Trichotillomania In Young Children

[WIS0320]

Is anyone else dealing with this? My 7 year old has had mild symptoms since she was an infant (occasionally eating hair and fuzzy things like fluff from crocheted blankets) but things have really escalated in the last few weeks. She has been obsessively pulling hair from one area of her scalp and eating it. We are going to see a child psych but until that appointment could you please give me ideas on things that have helped you or your own child? We have stress balls for her hands when she is feeling like she wants to pull and we have started laying with her as she falls asleep because that seems to be the time of the most damage and she seems relatively unaware that she is doing it. She is eating most of the hair she pulls out which is causing me much more worry and stress than her thinning hair on her head. I don't want her to have GI issues.

 

Help!

[kalanamak]

Short hair.

My son never got much of the habit because I kept his hair butched off, as my mother would have said. As soon as the twiddling started he'd tell me he needed a hair cut.

 

Then he decided he wanted longer hair, and has not restarted. But, a week ago, he started popping his knuckles. I started that as age 10, too. Not sure how my mother stood it.

[Night Elf]

Well, we didn't have quite the same problem, but kind of similar. When my son was 9 yrs. old, he pulled out enough hair on the crown of his head that he had a bald spot. That was actually what started our journey to him getting diagnosed with Aspergers. The hair pulling was a tic he had. For us, we kept toys in his hands at all times. He was very into matchbox cars and action figures so we encouraged him to hold them as much as possible, especially during the times that the hair pulling was really bad. For him though, it was just a tic and was eventually replaced with another tic and so on. He never went back to hair pulling though. Good luck!

[Mom0012]

My niece had this from a very young age. A few years ago, she got very sick and the doctors were unable to figure out what was wrong with her. After a week in one hospital, she was transferred to another, where they found a huge hairball in her stomach, which had to be surgically removed. Being that sick and having to go through the surgery seems to have stopped the problem in her. My sister also separated from her husband shortly before the surgery. She thinks the problem was mostly caused by stress due to her ex's violent temper. So, I'm sure that reduction in stress also helped her to stop.

 

So, is there any major stress that could be triggering this for your child? I wish I had something else to add that would be helpful. The short hair sounds like a good idea, but it sounds like she also eats fuzz and things, as did my niece. I would look into therapy as well.

[Lynnae]

Short hair.

My son never got much of the habit because I kept his hair butched off, as my mother would have said. As soon as the twiddling started he'd tell me he needed a hair cut.

 

Then he decided he wanted longer hair, and has not restarted. But, a week ago, he started popping his knuckles. I started that as age 10, too. Not sure how my mother stood it.

That is my son. Exactly. I'm glad he's not pulling his hair anymore, but the knuckle cracking drives me insane!