Stomach Facts for Kids – 5 Super Facts About the Stomach

Our stomach is an amazing digestive machine! Let’s discover five super stomach facts for kids.

Stomach Facts for Kids Fact Number 1: The Stomach Is a Part of The Digestive System

Our stomachs are bean-shaped sacks, that are located behind the lower ribs and between the oesophagus and small intestine. The stomach is a hollow organ that is a part of the digestive system, meaning it helps us to digest food. The stomach is roughly 12 inches long and it expands the more food we eat. Once food is digested, our stomachs go back to its original size.

Stomach Facts for Kids Fact Number 2: It Takes 2 to 3 Seconds for Food to Reach The Stomach

When you swallow food, it enters your oesophagus. The oesophagus is a narrow stretchy tube about 10 to 13 inches long that connects the back of the throat to the stomach. The muscles in its walls squeeze food slowly down to the stomach in a wave-like movement. This movement is called peristalsis and it only takes two to three seconds for it to get food to the stomach.

Stomach Facts for Kids Fact Number 3: Some Animals Have More Than One Stomach

Did you know that some animals have more than one stomach? The stomachs of some animals have more than one chamber and each chamber has its own job. Cows, giraffes, deers, goats and many other hoofed, grass eating animals or otherwise known as ruminants, have four separate chambers in their stomachs. Ostriches and camels have three-chambered stomachs and alligators and kangaroos have two stomachs. Baird’s beaked whale has an incredible 13 stomachs!!

Stomach Facts for Kids Fact Number 4: The Stomach Can Hold a Lot of Food

Our stomach is only the size of a fist when it is empty. However, as we eat our stomach expands to allow more food to fit. Our stomachs are able to stretch enough to hold up to 4 litres of food. That is a lot of food! It can take 6 to 8 hours for food to pass from the stomach into the small intestine so being able to store such a capacity of food is very important.

Stomach Facts for Kids Fact Number 5: The Acid in Our Stomach Is Very Strong

The acid in our stomach is so corrosive that it is strong enough to digest most of the organs in the body. It is even strong enough to dissolve some metals. The acid in our stomach is known as hydrochloric acid, which has a pH between 1 and 2. In the body, the hydrochloric acid digests food and kills any bad bacteria that might have entered with the food. The stomach wall is protected from the acid by a thick layer of mucus that stops the acid from digesting the stomach.

We hope you enjoyed learning more things about stomach as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this component in human body is, you can move on to learn about other ones and our human body like: Nervous System, Cells, Microorganisms and cardiovascular system.

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