My 9 month old daughter (she'll be 10 months as of 21st) has been pulling her hair out lately! She has a lot of hair for her age. I almost always have it in a little pony tail on the top off her head kinda off to the righ to keep out of her eyes, and its not tight at all ... For a while now she is constantly pulling it out and she is actually getting a noticable bald spot in one area! Why?? I never had this happen with my 2 yr old and 7 yr old daughter and they both had a lot of hair too, especially my 2 year old! She does it most when I lay her down for nap and night time.. I rub her back in her crib and she likes sucking her 2 fingers closest to her thumb.. and she'll suck her fingers, then reach up and pull the heck outta her hair and try dragging it down like shes trying to eat that along with her fingers ! ? what the heck? How do I get this to stop!? Everything else with her is totally fine, milestones are all ahead of schedule.. Whats going on? Thanks mommys :)
My youngest daughter has a friend in her class that has to keep her hair shaved because she does the same thing. It's called Trichotillomania and it is an impulse control disorder. I would take her to the pediatrician and let them know what is going on to see if this is what it is or if it will go away on its own.
Best of Luck!
I didn't read all the other responses, but did see someone mention trichtotillimania. My daughter has it and she is 4. She would only do it at night time. It originally started out as twirling, then the twirling turned into knots, turned into pulling it out. I didn't realize she was doing it one day until I moved her night stand and found her "stash" of hair. My heart just broke into a million pieces. My oldest daughter sees a therapist due to her ADHD, so we asked her about it. We are now re-training her to soothe herself. We got her a "bedtime" baby to only use at bedtime and she can stroke and pet the dolls hair, but not her own. I now also lay with her at night time to re-train her. Now I am only laying with her for 3-5 minutes....where I was originally laying with her until she fell asleep so I could guarantee she wouldn't pull her hair out.
It is a phase and will pass, but we don't want our daughter's to lose their hair in the mean time. (My daughter's hair is growing back in, but it's been a long process). I don't know that I have any suggestions for a child that young. Other suggestions the therapist mentioned was wearing a hat (yet they can just take it off), finding a new lovey that they can take to bed that they can stroke, feel, pet, etc. My heart goes out to you. We are still working through this ourselves. Message me if you ever need to talk.
~K.
Since she's not just calmly rubbing or stroking it to soothe herself to sleep , like Marda and Amber mentioned trichotillomania comes to mind. It is an impulse control disorder and has nothing to do with her development and surpassing her milestones.
Talk to pediatrician now, and cut her hair short (came across this suggestion from a professional when reading about this a few days ago.) That way you'll see if she is still adamant about pulling it and trying to get it to her mouth, and the good thing is it will grow back.
God bless ✿
First off, the other ladies are right, it could be trichotillomania. BUT my neice did this too, when she was frustrated or tired, until 2 years or so. She pulled almost all of her hair out at one point. We asked a family friend who is also a therapist about it, and she said it isn't really anything to worry about unless it doesn't stop by 3 or 4 years of age. Talk to your ped but try not to worry. My niece is now 4 1/2 and I just braided her long pigtails yesterday :) she stopped around 28 months.
Hmmm, I don't have any experience with this, but I remember coming across a previous post about baby hair pulling a while ago. Try looking through past posts.
I suggest that you talk with her pediatrician. This could just be a self-soothing move or it could be an illness, trichotillomania which needs professional help. Or their may be a medical condition that causes her hair to pull out easily.
You could try taking her hair out of the pony tail for nap times. It's possible that the hair wouldn't come out if she didn't have to pull so hard to get it in her mouth.
My granddaughter sucked on her hair until recently. It was a self-soothing action.
You could try moving the pony tail or taking it out, especially at bed time.
Might not be comparable, but our little one, now 10 months old, has loved stroking his head/hair as he goes to bed. I think its a self soothing thing, and kind of cute. He doesn't pull it out though.
Good luck
