1 Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
I take issue with many of the points raised in Drs. Stone and Barbero's article on recurrent abdominal pain.1 First, their conclusion that recurrent abdominal pain in childhood is a form of "the irritable bowel syndrome" is not helpful-it is like substituting the word idiopathic for unknown.
Second, they exposed their patients to considerable irradiation-102 upper gastrointestinal series and barium enemas were done. All of these examinations were normal, as anyone who has dealt with recurrent abdominal pain in childhood might have predicted.