2yr old pulling out hair....

[dubbletrubble]

My dd has been pulling at her hair and sucking it with her thumb since it was long enough to do so. However I hadn't realised that she had actually pulled a huge area around her left side out - and it has left a bald patch which has been covered by hair and unnoticeable until recently. This is growing back in, but has left her thin straggly hair on this side till it grows down. She is also swallowing some of it too and I am concerned about her getting a blockage due to hair in her tummy or intestine.

Has anyone got any experience of this or any soltions (short of getting it all cut off) which would be heartbreaking, but I would do to avoid any long term habit dveloping. I have already had to get it cut up into a short bob to even it up and my hairdresser braided the front and sides to keep it away from reach.

I have tried giving her a subsitute - blanket, teddy etc, but she doesn't want them. Any advice would be most appreciated.

did you see the jo frost programme featuring this? the condidtion is called trichlotillomania but super nanny managedc to get rid of it.

I also saw it on Supernanny. I'm not sure exactly what she did to stop it but I think it involved not drawing attention to it. I would check it out on the website.

I did see that, and was only after it I noticed that she had done similar to her hair. I'm not sure about supernanny's approach of ignoring it as dd mostly does it as a comfort to get to sleep and does it when I'm not there to see - ie in her cot. Only time I see her doing it us if she had gotten tired - maybe on a car journey or staying up later than usual for some reason.

Honestly didn't think that sucking at her hair was going to lead to pulling it out and feel really bad that I didnt take action much sooner.

It is localised to one patch at the side, and am keen to nip it in bud before it becomes as bad as girl shown on supernanny programme.

DD went through a phase of doing this although not to the extent of your DD. She did it in her cot and i would find large amounts of hair in there every morning. If I caught her doing it I would tell her off but to be honest I think she just grew out of doing it, although it did take somewhere between 6-7 months.

Hopefully someone else will come along with some practical suggestions.

Meant to add on first post - should I take her to a doctor in case any hair that she has swallowed is causing problems? Still seeing hair coming through her nappies, don't know if she is still eating some when in bed, although think there has been some improvement since last week, haven't actually caught her with any since we got it cut.