Is Stress Causing Hair Fall In Kids?

Hair fall is one of the concerns in children that has varied causes and stress can be one of them. There are other causes such as friction, rubbing, fungal infections of the scalp, immune disorders such as Alopecia areata where patches of bald spots are seen, trichotillomania where child starts pulling out their own hair, nutritional deficiencies and hormonal imbalances.

Stress and anxiety leads children to develop some habits almost like finger nail biting, thumb sucking and also hair plucking. Older children pluck out eyebrows, eyelashes as well as hair in response to anxiety and psychological stress. Over time this leads to breakage of hair, bald spots and further leads to depression.

Alopecia areata is a condition where one’s immunity attacks one’s own hair follicles causing bald spots. These spots usually resolve on their own in 6 months to a year but fresh patches may appear or sometimes it may progress to include larger areas and cause complete baldness. This condition may be treated with steroid ointments or injections at a dermatologist office and sometimes with minoxidil.

Fungal infections need to be treated with anti fungal medicines as well as antifungal shampoos and ointments which will be prescribed by your dermatologist. This is contagious and can spread from one person to an other by sharing of towels, bed sheets, pillow covers etc so one must take care to treat fingernails, combs and bed linen too.

Stress developing from parental issues, separation, relationship problems also has affect on the hair growth. In a parent line plus survey done in 2002 they found that prolonged stressful situtaons induced more hair fall than single stressful episodes.

Stress also lead to alopecia areata in some children.

Prolonged illness and hospitalization, acute fevers such as that of typhoid also leads to hair fall in a condition known as Telogen Effluvium.

Nutritional deficiencies with B complex, biotin and Zinc can also lead to hair fall. A balanced diet rich in vitamins, essential amino acids, protein, zinc and calcium is essential to overcome hair fall due to nutritional deficiency.

Where endocrine problem and hormonal imabalance is suspected it will need a proper assessment and work up by an endocrinologist to rule out thyroid and other insufficiencies.

In addition to these medical factors factors, tight hairstyles, pulling hairstyles, braids can also lead to hair fall.

In toddlers the hair fall may be due to fungal infection, pulling hair styles or rubbing against car seat or crib. Nutritional deficiencies also need to be looked into.