Hair pulling in Toddler

gifted

Hiya,

Our second child who's 2 and 3 months old sucks her thumb. When she started creche at age 1 we noticed that she sucked her thumb and with the other hand started pulling a few strands of hair and playing with the hairs by her mouth, wriggling them with her other hand while sucking her thumb. We put it down to starting creche and being out of her comfort zone. However after a while half her head was bald. Doctor told us that it was a comfort thing and she would grow out of it.
She stopped a while back and we thought that she had grown out of it, but in the last few weeks she has started again, just as her hair was getting thicker even though her routine hasn't changed and she's quite a happy child.
It only occurs when she's sucking her thumb so at the moment we're trying to encourage her to stop that as well but she's a bit young to fully understand.
Has anyone come across this with their children? If yes, what did ye do to encourage them stop?

milkandsugar

My friends daughter did this when she was having her bottle. She's just two and has stopped. I seem to remember supper nanny doing something on this in her last series if you look at channel 4 od you should be able to find it.

gifted

Hiya,

Thanks for replying, I checked channel 4 but couldn't find that

milkandsugar

If you google alopecia and supper nanny you should get something. Sorry I'm on my phone and can't post links.

Roselm

What about tying up her hair.Its a habit so a little change like hair being out of reach might just break the cycle.Or what about giving her something hands on to do when she starts sucking her thumb to keep her other hand busy.