At what age do you allow chewing gum?

[petesgirl]

My DS is 5 and we haven't let him chew gum yet (besides a few times when somebody gave him a blow pop without our permission :) )
He got a few pieces of bubble gum for Halloween and I promptly tossed them. He keeps asking about them and was pretty mad when I told him I threw them away because he is too young for gum. My main worry is that the gum will end up in the carpet or the couches or someone's hair!
Anyway, his good friend (also 5) has been coming over to play lately with a wad of gum in her mouth. I make her spit out first thing at our house.

I'm sticking to my too-young-for-gum rule for now, but just curious when you all start trusting your kids with it!

[Green_Tea]

DS started chewing gum at 4 because it helped with chronic ear infections. I can't remember how old my girls were. By some miracle we never had gum end up on the carpet or in hair.

[KrisM]

Somewhere about 5 or 6 years old. They understood the "chew and don't swallow" part by then. We never had an issue with it getting anywhere it isn't supposed to.

[BDKmom]

My 6 yr old has only recently started chewing it, and not anywhere/anytime, just while I'm in a position to pay attention to him with it and never in carpeted areas. Thankfully he gets tired of it very quickly. Not something that I want to have around on a regular basis. One of his friends has been chewing it I swear since he was 3. Not sure why. He does have a sister who is 5.5 yrs older which probably has a lot to do with it.

[mackmama]

My 5yo has also been wanting to try gum. I gave a piece of gum to DC with the instructions of chewing and not swallowing. DC chewed for a few minutes then spit it out. I don't think DC could figure out how to swallow around it without swallowing the gum itself so decided it was easier just to spit it out.

[Kindra178]

About 5.


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[trcy]

My 5yo has also been wanting to try gum. I gave a piece of gum to DC with the instructions of chewing and not swallowing. DC chewed for a few minutes then spit it out. I don't think DC could figure out how to swallow around it without swallowing the gum itself so decided it was easier just to spit it out.

DD, 5, does the same thing with gum. I don't encourage gun chewing, but I am not going to fight with her about it either. I threw away the gum she got on Halloween before she noticed it.


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[TwinFoxes]

I think five. DH and I don't chew gum, so it's not something they were exposed to. I think our neighbors gave them some.

Why not just let him chew outside if you're worried about your carpet? Like, in the summer when we have a bunch of kids over, we give them ice pops and tell them to eat them outside. Getting it into someone's hair seems unlikely, it's not something I have ever worried about and my girls have long, thick, curly hair.

I get why he's mad you threw his gum away. If I didn't want my kids to have a type of candy I would have just told them, not thrown it away after they knew they had it. I would worry that sort of action erodes trust.

[BunnyBee]

My older kids were probably 4. Younger ones were when they pooped on the potty (as in no longer pooping elsewhere). I found a pile of chewed up gum behind the couch, and that child lost gum privileges for a few months. I don't really care if they swallow it. They don't chew/swallow enough to cause any kind of blockage.

[lizzywednesday]

We've been allowing it for a couple of years, but DD lost the privilege because she couldn't keep her fingers out of her mouth/the gum while chewing it. (AND I found some on my bedroom carpet that I need to deal with. Ugh.)

She will likely earn it back at Christmas to help with ear pressure when we fly, but I'm not convinced that she's learned her lesson to leave it alone.

If I'm remembering correctly, my mother let me chew gum as soon as she could trust me not to swallow it, so I'd guess around age 3.5 to 4. I do recall the rule being if I played with it, I would lose the privilege to have any.

[bw52]

Dh and I don't chew gum and I don't want my kids having it. They get it at school or church sometimes and chew it there, but as soon as we are home I have them spit it out--its pretty old by then anyway. We sorted our halloween candy and have a bag of gum that I told them we are going to give to older kids (my older 2 are 5 and 7). I just say there is nothing good that comes from eating it. they know
I just don't like it.

[Liziz]

We let DD start chewing it around 4 (or maybe even 3.5?) DH and I both chew gum frequently and DD had been begging to chew it since she was very young. At either her 3.5 or 4 year dental checkup, the dentist talked to us about how they recommend kids chewing xylitol gum (Icebreakers). I decided to give it a try with her. We would only let her have it after meals, while sitting at the table -- she'd finish her meal, get a piece of gum, chew it for ~5 minutes, then spit it out before getting up. Now, at 4.5, I let her have gum frequently. I don't let her have it when she's in her room alone (though I forget sometimes!) but she's proven herself to be trustworthy with it, so I don't mind letting her chew it.

I do have an ironclad rule about no sugar gum, however. I won't even let her have blow pops or anything like that. Thankfully she didn't get any gum for Halloween, but if she did I would have made her throw it away. I've explained to her how sugar gum is bad for her teeth and she seems okay with that because she can chew the xylitol stuff.

[AnnieW625]

I think my girls were about 3. Neither of my kids have had issues taking it out of their mouths.

[123LuckyMom]

I hate gum, and I never buy it, but both my kids have gotten it in loot bags or friends' houses. My youngest is 4, and she can handle it just fine. Every time they chew it, though, I moo at them. (They moo back and think it's funny.)


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