| I have a 13 month old daughter who is just starting to grow her hair [out], but she keeps pulling it out .... Is this normal for an infant to do?
Hair pulling, head-banging, body rocking, thumb sucking and other habits often appear in infancy. Parents who witness these sometimes alarming behaviors wonder why their children do it. Oddly enough, these habits are considered self-soothing to the infant and are often associated with boredom, loneliness, or some other stress. Fortunately, the habits in young infants and toddlers are not usually associated with emotional or development problems, and they often stop after few months without any special intervention.
Many parents become concerned that the child could actually injure himself, especially with head banging, but that is very unlikely. A child who bangs his head against a hard surface rarely gets a bruise or a cut. Some children may develop a callous or thickened area to the scalp. Hair pulling is also concerning becomes some parents worry that a permanent bald patch may develop, but again that is unlikely to happen. Occasionally, if a child who pulls out his hair also likes to eat it, he may then end up with a wad of indigestible hair (known as a bezoar) in his stomach. The bezoar must then be surgically removed. As long as the child does not eat her hair, then a bezoar is not an issue to worry about.
Sometimes one habit is done in concert with another. The child who sucks her thumb also twirls her hair. Eliminating thumb sucking may also mean the end of the hair twirling.
Is there anything a parent can do to help eliminate these habits sooner rather than later?
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The best advice to stop a habit is to ignore it.
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The best advice is to ignore the behavior. If the child sucks her thumb, resist the urge to say, “Get your thumb out of your mouth!” Instead, consider quietly offering her something else to do that will require her to get her thumb out of her mouth like blowing bubbles or playing a game together, but do this without mentioning her thumb sucking.
The second best bit of advice is to give your child more attention overall. Do not increase your attention only after observing the “bad” habit; to do so would just make the child associate the habit with getting more attention.
Finally, make the behavior less pleasurable. For a child who pulls his hair, consider a short haircut. For a girl who pulls her hair, try a hairstyle that makes it hard to get at her hair like a braid or ponytail. (Be careful not to pull the braid or ponytail too tight because this can lead to excessive traction on the hair root.)
For the child who engages in raucous head-banging at bedtime, pad the headboard or crib. (Remember, even though head-banging sounds anything but pleasurable to you, it is a tension reliever for the child.) Nail biting is another common habit and keeping the nails short and the cuticles softened and trimmed may help.
When should a parent worry that a bad habit like hair-pulling has crossed the line into something more worrisome?
You may need professional help if the child is closer to school aged, if the habit does not resolve within several months, especially if there is a family history of trichotillomania, obsessive compulsive disorder or anxiety disorders. For head banging and body rocking, a parent may worry if the child is showing signs of mental retardation or abnormal language and social development. As always, if you have any doubts about the nature of your child’s behavior, consult your pediatrician.
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