walls of the stomach, in the intestine or somewhere in the body where it should not be. But no, this does not happen. Does not get stuck.
If there is a risk, yes, be careful, if a child swallows a large amount of chewing gum (if he thinks they are candy), it is more likely that a plug or blockage will occur in any area. It can even happen, and it is even more dangerous, if along with the gum swallows other things that are not digested, such as any currency or similar.
So they are not dangerous?
As a general rule, no, but it is not something that one has to swallow every day, because it is not created for that purpose, nor does the body know what to do with it and always has to go eliminating it. Let's say a child should not eat chewing gum until he is able to use it well, that is, spitting it out when you got bored of it. Until then, if they give us a scare like the one mentioned above, rest assured. Just in case, as mentioned, try not to reach them and try, above all, not to take one of those containers in which dozens of gum come, because if they start eating them one after another, the risk of blockage is evident .
