Hello my name is Monica and my daughter was just diagnosed with alopecia areata from like a 1 min apt with a dermatologist! I just cant get over how this Doctor didn't even get closer than an arms length to diagnose my infant daughter with such a disease! My daughter has a full head of hair for being 9 months, it almost touches her shoulders. I always noticed that her hair in the back was much thinner, but didn't think much of it because that's where she does most of her sleeping, where she lays for her bottles, where she lays when we change her. So the other day I noticed some bearish looking spots on her head, still had thin hair inside about two quarter size blotches with a small connecting hair loss in the middle. It looks exactly like when the babies have the long patch of hair missing when they are younger. So me being the worry mother that I am I called the doctor who ref over to a dermatologist. The Dr. than diagnosed her with alopecia areata. When I look in the bare spots I can see hair and stubble so I am unsure if this is the correct diagnoses, and I am so scared! I called children's hospital for a second opinion and the nurse somewhat put my mind at ease. She told me that

1. if it was aplopecia there would be no hair in the patch

2. In all the years she has been there she has Never seen a child younger than 5 be diagnosed

3, It can be so many other things like, friction from her mattress, her pulling her hair.

 My daughter has been pulling her hair a lot lately I have noticed, even in the back so I am just so worried. Has anyone ever had an experience like this or have any advice? has anyone ever seen a baby being diagnosed with this? what would you do?

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My son, was diagnosed AA at the age of 1 (now AT at 3yrs old). we started noticing his hair got thinner and thinner as days goes by. those days, we were already prepared for what will become eventually. It is always hard at first. Hopefully it is not the same case as your daughters. give it some time.

My daughter too developed AA at 9 months. I too disagreed with the physician....who was ultimately correct. Such a difficult and daunting thing to hear. I would strongly recommend considering an anti-inflammatory diet. We removed gluten and dairy. Her hair loss stopped after 3 months of the diet and she had rapid re-growth after 6 months on the diet. We stopped giving her immunizations after her one year well child visit. Our last hair loss was December 2013. We started the diet I August 2013. We are strict with the diet. We gave her dairy back for two weeks last summer and she developed a new patch......which quickly grew back in when we took dairy away. It can be hard....but so worth it. Good luck.n

Hello Stephanie,

can you provide any details about the anti-inflammatory diet you used? was it just gluten and dairy? Were you able to go 100% gluten and dairy free, or best-effort? 

I can't imagine childhood without ice cream and cookies!

We are 100% gluten and dairy free. I came across a study of children with AA and 40% of the kids had success/remission of alopecia with the diet. Our daughter had a dairy allergy which is why we removed dairy initially. When we gave her dairy back for two weeks she didn't seem to have the allergy anymore. Her face used to get welts,etc when she had dairy before. But she developed a new patch. My childhood friend is a Natropathic Physician. She said my daughter doesn't have dairy allergy but rather dairy intolerance. Same with gluten. I don't believe she is Celiac but we certainly noticed a change in her bowels on the GF diet and I believe she has gluten intolerance. She actually encouraged me to remove Soy too because of its inflammatory effects. We do give her some Soy in yogurt and ice cream, but she doesn't get it regularly. She gets plenty of junk and lives like a normal kid. The gluten substitutes these days are amazing and so much more available. I think the hardest part of the diet is cheese. Not a lot of good substitutes. Our daughter is three and she is so smart about it. When she has treats at school she will ask if there is gluten or dairy....and if the teacher isn't sure then we assume it does and she doesn't eat it. Everyone that takes care of her is on board with us and follows the diet. I have them lists of what she can't have....which I got from the simply gluten free magazine. Her teacher is amazing too. We keep chocolate bars,etc at school so if a birthday treat comes in that she can't have then she gets something out of her box. She takes it like a champ. Many Moms have brought birthday treats that are GF/DF so she can have them! You just always have to be prepared. My in-laws....who are in their 70's....still get confused sometimes about what she can/can't have so every time she goes there I send her with a bag of treats, snacks and I make her lunch. It was rough at first but now it's just part of our routine
Hi, I tried to change her diet and we were starting but she also started daycare and sometimes is difficult to know if they follow or not the diet we give her. Then we visited our pediatrician and she told us that what we needed to do is give her a little bit of everything which means dairy, meat etc... And now that you mention, we have her immunization the first year but stopped for almost two year when doctors started pushing me to do it and my husband who doesn't supoort the no immunization too and if I'm not wrong after that she started with the patches .. How did you decided to ha he her diet? Do you mind giving me more information? It's hard to make decisions when you husband does not approve of you beliefs
As far as immunizations......I felt like she had rapid hair loss after her one year immunizations. I then started researching a little and the one I am most suspicious of is the MMR. There is some research which suggests the MMR vaccination may cause a flair in other autoimmune disorders. I will not give her the MMR again. I don't give her the influenza vaccination either. She is past due for a DTaP and I will giver her that one but when she was seen for her 3 year check she had the fresh patch from restarting dairy so I didn't give it to her then. I am a Physician Assistant. I am not against all immunizations But I think we over-immunize our kids. If we have a second child I would not give the MMR again....or any immunization that is made of attenuated virus. Our daughter takes a multivitamin and a probiotic every day. I do not believe her diet is making her deficient in vitamins or nutrients. I actually believe she eats healthier than most kids. She doesn't ask for macaroni or chicken nuggets because she's never had it. She eats all sorts of meat and fish, fruits and vegetables and she gets plenty of other grains.....just not wheat.

hi what happened with your daughter?

Hi there

My daughter is doing really great! She is now 5 1/2. She went over 2 years without losing hair (she was 17 months old when it stopped). We have had a few explainable set backs since then. Summer of 2015 we introduced dairy back into her diet.  Within 10 days she had a small patch in her hairline. We quickly withdrew the dairy from her diet and the patch grew back quickly. In October 2016 I gave her a DTap (immunization) because it is synthetic and not attenuated virus. She tolerated this just fine and no hair loss.  This past May (2017) we gave her an IPV (for polio) and Hepatitis A vaccinations. She lost hair for 4 months. Mostly 2 large patches and overall just some thinning. Her hair has since all grown back in. We are very thankful to God that we seem to be able to control her hairloss with diet changes as I know this doesn't work for everyone. We will not be giving her anymore vaccinations....ever.

I am a baby of alopecia.. I had half my hair missing before I was one so... she doesn't know much

dermatologists are pretty quick s they see the same thing over and over and over.. they are all usually like that, but if you want to find someone more caring keep shopping till you find the one.

the small hairs could be at the stage of regrowth or you caught it where it will fall out in a couple days.. just get use to the game as it's for life.. maybe you are right, maybe it is her pulling it and some rubbing??? you will know as it will be a distinct circular shape and very very smooth to the touch rubbing it, and then it won't grow in for a while, any other thing would be regrowth soon,

don't be scared.. we who get it get it for a reason.. mine is to teach me to not stress out.. she has her own path, as there is no coincidences .....

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