HELP!!! My Daughter Is Pulling Her Hair Out.

Talk to your pediatrician. If he/she won't address the issue or take it seriously, seek out a pediatric psychiatrist. It is possible that she has trichotillamania (hair pulling). My daughter (now 12) has had it since 1st grade and she pulls her eyelashes, eyebrows and her hair. She finds it comforting. Trich is very hard to treat (if this is what she has). Some psychiatrists believe it is related to OCD (obsesssive-compulsive dissorder), some think it's not. Good luck.

J.,

Please take her to see a doctor, I have never seen this disease in someon so young it may just be a phase. However I have a friend who has trichotillomania, chronic hair pulling, she has suffered from this since the 4th grade we are now 28 she continues to pull even with thearapy she still wears a wig. On the other hand I have a cousin who suffered and now no longer pulls. I hope this is not the case with your daughter but please seek medical adivce just in case.

www.kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/trichotil...

This is a recognized psychological condition, get your daughter to a psychologist or psychiatrist right away, it is like obsessive compulsive behavior. She is not able to control this behavior, so please do not punish or discipline on this.
There is help, but it has to be done by a professional.
Good luck.

It's a nervous habit. I have bald spots even at age 52 from doing that to my hair. Cutting it short didn't really help me because I could not twirl it and would pull hand fulls of it out.
Not that I am suggesting this but I was molested from the age of 3 until I was raped at age 12 . I got pregnant and thank god misscarried. I twirled my hair because of this. I hated seeing men, strangers or even extended family, or even going to sleep. Didn't want to dream about it. Btw it was not my father but older cousin, slightly older uncle and neighbor.

I agree get ehr to a doctor, but in the mean time something that might work at night, my dentist told me to put socks on my dd's hands to prevent thumb succking it was really hurtingehr adult teeth, so she slept with socks on ehr hands, it might help your daughter if nothing else break the habit of playing with her hair at night.

Hi J.,
My name is T. and I am a mother of 4. I have had the same problem with the hole twirling hair thing. To be honest I do it is a habbit that I don't even know when I am doing it and I am a 30 year old women and still do it, but when I was younger my mom cut my hair very short and I stopped b/c I had no choice in the matter, but also she took me to the doctor and they told her that it is a nervous habbit. So mother tried to remind me when I was doing it. So just hang in there and know that your not the only one.

My son did the same thing until just recently (he's 13 and finally starting notice his appearance). We tried reminding him everytime we caught him with his hands in his hair, but it didn't work. The only thing that prevented the behavior was keeping it too short to wrap around his finger (I know, this is easier with a boy). But we couldn't change the behavior until he got old enough to begin responding to peer pressure (his friends started noticing the bald spot in the back of his head). You might try counseling for her. She might seem too young, but she may just be responding to stress. Even little kids feel stress. Especially if they are very bright. In the meantime, consider a short hair cut and dress her up with little hats and wrap around headbands (the soft, stretchy kind).

I had a similiar problem when I was young. It drove my mother nuts. I would play with my hair while I was eating. She hated trying to clean the food out of my hair. Her solution was to cut my hair so short that I couldn't play with it. When the habit was gone, she let it grow out again. It's a little drastic, but it did solve the problem!