Alopecia

[sleepfortheweek]

My 7yo DD was diagnosed with alopecia areata yesterday. It's just a small patch at the moment and she's got a lot of hair so it's easily hidden.

The doctor was fairly blasé about it, and has given us cream to put on twice a day and a patient info booklet it on it.

I'm really worried though. He said we might start noticing other patches and in some cases (although rare) all hair might be lost. He did say that regrowth is common though as the hair follicles will not be damaged. If we see more patches we will be referred to skin specialist who I assume will do blood work etc.

Anyone had a child go through similar?

Luckily DD seems totally oblivious and undisturbed by the whole situation.

Also - should I wash/brush her hair less?

It gets washed 2, sometimes 3x a week and brushed every day

Bump

Castor and rosemary oil are good for hair regrowth. That's all I know!

hi, my 5 year old was diagnosed in Jan with one coin sized spot, gp prescribed steroid cream also, i applied rosemary oil daily, full regrowth however she now has another 3 coin sized spots appear. Its so frustrating and the worst challenge i have faced as its unpredictable and you will never know the outcome until it happens 😞

My DS was diagnosed last year at 16. Started as 4 very small patches only noticed after a hair cut. He has had several other patches appear over the course of about 9 months after the first ones happened. He seems to get hair grow back in one patch then new ones form. He's under dermatology, bloods showed nothing to be concerned with and he used a steroid cream which may or may not have helped it grow back faster. He's had no new patches for a few months now, so I'm hoping this is a flare up over. He does however have general diffuse hair loss, loses quite a bit in the shower and when brushing more than before. At the start i was fearful for him to wash, brush etc but this only delays the inevitable, and actually it made him feel worse when he went longer between washes as it looked liked so much hair came out. He seems to handle it better than me, I can't cope with the unpredictable nature of it. So far it has been easily camouflaged, and I think I have to just be resigned to the fact that he will always have at least 1 patch at any one time, he is definitely worse during high stress times. You can read all kinds of worse case scenarios online but from my previous threads the most common outcome is patches grow back over time and come and go throughout their lives but often with years in between.

How is your daughter’s hair now OP?

I can’t give you much guidance on how to deal with it, but wanted to let you know that I had it when I first started primary school. I don’t remember it, but photos show me with short, patchy hair. Since starting secondary school I have always had glossy, thick hair, and even now in menopause it’s one of my best features.

I had this myself - just one patch thankfully. I found it highly distressing, but I was lucky in that it was just the one patch, and it started growing back within months of falling out. The dermatologist I saw (privately) told me that if it's just one patch, and grows back - with no more patches appearing in a year, chances are it's a one off and won't come back.
I was told it was immune/inflammation related with me: so I took natural stuff to help support my immune system, like probiotics, tart cherry juice etc: the kind of things which can help with other inflammatory conditions. I don't know if it helped, but it gave me something to do.
I hope it's a one off with your daughter & grows back quickly, at least at this point she's not troubled by it.

The regrowth was white fluff with me at first btw - but then grew in the same colour as my regular hair.

Thank you. Unfortunately my daughter has more then one spot. A fourth one has just appeared 😭 I really hope we can see the dermatologist soon x

I understand - that's very hard. I saw a dermatologist who specialised in hair - in any case there was not much to be done. If it does remain an ongoing or worsening problem, then there have been developments with drugs used to treat it: JAK inhibitors were approved for use in certain cases: JAK inhibitors – treatment options, not a cure | Alopecia UK
Apart from that, there are excellent 'hair toppers' which can hide the alopecia if that's something your daughter wants to do. My heart goes out to you and I feel bad even mentioning these things, but it helped me to know there were options if things got worse.