Subconscious Hair Twiddling

[Carole Ganderton]

Hi, I am new the forum and wondered if anyone had experienced their son or daughter twiddling their hair to such and extent that my son now has 2 bald patches. He has been doing this for years. He is 11 now and had recently had longer hair which has meant he is now able to do this more. Previously we have kept his hair really short. Does anyone have any tips on this or have any experiences which they want to pass on?

 

thanks

Carole

[baileyj]

Hi, I can't add much, but my 10 year old son does this also, when I ask him why he says its because his hair tickles. So I am putting it down to a sensory thing with him. I don't have any answers as I haven't been able to stop him, just one of his "isms" as I call them.

 

Jo

[call me jaded]

We have this. I vary between keeping hair short and then letting it grow because it's very curly and hides the patch(es). Changes outside of home mean he's a bit more stressed and so very bald on one side and I shaved it all very short over half term. He usually forgets to do it for a while once shaven. He also eats the hair he plucks out and has been known to pick loose hairs off my collar or shoulders and eat them eeeuuuuuwwwww. I chastise him but he just laughs. It's his guilty pleasure and I drive it underground every now and again, but I know he still does it. Gross.

Edited November 9, 2010 by call me jaded

[enrico]

Hi,

 

our DD (age 6, classic Kanner's autism) does this, have mentioned it to the paed by email, but not due to see him for a while. We think it's partly sensory and possibly related to an external stress that DD can't describe... e.g. at the moment she's still settling into Year 2 with a new teacher who hasn't had an ASD child in the class before. We noticed the hair-eating thing too... definitely yeuch!... but I said to her very solemnly that "the hair would stay in her tummy forever", not like the cat (who brings up hairballs that she's seen) and that seemed to get the point across!

 

Interestingly, it's started at the same time as a whole load of other stuff: sleeping 'pattern' much, much worse than usual, upset tum when she goes to the loo, all of which make me think it's some external change triggered all the behaviours.

 

Sorry I haven't got any wonder cure, but we seem to have something that's fairly common.

 

Enrico