A childhood belief about birthdays

I guess i was about 9, my mom would was always trying to get me to eat. Constantly. Im not sure why. But after a while my cousin,who was in his teens, said that parents always tried to get kids to eat to fatten them up,because when they turned 11 years old they were sold to work in a cannery. he told me a cannery was where you gutted fish. When i asked why he hadn't been sent there,he only fueled it more,by saying only the oldest of multiple siblings got sent. He of coarse was an only child. I actually lost alot of sleep over that story..and beleived it for years,always dreading my 11th birthday,and counting my remaining days of freedom before being sold to the cannery.