Daughter Makes Knots in Her Hair!

My daughter knotted and sometimes pulled out her hair around 3 years of age. I had planned to speak to her ped about it, but she stopped before I did. The prevailing opinion among the people I did talk to (friends, family) was that the twirling could be a way to soothe herself and the pulling could either be a way of dealing with frustration or could be exploration/experimentation. BTW, she also had short, fine hair. Anyway, when I asked my daughter how the knots got in her hair or why some of her hair was pulled out she told me "Cinderella did it." (Yikes! Knotting her hair AND an imaginary friend!) Rather than counter her on the Cinderella issue, I told her to tell Cinderella that I loved her hair and I wanted it to stay in her head and I didn't want to have to cut out knots. And if Cinderlla wasn't going to follow my rules she wouldn't be allowed to come to our house anymore. Much to my surprise it worked. The only other thing I can think to recommend (besides talkint to your ped) is if you catch her in the act, don't make a big deal about it, but remove her hand, smooth her hair, and redirect her. Good luck to you!

Put her hair up - I used to put my daughter's on the top of her head -- she never thought to reach up there! :-)
LBC

My daughter did that up until she was 6. It started with twisting my hair to go to sleep so we got her a doll with hair. We were able to find a soft "Little People" doll with hair instead of yarn and that worked until she was about 3. Then she started on her own. It was her way to soothe herself. We used a detangler to get it out (you can make your own by adding a little condition to a spray bottle and then filling it with water) when it was really bad. My husband did cut a few out, but most of the time I was able to untangle it. I will say that untangling by hand was much easier than untangling with a brush, even with the detangling. My daughter stopped on her own. When her hair is long enough, try braiding her hair in several braids. On the nights I did this, my daughter would twirl the braid and we didn't have knots in the morning.

Good luck!

I like Lisa T. answer. My daughter use to pull her top hair when she was around 1 year old. She did stop on her own in a couple months.
Every time I saw her doing it I would stop her but she would just keep doing it later. Lucky, she now has a beautiful long hair but now she gets awful tangles in the back of her hair while sleeping, I use a detangler and it works great.

Wow, my mom STILL does this! Definitely a comfort thing, her mom gave her a doll which she scalped over time. My mom's hair never got thicker and she has always worn it long. She tends to worry the hair at her temples into curls which of course break off repeatedly so that hair is always short.

A few years ago she did find something to help her not 'worry' her hair so much. She takes her hair from her brush (the stuff that usually gets caught in there) and makes a little wad of it. She worries those wads and has a ready supply of new ones. After several months her handmade 'side curls' are finally the same length as the rest of her 'do. The only downside on this is the little wads turn up in odd places. I call them hair boogers:)

Have you tried a detangler or conditioned before she goes to bed...toddlers hair us usally so fine you don't need these yet, but maybe if you use that during her bath before bed it will soften her hair a bit more and make those knots harder to make!

I'm guessing that it's a comfort thing she does while she is sleeping. Maybe a ponytail or braids -if you can get her to sit!

Otherwise, maybe you don't have to cut her hair off real short, but maybe a stylist could help you with a cute shorter 'do' that will help until she outgrows this.

Put her hair up and give her a doll or animal to sleep with that has long, soft hair. Maybe she will twist it's hair instead.