Trichotillomania

I have a niece now 18 diagnosed with trichotillomania at age 7.Her mom found a psychologist that she has seen at different intervals in her life and she has thrived without medications.She found the counselor through searching the net and finding a support group in her area.She also has attended several of the yearly conferences which offers to support to parents and the children which my sister felt was very worthwhile.

Is it trichotillomania, alopecia areata, or tinea capitis? Many possibilities for hair loss. I would suggest going to a dermatologist first to diagnose the codition. If it is AA or tinea there are meds we can use, but best to jump in early. My office number is ###-###-#### I would be happy to see him. To learn more about me, visit our web site the name of the practice is North Dallas Dermatology
If it is trichotillomania he will need to see a psychiatrist, and be put on medications - this is a form of obsessive compulsive disorder
Good luck!
S.

This is sooooo weird you should post this now, because I just discovered my 8 year old daughter has this problem. She began twirling her hair with both hands on both sides of her head about two weeks ago. The top of her scalp got very red, irritated and cakey. She also started running a lowgrade fever. The Ped gave us a prescription for a topical cream and an antibiotic if the cream didn't work. My biggest problem is that my daughter has special needs. She is on the autistic spectrum and has a language processing disorder. I need to find a psychologist who will be able to treat her despite her language difficulties.

I wish you the best of luck with your son.

What I know about it is that it is classsified as an anxiety disorder. I would call your insurance and find a child psychiatrist for an evaluation, and possibly counseling.

But I guess I should back up; you first should rule out any medical reasons for this. Take him to your peditrician, maybe run some bloodwork, and go from there.

Is there some major change going on in his life? That may be triggering this?

Dear S.,

Dr. Sheri Jackson is a psychologist in Colleyville who specializes in treatment of OCD and Trichotillomania. Her phone number is ###-###-####. I have included some good web resources below, but I would suggest that you have a professional evaluation before assuming that Trich. is the issue.

http://www.trich.org/index.asp

http://www.stoppulling.com/PsycTech/Program/StopPulling/P...

I am 30 years old and I have had Trichotillomania since I was 8 years old. I still have the issue. It is such a sensitive issue that he may not admit to it or when he does he will be defensive. Sometimes it starts out as an itchy scalp or just a general habit for your hands to go somewhere. It soon turns into an obsession.

I will be happy to talk about it in more detail or about my experience if you would like. You can e-mail me at: ____@____.com

In the meantime, please don't berate him or make an overly big deal about it. You might ask him if he would like to get his hair shorter which would help him to not be able to grab his hair. Also, if you do see him pick his hair, offer something to do with his hands. He might be stressed right now. Ask him if he is associating anything with his pulling. For me initially it was fascinating to find the "crinkily hairs" or the imperfect ones.

This might be a good inital resource for you: http://home.intekom.com/jly2/

I suspect my 3 1/2 year old son has it also. He has a bald spot in the back of his head and I noticed him pulling it out. This has been going on for months. My husband and I get on to him for pulling it out and it slowly grows back. He does it when he is watching tv or resting. The other night I caught him doing it in his sleep. I didn't know there was a name for it. My PED told me it was just a nervous habit he might have picked up when he had his front two teeth removed due to injury. There other day he asked me if he pulled his eyelashes out if they would grow back....this really worried me. Please let me know if you find any good information on this matter. Thanks!

Hi S.!

My little sister (11 years old now) used to pull her hair out but only on a certain spot. It started when she was 2 or 3 if I can remember correctly. We soon found out that she had Neurofibromotosis. As you can tell from the name, it has to do with the nervous system. This contition causes tumors all over the body (inside and/or out). Thank God, she has a mild case of it (tumors around the optical nerve). Anyways, definitely have your family doc check it out. He'll probably send you to a specialist. And if you dont have insurance, dont worry. My sister's mutliple open scull surgeries were fully funded by a children's foundation. Please let me know what you find out.

A.