Hair loss in 2 year old female toddler

[jhferry]

Hi everyone, new here.

I am the Father of a 2 year old girl who has experienced a ton of hair loss in the last 2 months or so. It is all in the crown area (so far) but pretty much is the entire top of her head.

We took her to a derm who told us she had seborrheic dermatitis. She had what appearred to be cradle cap which was there since Birth in that area. We were given a non fungal medication (oil) which cleared up the cradle cap in just a week. She was also sent for bloodwork (cbc and such) and all her bloodwork came back fine. Not really satisfied with that, we took her to her ped. who tested her thyroid and that came back fine.

She had the FLU over the winter and had a really bad April. She had the Coxsackie Virus, a fever a week later and then bad allergies a week after that. If I look back at pics it looks like the hair really started coming out fast in June.

She is not bald, her hair appears to be growing in. No bald spots, its just really short now where it fell out. I am begining to suspect Telogen Effluvium:

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/hair-los...loss-types.php

http://www.aocd.org/skin/dermatologi...effluvium.html

The thing is she is still losing hair. I have another appointment with the derm next week but I am worried she is destined to lose all her hair. I just wanted to see if anyone has gone through this, I have searched and searched but I cant find anything really. At the same time, she has had blood work twice and 3 doctors appointments so I dont want to keep looking for something to be wrong if its just going to take time.

Thanks,

John

[tysmamaca]

Hi John,

My daughter's hair did the same thing. After she turned two I noticed her hair getting thinner and thinner. At first I thought I was imagining it until my mom made a comment that her hair seemed wispier lately. Dd had shoulder length straight blond hair and in a matter of months it all fell out and came in SUPER curly. Her hair loss started at the bottom of her hair line worked it's way up to the crown. The curly was growing in as the straight was falling out so she was never bald but after all the straight was gone her hair was really short.

She is 3 1/2 now and has a full head of shoulder length curly hair. It actually never occurred to me to be worried about it so I never took her to the doctor or anything. I guess I just assumed it was kind of like a newborn losing all their hair and getting "new" hair. She also had horrible eczema as a baby that covered her entire body including her scalp. I never thought about there being a connection before.

That's good that your dd's hair is growing back. Good luck finding your answer. It's hard watching them lose all of their beautiful hair and not knowing why. Hopefully there is nothing wrong and she is just getting "new" hair like my daughter.

[jhferry]

Your senario is the one I am hoping for. She had her hair tied back (not tight) with a little hair band and when I took it out there were like 7 hairs in there. I am starting to think it is all going to cycle out at some point.

I think I am going to cut it like bob length after her next derm visit. This way we really dont need to tie it back or anything.

[luminesce]

My guess would be Telogen effluvium as well. If you've seen a doc & had bloodwork, I'd probably try to relax and give it six months or so to grow back.

[jhferry]

I guess your right. What is freaky is the older hair still falling out. She may just be cycling all of her hair.

[melniki]

Hair loss in 2 year old female toddler

Hello John

I know it's been a few months now since you posted concerning your daughters hair loss, but I'm a very worried mother with a 2 year old going through the same thing! We've been to the pediatrician and a dermatologist both have diagnosed my daughter with Telogen Effluvium. She's lost at least 70% of her hair since mid Dec. 2009. I'm not seeing a lot of re growth and the hair continues to shed daily! I fear she will lose all of her hair. I am desperate to find a parent who has gone through this who can give me a "light at the end of the tunnel". I was wondering how your daughter is now? Did her hair grow back? How long did it take? I'm not sure if you will get this or not, but I really would appreciate any help with this. Thank you.
Nicole

[miamirox]

Hello

Hi,
My daughter is going through the same thing. We are using a product from Israel which is helping with the regrowth. The shedding has not stopped though.

Check out this product, it may help the hair to grow in!

http://www.shmuel-gonen.com/english/

[bevtop]

I know it's been a while since you've dealt with this, but did you notice that along with the texture change came a lot of tangling or matting?  My daughter's hair is going through something similar in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 age range.  She's had a lot of breakage and thinning. I could open a store of hair conditioners.  We are not out of the woods yet, but your story gives us hope.  I'm hoping that it was just some virus earlier this year.  Thanks for your story--she'll be seeing the pediatrician tomorrow.

Thanks.

[Jamie4944]

Hi ,
I know it's been quite a while since anyone has posted but I would really love to know what came of the hair loss. I am unfortunately going through the same thing with my daughter and I am beyond worried. She has a very balanced diet and we give her vitamins 3x a week
, other than the hair loss she is very healthy. In the past three month she has lost roughly 80% of her hair, she is showing some regrowth now but it is almost white (her hair is brown). We brought her to the doctor and they really werent too helpful. She doesnt have any bald spots or changes in her scalp, she is just shedding.....ALOT! :/ If anyone has gone through this your feedback would be greatly appreciated as I feel completely helpless and just want to know that she will be ok. Thank you.

