05 June 2023 , 19:38
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A little boy was rushed to hospital for surgery after swallowing 40 pieces of gum.
The five-year-old boy consumed the entire packet of sugar-free gum, swallowing each piece before later falling seriously ill.
At first, his desperate parents called the poison hotline and were told to monitor his condition.
But six hours later, the youngster started suffering stomach cramps, diarrhoea and was in serious pain.
The boy was later rushed to hospital, according to a case study from JEM Reports.
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Doctors began searching for "bezoars", which are also known as indigestible foreign objects often swallowed by children.
Dr Chizite Iheonunekwu from Cleveland Clinic Akron General, performed CT scans on his stomach and pelvis, discovering a large mass within his stomach.
Knowing the child had been "eating a large amount of chewing gum", they decided to perform an esophagoduodenoscopy (EGD).
A scan of the boys stomach showed a mass of the gum in his gut (Science Direct)The gum had blocked 25% of his stomach and gastrointestinal tract with doctors eventually placing a metal tube down the child's throat and removed the chewing gum from his tummy.
It took "several passes" of the EGD to get it all out and he "complained of a sore throat" before being sent home.
There is a misconception that chewing gum stays in your stomach for seven years.
But it actually passes through your system and leaves the body within a few days.
Dietician Beth Czerwony to Cleveland Clinic said: "If you've swallowed a piece of gum, it'll come out about 40 years later in your stool.
"If you do this every day, or multiple times a day, it can cause an intestinal blockage.
"A blockage isn't going to clear itself. Left untreated, it can cause a rupture of the gastrointestinal tract."
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Chewing gum is commonly made from a synthetic gum base, meaning it has no nutritional value for the body.
She concluded: "Gum base isn't able to be digested, so it just stays in your guts all the way through and doesn't break down."