7yo son pulling his hair out

[whimsicalname]

I've just noticed my 7 year old son has pulled a lot of hair out on the back of his head, leaving a noticable bald spot. I only noticed this morning as we were going through the school gates, so haven't really had a chance to talk with him about it. I asked his teacher, who said he'd noticed something yesterday, but broadly I don't think this has been going on long.

He's usually a happy little thing, although prone to the occasional meltdown. I'm besides myself with worry, and wondered if anyone else had experience of this? I'm also wondering how to deal with it? His hair is quite long for him at the moment, and I thought if I got it cut shorter, he wouldn't be able to twiddle it so much.

We're likely to be moving abroad for 3 years in the summer, which he knows about, and I'm concerned it's anxiety about that coming about.

How worrying for you! I know this is called trichotillomania and it's surprisingly common.

this is an NHS link about it in children

I hope you can get some useful info here and that he is over it asap.

My dd went through this with her eyelashes. I was shocked & told her to stop, but she didn't. So I searched on here and there's lots of good advice on old threads. Have a look. I also did my own net research.

I discussed it with her and tried to figure out trigger times (in bed when trying to fall asleep). Then I took the advice I found and pretended it was nothing when I noticed it again. I didn't make a big deal of it in front of her. Told her lightly to try not to do it but not to worry if she did . She hasn't now in a month or so. If it returns or worsens I will seek advice from gp.

Try not to worry...it's distressing to witness but I think you have to seem calm in front of him. It is not entirely uncommon. I read on here that some children eat it and on occasion it can be linked to iron deficiency (disclaimer-I'm not stating that as fact, just hearsay).

Just a quick post to say that my son did this for months & I was unable to help him break the habit even with help from gp etc, in the end I gave him a very short haircut (clippers!) which broke the habit as although he sometimes pulled out eyelashes his head hair was his main choice.
He couldn't grasp enough hair to pull it out once it was so short & after a few months could grow his hair back without trying to pull it.
Good luck.

My nearly 4 year old does this too. When he was breastfeeding he used to play with and pull out my hair. When I stopped him doing this (when I stopped bf at 13 months), he started thumb sucking and pulling his own hair. At times the bald patches look awful, but we keep his hair very short to try to minimise it.

I am watching this thread with interest.