If you swallow gum, it's true that your body can't digest it. But the gum doesn't stay in your stomach. It moves relatively intact through your digestive system and is excreted in your stool.
If your child swallowed 1 or 2 pieces, give them a few sips of water. If your child swallowed a large amount of gum, they may experience vomiting, constipation, abdominal bloating and pain or changes in bowel habits. Call IPC at 1-800-222-1222 if your child starts experiencing symptoms.
Though your stomach can't break down a piece of gum the same way it breaks down other food, your digestive systemcan move it along through normal intestinal activity. In other words, it comes out the other end when you have a bowel movement (poop).
Potential Problems with Gum Chewing
Excessive gas. Mouth ulcers. Jaw problems from repeated chewing motion. Dental decay due to sugar content of many gums (yes, baby teeth can get cavities, too!)
Swallowing one piece of gum probably won't hurt you, but beyond that, be careful. Czerwony says swallowing a lot of gum in a short period of time — say, one piece a day for a week, or a mega-wad consisting of four pieces of gum at a time — can put your digestive system in danger.
Chewing Gum Facts
Chewing gum takes up to 5 years to biodegrade.
The risk of choking from swallowing gum is not zero, but it's pretty small. For most adolescents, teenagers, and adults it would be difficult to have the gum completely block the trachea (windpipe, where air flows into and out of the lungs).
Although chewing gum is designed to be chewed and not swallowed, it generally isn't harmful if swallowed. Folklore suggests that swallowed gum sits in your stomach for seven years before it can be digested. But this isn't true.
While old gum may have a less desirable brittle texture, it's still safe to eat. Now you don't have to worry about the possible side effects of old gum. It may feel gross, but it's safe.
Usually, if you get food stuck, such as meat fibers or small scraps of food, beneath the gum, you can rinse away the debris with a mouthwash or saltwater rinse. However, sometimes a fragment will not budge, which can cause a good deal of pain and distress.
Typically, the dose needed to cause poisoning is at least 0.05 grams per pound of body weight (0.1 grams per kilogram of body weight). Chewing gums and breath mints contain a wide variety of xylitol per piece of gum or mint.
Gum. Just like taffy, gum can mold just right to block a child's airway, making it a significant choking hazard. Nuts & seeds. While healthy, these items are a choking hazard for young children largely due to children's inability to grind food.
Most children have no symptoms after swallowing an object, and the object will not cause any problems. Occasionally, the swallowed object can become stuck in the oesophagus. Take your child to a doctor or hospital emergency department if they have: trouble swallowing food.
In rare cases, swallowing a large mass of gum, or many small pieces of gum over a short period of time, can block the digestive tract. Blockages are more likely to happen when gum is swallowed along with other indigestible things (like sunflower seed shells).
Chewing gum can result in jaw muscle imbalance or TMJ in your jaw, especially if you chew on one side of the mouth more than the other. Whenever you overuse a set of muscles, it results in contracted ligaments and debilitating pain. It can also lead to earaches, toothaches, and headaches.
Chewing gum can potentially cause mercury to be released from mercury amalgam fillings. Chewing gum can also lead to tooth decay and erosion, especially when sweetened with sugar. When you chew sugar-sweetened gum, you are essentially bathing your teeth and gums in a bath of sugar for a sustained period of time.
Common sources of xylitol include: Chewing gum such as Trident®, Icebreakers®, Stride®, Orbit®, Pure®, Mentos®, and Spry®. Please note that some Trident® gums do not contain xylitol so please check the ingredients.
Young children shouldn't chew xylitol gum. Children who are toddlers and older can ingest xylitol as a sugar substitute or as a result of regularly eating fruits and vegetables. Older children can chew xylitol gum to reduce the formation of new cavities.
Little kids are most likely to be affected because they might not understand that gum is chewed, not swallowed. But apart from these strange scenarios, swallowing an occasional piece of gum is harmless.
So it might be a surprise that chewing gum contains plastic. The ingredient know as “gum base” in the list of ingredients in chewing gum is largely made of polyvinyl acetate.
Swallowed Gum and Airway Obstruction
It may become lodged in the esophagus, but a more life-threatening concern is if gum gets stuck in the trachea and blocks the airway passage to the lungs. This is more common in toddlers and children but may also occur in adolescents and adults.
Rapid, noisy, or high-pitched breathing. Increased drooling. Trouble swallowing, pain when swallowing, or complete inability to swallow. Gagging.
The composition of chewing gum consists of a gum base or gum core, which may or may not be coated. Gum base is composed of an insoluble gum base (resins, humectants, elastomers, emulsifiers, fillers, waxes, antioxidants, and softeners), sweeteners, and flavoring agents.
No, gum isn't biodegradable; this means once the gum is made, the gum will be around for a very long time. Gum is an environmental nightmare, due to the gum's stickiness and un-biodegradable nature.
Non-biodegradable materials, such as plastics, including chewing gum, do not disintegrate naturally and result in plastic waste 41, 42.