When I was a kid, I had this idea that the inside of the torso was basically hollow. If you swallowed food, it would fall out of a hole at the base of the neck and into this cavernous region. At the bottom it would fall into stomach acid (for some reason I knew about stomach acid but not the stomach itself) and the walls were just skin/muscle tissue. I don't remember when it dawned on me that there were organs and bones in there, but I do remember that, at least for a few moments, I was cautious about accepting this "anti-hollow" theory.
A childhood belief about eating
others believed things like this
- If you swallowed chewing gum it would make a balloon inside you and your stomach would explodeAnon
- i used to think tha if you went outside when it was acid raining the rain would burn holes in your skin— fear of rain
- My Mom used to tell me if I swallowed an apple seed I would grow an apple tree inside my stomach!— Marg
- I thought a stomach ache was a stomach egg— Catherine
- My Mom used to tell us that if you bit your fingernails, they would cut a hole in your stomach.— Linda B
- my mom made me believe that if i swallowed my chewing gum, it would form one big wad in my stomach.— mimi