LORI- Stress Induced Alopecia

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Permalink Reply by Miranda on March 31, 2008 at 3:05pm

When my daughter was first diagnosed with Alopecia, her pediatrician said it was caused by stress. He blamed maybe our parenting, because we are really young. I have read about many things, and stress has come up. I don't think that my daughter's alopecia was emotional-stress related. Nothing had significantly changed, and she has an identical twin that is treated the same! I do, however think that maybe alopecia is brought on by body stresses.

My twins were born at only 29 weeks gestation. They were in the hospital for four months. Della had always been the sicker one. She was on the vent for 2 weeks, while angel was taken off later that night. Both of them came home with oxygen, and Angel came home with a feeding tube. The day Della's home nurse took her off the oxygen for good, she stopped breathing and was put back into the hospital for a week. She was having issues with the remaining blood in her head, which she has recovered completely from. Della also has had asthma really bad. She also has Aortic Stenosis and will require a heart surgery in the future. She has had excema, and her ears, when we got them pierced had gotten infected pretty bad. All of which Angel has grown-up without. I think that Della's health has had a big toll on her body. Maybe she just continued to attack everything, and now her hair is being attacked. All I know is she is healthy now.

I also know that Janine's little one has dealt with a bunch of allergies. I'm sure that has taken a big toll on her little body as well.

I do think that stress has a lot to do with it, but I don't think that it has everything to do with it. Look at the children that get abused, neglected, and molested. If stress had something to do with it, don't you think that more of those children would be alopecia patients as well? What are your thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Wendy on March 31, 2008 at 3:54pm

My daughter's doctors asked the same thing regarding stress, as well as any signifcant illness prior to hair loss patches. I've read many articles, as I'm sure all of you have, that some say that this has nothing to do with stress. I think that's is God's way of challenging us. My grandmother always says that God gives you only what you can handle!

I haven't noticed any stress challenges in my daughter. She is a very active 7 year old who enjoys playing with her friends and cheerleading...don't forget Webkins! I think that if alopecia was stress related, I would have been bald a long time ago!

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Permalink Reply by Lori on April 2, 2008 at 10:36pm

Well you know I brought up this topic because I have been told by a couple docs and derms that hairloss caused by stress is not true. Has anyone heard otherwise from a professional... and if so, then how do we know what is truth? -Lori

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Permalink Reply by Vicktoria (Katya's mom) on April 3, 2008 at 9:40am

What I understand is that sometimes any type of "stressful event" can cause an onset of alopecia. You already have to be pre-disposed (have the gene in your body) kind of like lupus or other auto-immune problems. The stressful event can be an illness, actual stress or anxiety, almost anything that stresses out your body can be a trigger. Also, it can be just random. For my daughter it seemed fairly obvious that she suddenly started getting panic attacks and anxiety her hair started to fall out. A short time later it started to grow back, but then she was in a situation that caused a panic attack and it all fell out. She conquered the panic attacks and rarely has anxiety (only in very specific situations). She worked with a congnitive therapist. We don't know what brought on the anxiety but she is 12, maybe it's hormones. The AA started last May and the AU started in September so hopefully it goes away. I know it's random and we just don't know. The strange thing is, as long as she has wigs, the AU really doesn't bother her. Her anxiety only happens in croweded, confused unfamiliar situations and has nothing to do with hair. Does anyone else have a story were the trigger seems to be obvious? In Katya's case anxiety seemed to be the trigger, but you never know, I could be wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Branka Carbery on April 6, 2008 at 10:58pm

Hi all. I'm new here...
From what i've read and heard, stress can be a trigger for someone who has alopecia, but it may not be a trigger. Isn't that alopecia, though? So many things may or may not be a trigger. I wish i knew what the trigger was for ella.
If stress is Ella's trigger, could it have been the potty training stress, big girl bed stress, or terrible two stress that brought on her first bout? I don't know, but i do know that there was no way to ease her stress of those situations. We've done the best we could to make those milestones as stress-free as we could.

Last time i had ella's hair cut, i forewarned the hairdresser that ella's hair was covering many bald patches. She told me she never saw a child w/alopecia, and thought it was weird cuz she learned that it was caused by stress and was wondering what kind of stressful situations my 3yr old was experiencing. I know they educate hairdressers about alopecia when they are in cosmetology school, but wherever she went, they did not do a very good job. i was a little irritated by this, and tried to do a bit of educating during the haircut.
is there anyone out there who feels they do know what triggers their child's hair loss??
Glad i found this group. It's feels great to post and read everyone else's post.
Branka

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Permalink Reply by Miranda on April 7, 2008 at 11:08pm

OH MY GOSH, you brought back memories of my daughter. We hadn't taken her to a hair salon since she first got her alopecia and when we finally did they refused her because they thought it was contagious. It was horrible.

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Permalink Reply by Sheri and Destiny on April 16, 2008 at 4:04pm

Destiny's hair started falling out after developing Infantile Spasms at 6 months old. She was on the steroid ACTH for almost 3 months. She started her hair loss about 6 months after her last acth treatment. Her pediatrician was suspicious that the ACTH triggered it or the spasms themselves, but the dermatologist said he didn't think that would cause it. I do know that the ACTH was very hard on her system, and I still wonder if that wasn't a trigger.

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