Alopecia Areata - 5 Year Old Daughter

I just want to tell you that I know about that "slump" you describe. You are in shock and you are grieving. Of course you are. That being said, give yourself some time. When you are around your daughter be strong. You have to be. She will cope poorly if you do. Our kids learn from us.

Be her advocate. Spend some time researching support for her, but limit the time. Obsessing over it isn't healthy for anyone. Talk to other families who are going through this. There are lots of people going through similar journeys.

I'm sorry for your daughter's diagnosis and your normal mommy reaction. Give yourself some time to consider all the options.

I highly recommend that since this is an autoimmune disorder, that you seek the guidance of alternative health practitioners whom you are most comfortable with, such as Acupuncturists, Acupressure, Ortho Molecular Nutritionists, etc.

Western Medicine always prescribes steroids for auto immune disorders to suppress one's immune system. This will hopefully stop her immune system from attacking perfectly healthy cells.

Please try boosting her immune system with healthy alternatives simultaneously.

My cousin's baby was diagnosed with this when he was around 2-3. He's now 5. I saw him Sunday and he has hair once more. I don't know his treatment so can't help you there. Because he is a boy the gave him the sort of haircut that made the loss of hair less noticeable. Cut hair short and shaved the sides. The hair loss was on 1 side only. They did not shave often so he did have more hair on one side than the other but it wasn't so noticeable. Perhaps it would help you to style your daughter's hair differently.

I don't have personal experience with this, but I know a little about it. No, minoxidil isn't useful for this.

I've heard that she can also have a steroid injection into the location, you can ask about that.

I've also heard that often a patch can begin, but you just inject it or use the topical steroid and it goes away with no further spreading, and doesn't come back, so it's quite likely it might be isolated, especially since the patch isn't substantial.

You don't say how old your daughter is, but try not to transfer your fear to her. Just be calm and matter-of-fact about this, and act like the steroid is going to take care of it. The strands coming out could be normal hair loss.

It's scary, but try to stay positive at this point in time.

What you're feeling is so normal, it's hard coming to terms with something like this for your own self and to deal with it when it's a child is much much much harder.

Find your center and fill it with positive things. It can get worse and it can stop where it is and it can fill back in some from what I've heard.

I have a couple of friends, they are female cousins. They both went through periods where they were having massive stress and one had huge spots on her head go bald. She medicated and worked on reducing stress, sometimes divorce is good for that, and her hair grew back in an okay/presentable manner.

She uses products for fine hair to give it body and teases it to make it look thicker.

Her cousin had some similar stress and started having bald spots but it was a couple of years after her life had settled down. She is now bald and wears a complete wig.

The docs don't know how this happened and why one did one thing and the other went the other way.

I hope your little is okay through all of this because it could be worse, I know that's not much to hold on to but it could be something life threatening.