HELP - my toddler's hair is falling out, alopecia areata????

[Anonymous]

My son went through this between 2 and 4. It is very stressful for the parents. I went to an out of network dermatologist that was recommended by my ped. I paid out of pocket several times for him to look and say, "keep putting the cream on it and come back in 6 weeks." I finally went to a conveinant, in-network dermatologist. I took the creams in that I was using and told him I didn't think they were doing much. He said-- "yeah, the thing about AA, is there are a lot of treatments and none of them are very effective."

I found a study suggesting zinc supplements could be helpful and we've been taking those. The hair and eyelashes came back. I also read a lot about stress and think it could have played a role as my son did not sail through the toddler years (he was more than a little explosive).

I had to tell myself, "we're talking about hair here." I'm not driving my kid to Hopkins to get a perscription I could get in my neighborhood. Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

I personally have had AA multiple times. It always shows up at times of great stress, major change in diet. I have tried the steroid shots in the spot (which will give you one of the worse headaches of your life) and the creams. I have also just let it take its course. What I discovered is they all take the same amount of time for the hair to start growing back. About 6 months. So now I just wait it out and avoid the shots and the creams seeing as I don't think they make any difference. Yes it can be a little socially uncomfortable but I just tell people they stressed me out too much and that usually shuts them up. Not much is really known or understood and at least for me it has always been patches instead of the entire head so I can life with it.