What are the dangers of chewing gum for children?

Chewing gum has always been a very popular and delicious snack, because chewing gum is not only for continuous chewing to obtain the sweetness and other flavors, but also can exercise the facial biting muscles. Although chewing gum tastes good, it is not suitable for everyone to eat. Children who are in their developmental period should pay attention to some matters when eating chewing gum. For example, what are the dangers of children eating chewing gum?

Many children like to chew gum, and their parents think it is normal and do not stop them. However, from a medical point of view, it is not good for children's health to chew gum frequently. Why is this? First of all, judging from the ingredients of chewing gum, it mainly consists of two parts: sugar and rubber, plus a small amount of plasticizer. From the perspective of children eating too much sugar, there are two major harms: malnutrition and tooth decay. Because eating too much sugar will lead to excess calories, which will cause a decrease in appetite, the intake of other nutritional ingredients will decrease accordingly. Sugar can also cause tooth decay because it accelerates the growth of bacteria in the mouth. Fruit acid can also corrode teeth, and toothache will aggravate the reduction in dietary intake.

Although the amount of plasticizers in chewing gum is safe, chewing gum frequently may affect children's health due to the cumulative effects of plasticizers. Secondly, children have their own characteristics when chewing gum, that is, they may knead the chewed gum in their hands and then put it back into their mouths to chew. In this way, bacteria, viruses, parasite eggs, etc. on the hands will enter the body and cause diseases.

Because children have poor self-control, if they keep chewing gum in their mouths all day, they may swallow it or it may enter their trachea by mistake, which may be life-threatening. In addition, chewing gum for a long time will keep the chewing muscles in a tense state, which may develop a habit of grinding teeth in sleep, thus affecting the child's sleep quality. Someone once joked that the American habit of grinding their teeth while sleeping "all originated from chewing gum." Of course, there is no harm in eating a piece or two of chewing gum occasionally, as long as there is no bad way of eating it, such as holding it in your hand after biting it and putting it into your mouth again. But if a child is addicted to chewing gum and eats two pieces or more a day, parents should intervene.

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