I'm worried my toddler is going to go bald. Help!

[KitKat1985]

DD1 is 2 years and 4 months. She's a happy, outgoing girl and very settled at home and nursery. But she won't stop playing with her hair and getting it tangled, and she's losing so much hair through this it's getting really noticeable. On one occasion a couple of weeks ago she actually pulled a whole large clump of her hair out at nursery by twisting it so much and she now has a bald patch. She constantly getting tangles in her hair where she twists her hair around, and invariably hair is falling out each time I try and untangle these knots. Her hair is too short and fine to be able to tie back (I've tried) and she takes out clips and hairbands if we put them in. We've tried giving her a doll with long hair instead to play with (on advice of her nursery) but it's not working. It seems to just be a habit although she does it more when she's tired. We try and stop her doing it as much as we can but I've got a 10 week old as well and invariably can't always stop her playing with her hair. Any ideas?

Could you put socks on her hands so she can't get a hold of her hair?

This is not uncommon and can be a sign of stress/anxiety.

How long has she been doing it?

Don't tell her off when she does it, but try and see if you can distract her: offer her something else interesting to do with her hands. It is likely a phase and will stop in its own time. Don't fuss about her hair, don't mention it, give her as much time and attention as you can with a new baby, reassure her that she is still just as important to you as she was before her younger sibling arrived etc.

Even if she were to manage to pull all her hair out (unlikely!), it would all grow back when she stops.

The NHS site I linked to is aimed at teenagers/adults, so does not really apply to toddlers.
I think in your case the timing of it is important as is NOT telling her off or paying much attention to it while keeping her busy otherwise.

I can't see her keeping socks on her hands. She's a typical toddler in that she's into everything, so I doubt she would tolerate anything that would stop her being able to do her normal playing (like colouring, playing with her teaset etc).

I don't think she's suffering with stress and or anxiety (on the contrary, nursery etc say she's very outgoing and she's very happy at home). She seems to have accepted her baby sister fine, although I guess there could be some anxiety related to that, although the hair playing was an issue before DD2 was born, so I don't think that's the main cause.

Ok, good, ignore and distract then.
This too shall pass...

This too shall pass

Yep, I must repeat this to myself regularly! Lol!

Have you tried a water spray bottle and loom band type bobbles? If you don't have older children you may not know what loom bands are - they are basically tiny elastic bands.

I have a dd the same age (as you'll know - hello from our post natal thread) and she has really fine, thin hair. Not much of it and fairly short. Plus it's curly.

While I couldn't get a proper bobble to stay in her hair, and zero chance of clips lasting more than 10 seconds, if I didn't put her hair "up", it would be mega tangly.

Every nirnibg after getting dressed I put her hair up. This involves spraying her hair until its wet, so I have some thing to get hold of. Then I can get the top half of her hair to reach into a bobble.

Her hair isnt not long enough to get all the hair on her head in the loom-band bobble. But the front half at least keeps it off her face and under control. If I was having hair twisting issues I'd probably put a second bobble in the lower half of her hair too.

Hi KitKat has she got a favourite teddy or something? I'm just wondering if one of those small squares that are made for babies, with the ribbons on would give her something else to do with her hands?

Hi KitKat!

I was coming on to make a similar suggestion to polka. She may just be a child who likes fiddling, so is it worth giving her something to fiddle with? Could you try tying a few ribbons of different colours, widths and textures to a key ring, and then attaching the key ring to her clothes. Encourage her to feel the ribbons and see if you can shift the fiddling to something else?

Hello fellow September 14 mummies!

Yeah I will keep trying to get her hair tied back and to distract her with things. I think they're probably the best approaches to be honest because I don't want to make a huge issue out of it.