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Environment's role
Sorry, I'm new to this and trying hard to find solutions for my son. I want to explain what we have gone through and see if others have ever experienced similar situations.
My son's name is Austin. He started Pre-Kindergarten at age 4 in September at our local Elementary school. The first spot developed in the back of his head in December that year. Then it continued to progress and he lost all hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, etc by the first grade. Then it would comeback some and then lose some then comeback some then lose some continuing through the end of 4th grade.
Our Elementary school does not have enough room for 5th graders. So in 5th grade he was sent to a school about 7 miles away and all classes were held in mobile class rooms. His hair started to comeback and by the time he entered our Middle school for 6th grade he had everything back. 6th, 7th and 8th grade there was NO hair loss, none.
He started 9th grade at the High school and within a month he started to develop a spot on the back of his head just like it started in Pre-K when he was 4. by the end of December this year he had 4 spots and it was getting worse. The High school is being remodeled and the ceiling tiles have been removed since the beginning of the school year. I walked through the school and could see a lot of insulation sticking out and it looked really bad. The ventilation system runs above the ceiling tiles.
Our Elementary and High schools were built at the same time and that was over 50 years ago. They both have flat roofs and I'm sure those roofs have leaked over time and allowed mold (aspergillis) to grow and multiply. The Middle school has a flat roof but it is only 15 years old.
We pulled our son after the Christmas break and we are home schooling him now until the end of this school year to see if his hair comes back. We tested him for allergies and Aspergillis was a highly allergic mold for him. We are having an air quality firm come in and test all three schools to see if they can find something that stands out among the three.
To me, it is too coincidental and we want to explore this further. Just putting this out there to see if anyone else thinks there is merit to it.
Thanks,
Cory
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Stacie on
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Cory - I'm not aware of mold allergies causing patchy hair loss. That's not to say that it couldn't, but I would say this: If you haven't taken your son to an MD and/or dermatologist, then you should do so. There are any number of things that could cause patchy, intermittent hair loss -- e.g., alopecia areata, which, if your son has it, you want to know about it so that his immune system can be monitored for other issues that can sometimes accompany that condition.
How do you know that aspergillis is growing in the roof? It can grow on food, too. I do find it difficult to believe that your son could be highly allergic to aspergillis, but his only symptom is hair loss. There are other, far more frequent symptoms that crop up with aspergillis allergies, most commonly pulmonary symptoms. If your son is so sensitive to aspergillis, one would think that he'd be exhibiting other, more serious symptoms.
As a point of curiosity, what air quality firm are you using? Had you thoroughly vetted them and asked them what tests they intend to perform and who will be analyzing the test results? Have you vetted the labs that the air quality company intends to send their samples to? Is the school district cooperating in your investigation - how is the air quality company intending to access school grounds and from which areas do they intend to get samples? These are all questions that you should the air quality company to make sure that they are not just scamming you. If they can't or won't answer them, you should be deeply suspicious.
You should be wary of the "toxic mold" and/or "black mold" industry - there are a lot of scammers in the mold industry who will prey upon folks, telling them that certain hard-to-explain and/or vague symptoms (e.g., intermittent hair loss, fatigue, stomach distress, etc.) are due to black/toxic mold. Just be careful about that. Most of those folks have no solid science backing them up, just hearsay, anecdotal evidence (e.g., "I know people that this happened to" or "Mrs. X told me that this happened to her and all her symptoms match mine"). There's a big difference between correlation and causation, and you want to be careful not to fall into that trap.
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Thanks Stacie. We have been to the Dr's and Dermatologists over the last 11 years. We know it's Alopecia and we have tried the steroid shots in the head, and other treatments that just haven't worked. The air quality control person I am working with is a friend of one of my closest friends and he's 100% legit and not trying to sell me anything he doesn't think we should try. He trult is trying to help. The school district has been very supportive and is doing everything we ask when it comes to allowing someone to come in and run some tests. The three parties have agreed to keep this between ourselves as to not attract attention or cause an undo panic. We have found aspergillis in a few walls of certain classrooms that Austin was in. We are going to do air quality tests this week. Maybe, it's nothing but we are willing to search further. Austin has been home schooled now for 1 month and we are seeing signs of his hair coming back in the areas where he has lost it. Sure, it came back and then fell out again in the past but we've never seen it start to comeback this fast. We will keep him out of the school until then end of this school year and see what happens. If it all comes back, we may not know what is causing it but we will know there is something there. THanks for your thoughts. Cory
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