My Heart, Your Home: Hair pulling, be gone!   

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Hair pulling, be gone!



For the past 12 months I had been slowing watching Evelyn pull out her hair. I first started to really notice a difference in the appearance of her hair at 18 months old. Every morning her bald spots were a little bigger and every morning I felt a little more devastated. 

While I was away in hospital giving birth to Zalia it became so very bad that the only option we had left was to shave her hair off. I was irrationally upset about this, sobbing my way through that hair cut (and every other buzz cut afterwards). Evelyn did have some of the most beautiful golden blonde curls that I would run my fingers through all the time. To see them fall to the ground was just devastating.

After about 7 weeks of having it short we thought that we had broken the habit and started to let it grow out again. But within a couple of weeks of it being that little bit longer I started to notice new thinning spots beginning. So, we buzz cut it again.

Then, one day Evelyn was so very naughty. She kicked Zalia and the continued to kick me and Zalia after I had tried to tell her to stop. I lost my temper and sent her to her room without her Dummy. I went back in after a couple of minutes and asked her to apologise, to which she yelled at me and refused. So I left her again. After which she actually fell asleep, without the dummy.

So I decided that I would try and take the dummy away from her again. This was my fourth attempt at doing this and I was so very nervous. In the past when I have tried it has completely changed her personality. For the worse. This particular night I put her back to bed and told her the dummy doesn't work anymore. She was asleep in 10 minutes.

The next day I gave her the dummy and showed her that it was broken* and that it doesn't work anymore. She promptly through the dummy in the bin. That has basically been the last we have spoken about it! She doesn't fall asleep as easily anymore but she does go to sleep, without tantrums and without asking. She sleeps the night through (mostly) and I have even found that she appears to be a lot happier.

Since the removal of the dummy, coupled with the short hair, it has now been growing in thick and fast! You can barely tell there was any bald spots at all and I am now able to let it all grow out! I am hanging for her to have enough length to be able to put in a pretty clip, a piggy tail and run my fingers through her curls.

I know hair pulling really is no serious illness or health concern so it never should have bothered me at all. But if I can be perfectly honest, it really has upset me so very much over the past 12 months. Now that it is over I can breathe a sigh of relief and it can just be a thing of the past!

I have had so many of you contact me with tips and advice, your personal experiences and questions. For that, I want to thank you all! It was really so encouraging and relieving to be able to talk to other people who were watching their children do the same thing and know that it wasn't a great concern. 

If you have any further questions I will be happy to answer them for you.

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