Bezoar: How to Care for Your Child

A bezoar (BEE-zor) is a hard lump of hair, food, or other substance in the stomach or intestine. Your child can get completely better with treatment.

Bezoars can form over time as bits of food, hair, fabric, medicine, or chewing gum stick together in the stomach. Kids who often swallow non-food items like hair or chewing gum are more likely to get bezoars.

Rarely, a bezoar can form when bits of food or milk stick together when a child's stomach breaks down food slowly. This is more common in premature babies who drink formula and in kids who have had stomach surgery.

Bezoars can grow bigger over time. Sometimes they block the stomach or intestines and keep food from passing through the body. A child with a bezoar may have a poor appetite or feel full quickly, vomit, have bad breath, have stomach pain, or lose weight.

The health care provider examined your child and asked questions about symptoms. An X-ray, CT scan, or ultrasound may have shown the bezoar. Sometimes, a health care provider uses a tiny camera on the end of a thin tube that is passed through the mouth and down into the stomach to see and study the bezoar. If the health care provider used this camera, a medication was given to keep your child comfortable during the procedure.

Treatment depends on the kind of bezoar. It may include a medicine, a special diet, or surgery to remove the bezoar. Some kids stay in the hospital for treatment.

• Give your child any prescribed medicine as directed.

• Follow the health care provider's instructions about what foods to offer your child.

• Schedule any follow-up appointments as directed.

Your child:

• Vomits a lot.

• Refuses to eat.

• Has pain that gets worse.

• Has diarrhea.

Your child:

• Has severe belly pain.

• Can't keep food or liquids down.

• Has bloody vomit or stool (poop).

• Has black stool.

Some kids who have bezoars made up of hair have a condition called trichophagia. Kids with this condition get strong urges to eat hair. In such cases, the health care provider may recommend follow-up with a psychologist to help the child learn to control this urge.