Bubble gum

The other night, while putting Little Miss to bed, she asked if she could have some bubble gum.  I told her when she was five, but in typically Little Miss fashion, she cued the crocodile tears and stuck out her pouty lip and got me to cave...

...but if and only if she did her pull over again at gymnastics the next day (she's been not wanting to go because it hurts her tummy when she gets stuck)...

....and low and behold the next morning the little stinker did it.  So off we went to get bubble gum.  And even though I repeated told her we don't swallow bubble gum, she clearly doesn't get the concept because she had one piece and minutes later saw her reach for a second piece...

 

So of coursed I asked, "where'd the first piece go? did you swallow it?"  And she shook her head, "no."  So then I asked, "where is it?" and she pointed to her tummy...

...needless to say that was the last piece she chewed unsupervised.  I did allow her to have a second piece, as I sat there ready and waiting with a wipey and as soon as I could see her start to swallow, I'd hand her the wipe and instructor her to spit it out.  It only took 6 wipes (because one piece of gum is essentially six for her little mouth) but she successfully chewed (and did not swallow) her first piece of gum.

As part of this, I did tell her that gum is too sticky for her tummy to turn to poop so if she swallowed too much, there'd be a ball of gum in her tummy and we'd have to go to the hospital.  Wonder if this will stick?  Also, wondering now if this is true or is this just an old wives tale that our parents use to tell us!  ha!