[michieboo]

Hi I am really glad i found this;-) my one year old is going through this very same thing!! It started in January of this year 2012.. she has noe lost about 80-85% of her thick black curly hair. i have tried everything. her hair is slowly growing back but not to the point of me not seeiing her scalp. has anyone seen changes in there kids hair loss..

[mama2kjbf]

EXACTLY the same story here. My (now) 2-year old began losing hair right around her 2nd birthday in March 2012. At this point (3+ months later) she's probably lost at least 80% of her hair. The rest has completely changed texture and is very dry and frizzy. Her eyebrows have become very sparse too. I don't see ANY new hair growth yet. Doc and Pediatric Derm have both said it's most likely Telogen Effluvium and we just have to wait it out. She did have an unknown virus back in January which caused a very prolonged fever and whole-body rash. Once that went away she started developing chronic eczema and the hair started falling out. We've got the eczema under control at this point, but I feel completely helpless with the hair. It really is one of the saddest things to watch - and it makes it worse when the grandmothers keep mentioning it...despite our request that they don't. 

So glad to have found this thread and hope to hear some more success stories and particularly when you started seeing hair growth. How long did the hair loss continue, and when did you see it start to turn around?
 

[podomama]

It would be so so so great if the original poster , John, (and others!) could let us know what happened to your daughter.  I hope all her hair grew back !  My son who is 17 months old started losing all his hair about 3 months ago.  He's almost bald now.  The shedding had stopped, and started again but not as badly.  I don't notice any significant regrowth yet.  I am really scared that his hair won't grow back.   Ped and dermatologist said telogen effluvium.  My son also had the coxsackie virus a few weeks prior to the hair loss, and a few ear infections.  I am wondering if his hair loss is related to that.  I have found NO ONE that has gone through the same thing, so it would be really encouraging if everyone on this thread says their little one's hair grew back! thank you ! :)

[Ewa Majchrzak]

hi im also mum of daughter with hair loss she had nice long thick hair by age of 1 year old but then within few weeks lost all her hair when i went back to work.i didnt realize at the time that it may be stress related she went through lots of medical tests all came back as fine apart from one positive antybody for lupus but after further detailed tests doctors decided its not lupus so i think it must be stress related.the problem is she is now 3 and a half and she still didnt get back her hair.i dont think it will ever grow back.and yes she also started realizing there is something wrong with her hair as she started going to nursery in april and contact with children made her understand it.also of course people probably think she has cancer and lots of people think she is a boy.i wonder if there are any happy end stories of children who suffered from alopecia at such young age.i think because it started as such young age prognosis is really back,i think some of hair roots died:(

[mama2kjbf]

So I wrote my last post about 6 weeks ago and I wanted to give an update as I had promised to do.

My daughter's hair has continued to fall out...Last week we decided to cut off all of the long hair that was left because there was so little of it that it just looked weird and wirey. That was an incredibly emotional activity for me---but we probably also felt comfortable doing that because about 3.5 weeks ago we started to see tiny little hairs starting to emerge on the top of her shiny bald head. 3 weeks later she's definitely got renewed hairgrowth. From a distance you don't see much but decent layer of peachfuzz---which I feel like happened pretty fast, which is encouraging. She definitely looks like a cancer patient at this point, but what can you do? Worrying about that really isn't going to help anyone. I think it'll be a while before people can really see that she has actual hair on her head, but we know it's there and coming. Don't give up hope mamas and papas! We were doubting the whole time until our parenting eyes finally spotted those tiny little hairs breaking through. And what a relief it was to see them!

[R Gundberg]

I am the mother of an almost 3 year old who is going through the same thing. We recently noticed that her hair was getting very thin and wispy, and I was finding it in her bed. I called her doctor about it and they ordered blood tests. All tests came back normal. Her doctor does not seen worried about this, but I am. There had to be a reason her hair is falling out. And like others on here that I have read, she also had coxsackie virus recently. This was at about three sane time as the hair loss was really noticed. I am worried that at three age of 3 she is going to be completely bald. I would love for the people who have posted earlier to post again and let us know what to expect. Did it get better...and after how long??

[Mommy SD]

I am also a worried mother of a daughter who just turned two. I started noticing some hair thinning a couple of months ago, but I thought it was because I had pulled it out while using rubber bands to hold her hair. Since then, I stopped using them but have not seen an improvement. She continues to lose her hair, but I can tell that there is new hair growth underneath. I was looking at photos taken in early spring and she had significantly more hair then than she has now. I do remember seeing scabs on  her scalp about 3 months ago, but didn't think much of it then. I thought she had scratched herself. I have sheduled an appt. for tomorrow and am hoping this is nothing to worry about. Please keep us updated if you have experinced this before. Thank you!

