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

How do kids get bezoars? A bezoar usually happens because a child ate non-food items like hair or chewing gum. 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.

How are bezoars treated? Treatment depends on the kind of bezoar, how big it is, and how the child is feeling. Small bezoars in kids without symptoms might be allowed to pass on their own. Sometimes a bezoar might be treated with medicine or something to drink to break it up. Some kids might need an endoscopy. In this procedure, a health care provider puts a small, flexible tube with a tiny camera on the end into the child's mouth and down to the stomach. Then, they break up and take out the bezoar. For larger bezoars causing problems, surgery may be needed.

To help prevent another bezoar in kids who got one by repeatedly eating hair or other non-food things, the health care provider may recommend seeing a psychologist or other behavioral health provider. They can help the child learn to handle the strong urge to eat the material again.