My two year old daughter has recently started pulling her hair out. She's not tantruming, or even upset when she does it. Last night we were cuddiling and playing, singing itsy bitsy spider, and she just reached up and yanked a handful out, then another. She seems to find it amusing. This is not the first time this has happened either.
Is this normal? Should I be concerned?
It could be a phase that needs to be corrected before it becomes a habit. There is a form of OCD called trichotillomania but I think 2 is pretty young for an ocd diagnosis.
My son was doing this over the summer and took out a big hunk of hair in the middle of the night in August. We started cutting his beautiful wavy hair (I was quite sad) every six weeks to avoid his creating more bald patches on his head. He's a well adjusted kid and no new changes were occurring in our house but his daycare teachers were concerned about the hair fixation.
At his two-year old appointment in October, the pediatrician said that this is quite common for kids under 5 and that she does not make a diagnosis for trichotillomania until kids are older. I followed the advice of some websites and started purchasing fuzzy stuffed animals for his crib. He seems to now be interested in attending to his animals and less interested in the hair pulling so we're hoping his beautiful hair will grow back in again w/o another round of hair pulling/tugging.
Best of luck!
She may have trichotillomania... it can start as early at 1 year of age. Although once thought to be rare more and more people can be diagnosed with it on various levels.
It doesn't just have to be hair on the head- I can be all over the body. I actaully tend to do it on my eyebrows! Hard to explain why people do it, just an urge...
She vey well may be fine and just going through a phase. My neighbors daughter did it for a bit and even had a huge bald spot- one day she just stopped and hasn't done it since.
But to be on the safe side perhaps have her checked out to ease your mind...
My daughter is now almost four, but when she turned two, she started pulling out her hair, just one piece at a time. It seemed to be when she was tired and it soothed her to do this. She was never upset when she did it. This behavior continued for about three months and she had a very thin spot on one side of her head. She just grew out of it and her hair completely grew back in a few months. Good luck!
This is not normal. Age 2 is not too young for a mental health related diagnosis. I am also wondering why she doesn't feel pain when she does this. She may have a physical medical condition during which her hair folicles are affected causing the hair to pull out without pain.
I definitely recommend taking her to see her pediatrician.
