Pulling/playing with her hair

allifgel

Does anyone else's toddler constantly play with his or her hair? DD's hair is finally getting long, but now she's always raking her fingers through it and playing with it. I didn't think anything of it until recently... the past few mornings, I've noticed all of these loose hairs on her fleece sleep sack. At first I thought that she was shedding, but I'm thinking she's probably pulling on her hair while she's babbling away in her crib (before she falls asleep). Of course, now that I have myself worried about this, I think I can see a spot on the top of her head where the hair is thinner! Is there a way to discourage this behavior without having to cover her hands (she's a thumb sucker, so covering her hands makes her furious!)? Is this behavior normal? I've tried putting a stuffed animal in her crib with her, thinking she could keep busy by paying with it, but that hasn't made any difference.

ally2011

Ok so not to freak you out, but a friend of mine's daughter was doing this and eating it....and she ended up having lead poisoning.  The chance of that is extremely low and more likely just a toddler thing that is a phase, but I felt compelled to mention it.  My friend's contamination is from their well.  I suspect your daughter is fine, but again I just felt like I had to mention it on the off chance you have any reason to believe she could have had lead exposure.  Apparantly it makes them crave weird things to make up for the vitamins and minerals that the lead leaches out.  

allifgel

Thanks for this. I'm fairly positive that it's not lead, but that's really interesting... I never knew that. We don't have well water, and my daughter isn't eating her hair, just playing with it between her fingers. My pediatrician just said to discourage her from playing with her hair, but I don't really know how to do that! And I suspect she does it while laying in her crib at night... I guess I'm hoping to hear that it's just a short "phase," and that it's normal at this age.

ally2011

Ok, good!

nlp1990

My little sister, now 6, used to do this. She would twirl it until it fell out then wrap it around her fingers and floss her teeth with it. If I remember correctly it started sometime around this age and lasted quite a while, 2 years maybe. It was just a phase, but anytime you tried to discourage it she would do it more. Ignoring it helped. She would twirl any piece of hair she found. In the hair brush, on the couch, etc. We just had to make sure she didn't have any around her fingers when she went to bed that would restrict her circulation. Not that you would be able to stop her once she was in bed. I hope it's just a phase for you too!

tamarar5

DD1, now almost 8, was a crazy hair twirler. When she got at all sleepy, she would twirl her finger in get hair until her finger turned purple! I was always worried about waking up to find her dinner had fallen off or something, lol.

I think it's still probably shed hairs you're finding? I'd watch closely, though. Is her hair long enough to braid? That might protect her hair from being pulled out?

allifgel

It's not long enough to braid or keep up while she sleeps, unfortunately. I've been watching her closely and she seems to pull on one side of her hair with her free hand while she's sucking her thumb (which she does when she's relaxing or trying to fall asleep). I guess it's just a soothing thing for her to do somehow, and I think she must be doing it a lot when she's trying to fall asleep at night. I don't know if she's purposely pulling the hairs out, but that's what's happening. And I see all the shed hairs in the morning because she's in white fleece! I'm going to try and ignore it, but I'm so upset to see her hair thinning in one spot. This started suddenly a few days ago and I just hope it ends as suddenly! It's so frustrating because there really doesn't seem to be anything I can do to make her stop! I don't want to be vain, but it's hard not to be... I don't want her to have a bald spot! It's been two years of countless comments about "what a cute boy," because her hair is short... I was so happy that it was finally starting to grow long!

holly321

Its probably just a tic. I think 1 in 4 kids develop them. Around this age, my dd would play with her belly button until it swelled.

Our pediatrician said to discourage the behavior when we saw it, by removing her hand, or distract her with something to do. He said to not fuss or draw too much attention to it, it makes it worse. She eventually stopped.

I would not worry about the hair you found. I think this time of year makes some people shed heavier.