4 Months Old With Rapid Hair Loss

by Cara
(Ontario, Canada)

My daughter is 4.5 months old. Today her hair has been falling out very quickly, and over the course of a few hours, it was noticeably thinner.

She also now has completely bald patches behind both of her ears, and it looks really patchy on the top of her head too. (She looks like she has been going through chemo treatments)...

She was a preemie, so I am worried about every little thing that doesn't seem 'normal' to me.

Is such rapid hair loss a normal thing? Or should I call the pediatrician about it?

Baby Help Line:

Hair Loss Normal Or Not For 4 Month Old

Newborn hair loss is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. Babies often lose their hair during the first six months.

This kind of normal baby hair loss is called telogen effluvium and is due to the two different stages that hair can be in. Human hair has a growth stage and a resting stage. The resting stages usually comes every three years or so and lasts for three months, but sharp hormonal changes (such as being born) actually triggers the resting stage and hence the baby's hair falls off and stays off for a few months.

So this explains general hair loss in babies.

When it comes to bald patches (which most babies also have), they are usually due to actually tearing off the hair. Baby hair is very soft and lying down and turning the head will tear off the hair on most babies. If you look around, you are likely to notice many young babies with quite funny hair styles - looking like small monks.

There are other conditions that cause hair loss, but they're very uncommon in children under 12 months old:

Patchy bald spots with red, flaky scaling (and sometimes black dots where the hair has broken off) may mean that your baby has a contagious fungal infection called tinea capitis, or ringworm.

If your baby has smooth, round, totally bald areas, she may have alopecia areata, a condition in which the immune system attacks the hair follicles, drastically slowing hair growth. This type of hair loss usually appears in isolated patches, although it can affect all of the hair on the body.

Some medical conditions such as hypothyroidism (a thyroid disorder) or hypopituitarism (an underactive pituitary gland) can cause hair loss all over your child's head.

But again, most of these conditions and very uncommon!

For the normal baby bald spots, try alternating the way your baby sleeps during naps and at night (Just don't put your baby to sleep on his belly, due to the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.) If you usually put her to sleep with her head at one end of the crib, try putting her down with her head at the other end every other night. Your baby will naturally turn her head to the side to look out of the crib, so she'll be resting on a different part of his head.

Belly time or time in the baby carrier while awake is excellent too.

I hope this helps,

Paula