21 month old pulls out hair, any advice?

[Klinda]

Hello,

My lovely DS2 pulls his hair out and I really want to find a way to stop him as he is developing a bald patch.

I have longish hair and he has always found it comforting to have a strand of it wound around his fingers when he sucks them to relax/go to sleep. I have not encouraged this and in fact mainly discouraged it as it got to the point where he was grabbing clumps of my hair to pull out (ouch!).

As his hair got longer he started pulling his own out, not in times of stress or anything, in fact the opposite, it is when he is chilling. He doesn't do it all the time but it goes in cycles.

I have tried saying no and distracting him when I spot him doing it, but can't do anything when he is in bed. Also tried giving him a fluffy teddy for bedtime but this hasn't helped.

Am considering cutting his hair really short to stop him but seems a bit extreme.

Any advice gratefully received!

Bump?

supernanny did something on this and i think she took away any pacifiers dummies and bottles. the mother was keeping him as a little baby. sorry not great advice just what i remembered she did.

I have just joined mumsnet after lurking for two years just to answer this message as you could be writing about my dd1 in every detail. She ended up virtually bald in patches last summer and looked awful, it also really distressed me to watch her pulling at her hair even though as you say it was for comfort rather than in distress. She does it only when tired. In the end we had it cut really short in the hope that when it grew again she would have broken the habit...which it did for a time so I would give it a go (at least he is a boy!) but now whilst she doesn't pull her own she asks me for a hair all the time (she is 2.4) - I got in a stupid habit of giving into her all the time as I can pull one strand whereas she grabs whole handfuls of hers so she now wakes me up with "hair mummy" and shouts in the car for them! - I am trying to wean her off and can mostly get away with telling her the hairs are "stuck". I tried dolls with hair, teddies etc to no avail but have you tried cotton - esp. the really fine silk stuff - didn't work for us but might do?