8-Year-Old Had 3-Pound Hairball In Stomach, Found After Girl Complained Of Pain

An eight-year-old girl was recovering after doctors removed 1.5 kilogram (3 pound) hairball from her stomach.

Feifei, from southern China, had been eating her own hair since the age of two. In January, she told her mother that she stopped the habit. The following month, however, she fell ill with severe stomach pain and vomiting.

A few days later, Feifei’s mother noticed her swollen stomach and rushed her to a hospital in Guangdong where doctors performed gastric lavage on her to empty the contents of her stomach. The doctors, however, were unable to find any food residue in her stomach, the World Of Buzz reported.

Dr. Tang Shilong then conducted a CT scan and found a massive hairball tangled with food residues. He couldn’t remove the hairball through endoscopy as it showed signs of calcification or hardening of tissue. Shilong, however, managed to successfully remove the 3lb hairball by performing a surgery.

“This hairball must have been in the stomach for years. The habit of eating hair is a typical symptom of pica, an eating disorder that leaves people with a tendency to eat non-nutritional objects,” Shilong said.

Feifei was discharged from the hospital late February and was recovering. Her mother is keeping an eye on her and trying to stop her from eating her hair.

In a similar incident in February 2019, 250 gram (0.5lb) hairball was removed from a 12-year-old girl’s stomach in China. Zhu Xiaoxin suffers from a rare disorder called Rapunzel syndrome due to which she eats her own hair. Last month, the girl complained of severe stomach pain after which she was rushed to a hospital.

“CT scans showed a foreign mass obstructing her bowels. The obstruction was very obvious because her stomach contents could only be seen above and not below the object,” Dr. Zhang Heng said, Yahoo reported. “The first order of business after her surgery should be to cut her hair, then she needs to start taking iron and zinc supplements. She may also need to see a specialist,” the doctor added.