We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the grossest things they did as kids. Here are some of the most disgusting responses.
1. The spit sipper:
"I had a little porcelain cup i used to spit in all day, every day. When it was full I'd drink my week-old spit and start over." – lilicharlotte2000
2. The far-from-ideal face mask:
"My mum woke up one morning to find my brother next to her, having taken a poo and wiping his whole face with his poo. It was hard to see his lips." – trublu0829
3. The slightly horrifying curator:
"I used to have a 'skin, scab and nail' collection I kept in a box with a clear lid in my bedside drawer. Any particularly impressive (usually massive/gross) scabs, bits of skin or toenails went in." – allyw4db77ba76
4. The budding chef:
"When I was a kid, say I was eating something dry like biscuits. I would chew one spit it out on another and make a regurgitated sandwich. YUM." – JasmineBonita
5. The unusual snacker:
"I used to eat dead flies. They would drown in the condensation on my window and i would just sit there eating them. I stopped it thankfully but I never found out why i did it. I probably don't want to!" – daniellec4f6bc201e
6. The serial chewer:
"I used to pick used chewing gum off random surfaces and chew it. Pavements, under desks at school, bus stops... how I didn't end up with all kinds of diseases I'll never know!" – amyf450d7d32d
7. The unconventional habit:
"When i was in the first years of primary school, instead of sucking my thumb like a normal child, I preferred to suck on my big toes. At home, I would sit on the floor, suck on them for a short while and then move on." – reikoko
8. The kid who was just interested in history:
"When I learned about chamber pots when I was like 8, I decided to give one a whirl – meaning I shat in a Scooby-Doo cup (mind you my bedroom was four feet away from the bathroom). I proceeded to hide my nasty cup o' shit in my dresser for a few days until my poor, poor mother found my porta-cup full of poop fermenting in my dresser." – gwendolynh46a2ab22c
9. The wax collector:
"I used to clean out my ear wax with the corner of my pillow case at bedtime. By the time the pillow cases were washed, there would be multiple brownish spots left by the wax all over the fabric. My mom got so furious when she discovered what those spots were!" – ellenpdx
10. The baby-wipe hoarder:
"My mum always tells the story about how I had a horrible smell coming from me for days and it wouldn't go away no matter how much she bathed me, and she took me to the doctors and found out that I'd shoved some baby wipes up my nose and they were going manky and that's where the smell was coming from. She said it was like a magicians trick as they pulled them out because they just kept coming."
– Rosie Penver via Facebook
11. The curious kid:
"As a ten year old, I once tried to smoke an old cigarette butt I found in the playground. Without lighting it or anything. I just popped it in my mouth."
– Julia Kohl via Facebook
12. The wannabe decorator:
"When I was little and I wore night nappies I would poo in them, take them off and wipe the poo on my bedroom furniture." – leahm4e0992ac5
13. The neighbourhood terror:
"I would poop on a stick and chase my sister and best friend around the neighbourhood with it. Sad, but true. Worth the reaction though." – kathryn9300
14. The well-intentioned healer:
"When I was five or six I watched the movie Thumbelina. Remember the part where she nurses the bird back to health? Well, I found a dead bird and put it in a jacket pocket because I wanted to make it all better again. My mom found the decaying bird a couple of weeks later..." – ashleybarrettu
15. The poo painter:
"Apparently my mum once found me drawing pictures on the pavement with a stick. The only thing was that I'd done a poo in my knickers, turned it out onto the floor and that's what I was using to make the picture with!" – jennajoant
16. The innovative hair stylist:
"I thought it would be a clever idea to use Vaseline as hair gel, only I didn't stop there. I decided to rub Vaseline over my entire head and completely saturate my hair. I started to panic when it wasn't washing out. I had to wash my hair with dish soap for two weeks to help cut the grease." – Melanie Cisneros via Facebook
17. The enthusiastic cleaner:
"My mom always tells me that when I was a toddler, I was really bad about splashing and playing in the toilet. She says that any time someone would leave that bathroom door open I would go in there, dip a washcloth in the toilet and proceed to wipe down everything my little toddler arms could reach with dirty toilet water. My mom was a serious clean freak and apparently I was just trying to clean like she did." – Terri Koski Smith via Facebook
18. The refusal to let food go to waste:
"I used to eat the spilled popcorn off the movie theatre floor. I was all sneaky about it too, crouching on the floor like Gollum, noshing on sticky, stale, popcorn." – Kirsten Matzen Rinehart via Facebook
19. And the kid who ate stuff that was most definitely NOT food:
"I used to eat nail clippings from my fingers AND toes for a long time, and skin peelings. SOMETIMES I'D SWALLOW THEM." – Jess Cook via Facebook
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.