[josie423]

I just wanted to chime in here and say that my 2 older children shed a lot of hair at 2-3 years of age. My third child is 2.5 right now and is going through the shed. I really don't know what is causing it, but my older two had their hair fill back in just fine and my 2 year old's is starting to come back in as well. It worried me very much with my oldest but it has happened to each one so I no longer worry about it. Hth someone!

[podomama]

It has been almost 6 weeks from the last time I posted back in July 2012... so want to give an update.

My sons' hair is growing back ! I noticed it 2 weeks ago.  Before that, I had seen some regrowth but it was so little that I didn't count it as regrowth.  Then about 2 weeks ago I noticed that his scalp was getting less bald-looking and that more new hair was covering his head.  His hair is still thin but I'm hopeful now that his hair will grow back. I'm going to wait another month and see how much improvement there is.

One thing I did - which I have no idea if it had any affect or not - is I rubbed a little bit of castor oil on his head about an hour or so before his bath, let it sit, then washed it off in his bath.  I had read that castor oil can help hair grow....a friend also told me that it had worked for her.  I only did it a few times and I  might continue to do it a few more times.

Another mom-friend suggested to me it could be because of a food allergy ....i.e. gluten, diary, rice, corn, etc....  I highly doubt my son is allergic to any of those things, but for others out there it might be something to consider.

I wish I knew what the cause was in the case that this happens again (which I hope it doesn't  !!!).  If  had to guess, I would say most likely his body was stressed form the coxsackie virus and other illnesses he had around that time, and/or it was a reaction to taking antibiotics multiple times within a short period of time. 

To the other parents on this thread, I'm wondering, were your babies breastfed ? I wasn't able to breastfeed so I am wondering if it could possibly be related that ?

[James Wade]

It is very common problem that most of the women are facing that hair loss after the preganency  time , it is mostly occurs due to the imbalance of hormones in the body. I want to share some healthy tips to overcome on the hair loss. 

[sarahegeorge14]

WOW! There are so many kids going through the same thing as my daughter. I have been so worried and I finally don't feel all alone in this. My daughter who is 3 1/2 has thin hair. She has always had thin hair but it got progressively thinner in the past month or so. The first time I noticed it was when I was looking at a picture I had just taken of her (back in Sept) and I could "see through" her hair. I had never noticed it before. Then I was shocked one night when I went to wash her hair and I noticed her hair was clumped together wet with very visable scalp. It freaked me out! Other than a few hair shedded on her pillow, there was no drastic amount of hair loss that I could tell. She was not pulling her hair (I even checked by sleeping with her at night), she hated having her hair in ponytails so that wasn't the issue and her head didn't have bald patches, just thinning all throughout. I decided immediately to call her pediatrician. Unfortunately all her pediatrician told me to do is watch for red bumps (a sign of ring worm). I was not ok with that answer so I took her to a pediatric dermatologist. The dermatologist checked her out and said she was fine. That she would not go bald and there was no sign of alopecia (which I feared). While that should have eased my mind, I was still frustrated that no one could give me an answer as to why this was happening. With all the research I had done nothing said that thinning hair at 3 was a normal occurance. I did hear about losing baby hair but my daughter had gone through that at 4 months, going completely bald before getting hair back (she also had cradle cap as an infant).  Since I began losing sleep and stressing myself out over it, I decided to get a second opinion and see another pediatrician. The second pediatrician again told me she was fine and that she will probably just have thin hair due to genetics. I asked her is it was normal to lose hair at 3 and she said no usually it happens based on hormones (during the teenage years and after pregnancy). So again no answer! I demanded blood work which came back fine as far as anemia or hyperthyroidism. So now it is really just a wait and see game. No answers and no solution. Right now she has lost about 40% of her hair. I am seeing some regrowth on top that's about 2 inches. I don't see any hair shedding at this point but I don't see much growing back in other areas yet either. I'm hoping it doesn't get much thinner.

To all of you in need of some answers, here are remedies that I have tried that have worked in preventing more hair lose for my daughter:

- Satin pillow case (he sleeps crazy this helps reduce breakage)

- Sulfate Free Shampoo and conditioner (sulfates cause breakage, they are in Johnson and Johnson shampoos. Try Burts Bees shampoo or what a hair stylist friend recommended: Enjoy a product line for thin hair that is sulfate fee...safe on kids)

- Wash hair every three days or so. Not every day since it will dry out

- Don't brush hair wet. Let it dry this brush gently to avoid pulling.

- Scalp massage (it stimulates blood flow. I don't use anything but my hands but I've heard of using oils as well)

- Children's multivitamin with Biotin (Biotin helps hair grow)

- At least 7 grams of Iron daily (walnuts, red meat, beans, green leafy veggies...yeah right)

I'm still stressing out about this but have realized I am doing all I can to prevent more hair loss and what happens at this point I have no control over. At least (knock on wood) she is healthy!

Good luck to you all! I will keep everyone updated