When kids complain about pain in their stomachs, parents assume it is one of the usual suspects. They either ate too much, are catching the dreaded stomach bug, or if it is persistent, assume it is some sort of food sensitivity. The last thing they think might be the culprit? A melon-sized hairball. But that is exactly what was bothering Jodie Collins’ 14-year-old-daughter Erin, much to her utter shock, according to Metro UK.
“She was suffering with really bad stomach cramps for a good six months,” the mom told the outlet. “I thought she could be lactose or gluten intolerant.”
“The pain was really sporadic but when it came, it was really bad and she had to be off school,” she continued.
The teen began complaining of back pain in November 2024, so Collins set her up for a litany of medical tests looking for intolerances. All the tests came back negative. When the pain persisted, so did Collins. She urged doctors to take an ultrasound, but they didn’t pick anything up when they did.
In May 2025, she took her daughter to the hospital for more testing. An MRI scan found a hard mass in her stomach, and doctors deduced it was a hairball, which formed because the teen had a habit of eating her own hair. The hairball had caused a number of nutritional issues.
Surgeons reportedly spent five hours removing the hairball. Luckily, it did not travel to her intestines, making the surgery less complicated. After 10 days in recovery, she was able to go home.
Collins said she was shocked because she didn’t even realize her daughter had been consuming hair, although she had noticed she fidgeted with it a bit. Doctors speculated that she could be doing it in her sleep without realizing it.
In a similar case, Tamil Nadu News reported that doctors in Puducherry, India, had to remove a giant hairball from a 17-year-old’s stomach, and acknowledged the teen might have eaten the hair in their sleep.
While it may not have been intentional, it is an issue others have faced.
The BBC reported in 2024, that a 7-year-old girl had to have a 6-inch hairball removed from her stomach, as she had developed a hair chewing habit.
“Look at getting kids who twirl their hair fidget toys or something to break that cycle, or if it’s really bad, then apparently CBT therapy can be good for breaking hair-twirling,” Collins warned other parents. “Don’t just leave it for years. Definitely try and break the habit.”
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