When my cousin was three he brought two glasses into the living room and said "Mommy, here's some lemonade for you." Such a thoughtful little boy. They both had to go to the hospital and have their stomachs pumped; he had made the drinks from a toxic cleaning product, believing it to be lemonade mix--and having learned that "it's nice to share." Fortunately both mother and son survived and the young mad chemist was not arrested.

Cheri

When I was an 8 year old boy, my mom used to tell me that if I ate the fatty part of my steak that I would grow breasts (I loved eating the fat, so I assume she was trying to scare me away from it). I thought the undigested piece of fat would travel right to the breast and get deposited under the skin. I was scared off for a while...I'm 28 now and I still eat the fat. No breasts yet....

sauerkraut

When I was 5, my father informed me that if I ate 10 Oreo cookies I would explode. I believed him for several years.

Jon

when i was in 1st grade, i accidentally checked out a book on the digestive system. I read it, and it told me exactly how you can die from choking. I instantly became paranoid and refused to eat anything that might cause me to "choke". So for almost 2 years, all I ate was canned peaches, cottage cheese, and plain spaghetti noodles. :D

embaressed

My mother used to tell me not to chew on cough drops (probably to keep me from eating them like candy). Because of this, I came to the conclusion that they were poisonous, and biting or otherwise breaking them would release the poison. They were safe as long as they were sucked on until they either became so small as to be swallowed, or completely dissolved. I believed this until I was probably in my teens, when I accidentally bit into one and didn't die.

Anon

up until i was about 8, i refused to eat sugar puffs, or ever utter the phrase 'i want my honey!' because if i did i would turn into the Honey Monster. i gradually learned to turn off the tv when the sugar puffs adverts came on.

i was also terrified of worzel gummidge, and once stole a worzel gummidge book from my nursery class and put it in the bin in the girls' toilets.

and i thought dinosaurs lived in my bathroom.

unicorn

My mom told me that if I ate uncooked cookie dough I would get worms living in my stomach. This fear lasted for years, even after ice cream companies started making varieties with names like "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough". Later, as a young adult, I cautioned another adult who was licking the (cookie) bowl clean. My warning was greeted with a smirk followed by howls of laughter and accusations of believing everything my mother told me! Someone did tell me that uncooked flour can contain worms, but I think my mother was trying to protect the cookie dough more than she was trying to protect me!

Rufus

When I was 6 or 7, My sister dared me to eat a cat biscuit, then she told my mother, who said "Oh, so you are just sitting there waiting to die then are you?" I went upstairs and kissed goodbye to all my cuddly toys and laid on the bed waiting to die. It never occurred to me that the cat ate them all the time with no side effects...

Jiggly

When The start of Daylight Saving Time in the USA was changed for late April to early April, I thought I had a guess as to why, or at least as to what made it a good idea. I had heard my aunt and some others taalking of a saying that oysters are safe to eat in months whose names contain the letter "R", but not in months containing no "R". That apparently is a real saying. But my aunt went on to tell me that once she had eaten some oysters at what she thought was about 11:30 PM on April 30. Then she made a horrific discovery that she'd forgotten to reset her watch to Daylight Saving Time, so she actually ate those oysters around 12:30 AM on May 1. She said she got really sick from eating those oysters. So I thought that changing the time change to early April was good for that reason, for that way hardly anybody could have failed to reset their watches by May 1. (Later my aunt told me that her story about getting sick from eating oysters that time was a joke, and that she's never really gotten sick from eating oysters, although the saying might have some rough validity.)

Monica

My older brother used to tell me if you ate raw potatoes your teeth would grow long and curly!

Lauren

When I was in kindergarten I was introduced to those weird, uniformly shaped potato chips known as Pringles. "Don't eat those," my dad warned me. "They'll make your hair fall out."

"Really?" I said. My dad often told me things that weren't true. But this time there was irrefutable evidence.

He rubbed a hand over his shiny bald head. "Well, look at me."

Also, I harbored the belief (until fairly recently) that botulism was *caused* by dented cans, and that if I dented a can, the food preserved within would be seething with botulism in no time.

EvaZ

i used to believe that blue smarties were poisonous; my mum told me if children ate them they would die, so i always had to give them to her.

Anon

My sister's friend was told when she was 13 that if you have Pop Rocks candy in your mouth and take a sip of soda, you will explode. Being the bright child she was, she immediately tried it. It nearly worked. The soda made the candy flare up in her mouth, causing her to spew it all of the sink. It was one of the funniest things I ever saw.

Haley

I used to think that apples that were both red & green were poisoned (thanks to a too-early exposure to Snow White & The Seven Dwarves). I still can't eat apples that are both red and green.

Anon

I used to think that Cherry Jello salad was called Cherry Botulism because my mom once told me not to put the bowl in the fridge with the spoon or that's what would happen. I was in High School before anyone corrected me and I called it that ALL THE TIME.

Jenn

When I was little whenever someone would suggest going to "Steak and Shake" my dad would always say "Nah I think we should go to "Snake and Quake" and I would beg him not to mak us go in fear of having to eat a snake.

Anon

When I was little my big brother told me that if I ate raw potatoes my teeth would grow curly.

Lauren

Don't ask, but I used to think that we would eat "snake" for dinner. Even after I learned that steak and snake were two different words, I still had to wonder which kind of meat I was eating this time.

Robert N.

In 5th grade my best friend told me if I ate mashed potatoes for a meal without eating anything else, i would shrink. Her dad was a doctor so I believed everything she told me. For years I was terrified to eat mashed potatoes at all.

Jen

When I was 5, my grandfather told me that if I drank water, it would make my insides turn to rust. I didn't start drinking water regularly until very recently, and I'm almost 30.

Liz