Help My 17 Month Old Daughter Is Eating Her Hair!!!

Hi K.,
Whatever you do to stop this, do it. Hair never comes out in the stool. It stays in the stomach forever. I have seen it when i was working in the OR.
Good luck
L.

Okay, so I don't know much about it...but, my co-worker has this and she shared these sites with me. She's lived with this her whole life, but didn't have luck until she sought help/treatment of doctor's how helped her pinpoint her stressors and what made her pull her hair out.

Not saying this is it exactly, but these might have helpful links to help you figure out who to go to seek help from.

http://www.trich.org/treatment/options.html#

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/tricho...

K.,
I'm sorry that you have to go through this. I really hear how frustrated you are while at the same time, concerned about your daughter's well-being

As a therapist, I would suggest that you look up the psychiatric disorders, Pica and Trichotilimania. Pica is characterized by children who eat non-food objects - hair would be included in that. Trichotilimania (not sure of the spelling) is characterized by people pulling out their hair. Pica is somewhat common in kids her age. Trichotiimania is usually seen in much older children and is usually related to anixety and falls under an obsessive/compulsive disorder.

Since your doc ruled out any medical conditions, I am surprized he didn't discuss, with you, that it could be a psychiatric conditon and offer you some suggestions or referrals. My suggestion is for you to go back to your doc and discuss this with him. Your child is a bit young for these psychiatric disorders but anything can happen.

If I were the treating therapist, I would want to know what is happening in your family. Have there been any sudden changes - you going back to work, daughter put into daycare, a death or divorce etc.? Any changes in the family will cause behavior changes in a child.

In the mean time, I might suggest that (if you haven't thought about this already) you cut her hair short, wear a stocking cap or put mittens or gloves on her hands.

I wish you and your family the best. I would love to what you find out and how you end up treating this condition.
With light,
R. K.

i know there is actually a mental disease (i hate the word disease, i dont feel as though it really applies here) that causes people to pull out their hair and eyelashes and eyebrows, and one that causes the person to eat or chew on their hair. it is most common in girls. if you can take her to a child psychologist, you might get more answers than taking her to a pediatrician.

you can also google search it if you want more info before taking her to a shrink!

Sounds like Trichotillomania. Most children of your daughter's age will grow out of it. Try to keep her hands busy, put gloves on her hands during her nap time and possibly hold her hand while nursing. Here is a website that I find useful(as I suffer from this disorder as well) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/trichotillomania/DS00895. Please do not yell at her, or punish her for this as it is probably something she does subconsciously.

Good luck and feel free to email me if you want to talk about it.

I read a bit on the links that Deanna posted, and it seems like this "Trichotillomania" may just be what your daughter has. If this is the case, then I would see a child therapist/psychologist instead of a general doctor. They have an even better understanding of the psychological development and may be of more help to you. Good luck to you! I hope you can get to the bottom of this and help your daughter out - sounds a little scary!

find professional homeopath in your area, not an MD, DO, chiro just plain and simple homeopath preferably certified (CCH) - there are several criterai to determine the remedy for the child who has desire to eat unusual things. Or you can try them one by one - here are those used most often: Bryonia (if you child is also thirsty for large quntity of cold water) Calcarea carbonica (if she sweat at night and mostly on the head and loves eggs), if both of these don't discribe her, there are others: Calcarea phosphorica, chelidonium majus, cyclament, hepar sulph or mancinella. Start at low potency ~30C and go up if no improvement is seen in several days.
Good Luck
V.

Good Morning K.,

You may want to look into NAET.com. Your daughter may have allergies which is causing physical problems. NAET.com is a group of allergists around the world who eliminate allergies. Also, you may want to go to site Amazon.com and pick up the book Say Goodbye To Illness by Dr. Devi Nambudripad. She is the creator of NAET.

I have been seeing an NAET allergist for a few months and my allergies are being eliminated and my health is improving.

If you have any questions about NAET you may email me at ____@____.com Well.

N.

have you tried for her to bite into other things? maybe hard cookies like zowieback?

Hi K.. The pulling-hair out sounds like trichotillomania. Did your doctor mention this to you? It is a psychological condition - here's what webmd.com has to say about it: "Trichotillomania is thought to be an obsessive-compulsive disorder that can be difficult to treat, since the patient usually feels compelled to pluck their hair. The hair loss is patchy, and marked by broken hairs of varying length. Within the patches, hair loss is not complete.

Some children with trichotillomania also have trichophagy --the habit of eating the hair they pluck. They develop abdominal masses consisting of balls of undigested hair. These can lead to pain, nausea and vomiting, bleeding, blockages and other serious gastrointestinal problems.

Treatment of trichotillomania: Hair pulling is usually treated with cognitive/behavioral therapy or relaxation techniques, which can be very effective. In addition, medication might be used as part of the treatment program. A type of antidepressant medication called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) might be useful in helping to curb very intense urges.

Children often recover completely from trichotillomania. In adults, however, the disorder tends to be chronic (ongoing) and harder to treat."

They have much more information on the site.

I would strongly urge you to see a child psychologist as soon as possible - the earlier you begin treatment the better.

Best of luck,
B.

As long as the hair trauma was not severe or chronic enough to cause scarring, the hair will re-grow when the trauma is stopped."

Does she have a blanket or a stuffed animal that soothes her? Maybe she is trying to sooth herself. What about giving her a blanket that has fringe that she can stroke and hold onto while she is sleeping and nursing? My daughter started to pull on her hair and eyelashes for a while when she was around 15-17 months but then she stopped and has a lovey blanket and stuffed animal with her when she sleeps. She's 22 months so maybe your daughter will end up doing the same.

My daughter has this and I've seen it posted quite a bit on this board and on other boards,so it's more common then you think. As others have indicated, it's trichetillmania. It's not considered an OCD until after the child is 5 years old, however. My daughter started pulling her hair out at 15 months. This is when most kids develop attachments to a "lovey." My daughter didn't, her hair was essentially the lovey, and she used it to soothe herself, just as I suspect you daughter is doing. Common philosophy on this is that you don't treat it until your daughter is older because most kids this age outgrow it. My daughter turned 5 recently and she didn't stop on her own so we stepped in. My advice is that you should try getting her to stop now, if you can but be careful how you proceed. I recommend not commenting on the hair pulling at all. Just ignore it. Try to get your daughter to develop an attachment to a lovey. Some people recommend blankets with fringe that she can run her hands through or a soft, stuffed animal.

We have been successful in getting our daughter to stop pulling. In our case, our daughter would pull her hair, then stuck on her thumb while sucking (and eating) her hair. We felt that if we stopped the thumb sucking, the hair pulling would stop. We started by ignoring the hair pulling for a couple of months. We didn't comment on it at all (and she had pulled all her hair out, so this was really hard to do). Then we told her she was getting to be a big girl and it was time to stop sucking her thumb. We wrapped her thumb in tape (the kind you use for bandages), to serve as a reminder if she sucked, and used reward charts, and gave gifts, etc. No mention was made of the hair pulling. She stopped sucking her thumb and the hair pulling stopped as well! Yay! It's been almost 4 months now and her hair is growing back in beautifully!

I think this worked for us because we waited until she was really ready to give up thumb sucking. A 17-month old needs something to soothe. I think your best chance is to find some lovey to replace the hair pulling. No mention of the hair pulling, and try different things to see what your daughter will click with! Good luck!

Hi K.,

I googled toddler eating hair and found this medical term for an anxiety condition that includes the symptom of eating the hair.

"trichotillomania"

Maybe you could search the internet for more info.

I wish you the best of luck.
R.