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If You Swallow Gum, Does It Stay In Your Gut for Years?

If You Swallow Gum, Does It Stay In Your Gut for Years? (0:38)

It is a myth that if you swallow chewing gum it will stay in your gut for years. Watch Robin Miller, MD, explain why not spitting out your gum can still be a health hazard.

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Is it true that chewing gum can stay in your gut for years if you swallow it? Is this true? No. However, there're several case reports of children who swallowed several pieces of gum and ended up with bowel obstructions requiring surgery. One of the children was a four year old boy who swallowed 5 - 7 seven pieces a day.

Wow, five to seven, that's a lot. So, what would be your advise to parents? Don't let them chew gum until they're mature enough to know they shouldn't swallow it. Okay. That's good advice. Because, otherwise, you don't know what they're swallowing. They swallow all kinds of things, coins, gum, you name it.

That's trouble. Yeah, that's trouble.