20 month old pulling

babytrichbabytrich
in Trichotillomania Support
My daughter is 20 months old & started pulling around 9 months ago. She wears gloves at night to stop the worst of it, but it the gloves really upset her as she can’t suck her thumb. She pulls all the time during the day. In the car/pram, watching tv, when she’s upset, for attention, sometimes there is no obvious trigger at all. It’s been difficult to manage and we have no idea how to help her stop.

Her is noticeably thin on one side. She moves to other patches of hair when it gets too short in one section to pull anything out. I’ve noticed she likes playing with the hair in her hand when she pulls it out. And she also likes putting in her mouth - that could be to get a reaction though. It’s difficult to provide a sensory substitute that is safe.

Does anybody have any advice

Comments

  • Michelle HarperMichelle Harper

    Hi @babytrich. Sorry for not replying to you sooner. You could try a make up brush as a substitute, or maybe those taggie blankets. You could also try putting coconut oil or similar on her hair so she can't grip the hair.

    I have had several parents tell me recently that when they tackled the thumb sucking, the hair pulling improved. Both are a form of self-soothing, so look into healthy forms of self-soothing you can introduce to your daughter and make sure she's getting enough sleep and is going down for sleep at the right time.

    There are some ideas here:

    https://www.healthline.com/health/baby/self-soothing-baby#give-some-security

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