Hair pulling in babies

Nadine Wilson

Monday, February 13, 2012

IT will probably be cute in the beginning when your baby pulls on her hair as she sucks on her thumb or plays with her navel, but according to one local expert, the practice could be more than a habit, it could be a sure sign that a child has or is experiencing some form of trauma.

According to local trichologist Dr Hyacinth Oates, small children will at times pull on their hair when they are stressed about a situation. This disorder is medically termed trichotillomania and is defined as the pulling, twisting, plucking out of hair, eyelashes or eyebrows.

"It's usually found in children and it is a psychological disorder," she said.

"It can be stress related. People think that children don't have stress, but that is not true. Sometimes their mommies and their daddies are quarrelling and they hear it and they feel insecure and just like how they suck their thumb and play with their navels, some children will pull their hair and some might even eat it," she said.

She said she has seen children as young as three years old here in Jamaica suffering from this disorder.

"They are not even conscious of it; if it was for comfort, they would be crying with pain, but they don't do that, they pull it out and don't even feel it," she said.

She said that people will generally scream when they get their hair pulled because of the pain, but a child suffering from trichotillomania will normally pull it out in a pattern-like setting, thereby leading to baldness or alopecia.

"It is very distressing for the child because they have no hair and the hair that they have, they have to be covering it up going to school and so forth," she said.

The doctor's advice for parents is to take their child in for counselling if they witness this behaviour in them.

There are some medical experts who proffer too that the pulling out of hair under two years is usually a self-comforting habit. Some babies will twirl or twist their hair or that of someone else to help them relax before falling asleep or while they are being fed.

If you are concerned about your child's hair pulling habit, you have several options to try and curtail the behaviour. These include giving them a haircut, putting on gloves, giving them a hair net or cap to sleep in, or giving them objects such as satin ribbons and feathers for them to fiddle with.