How do you explain alopecia to a young child?

Today we were at Babies R US, and a 4 year old boy at the cash, turned to his mother and said "Look mom, she has no hair". The good thing is that he said "she" ;). The boy turned to his mother and asked why? The mother shrugged her shoulders and looked at me first to get my reaction and when I nodded ok, she then told him he could to ask me.

I have volunteered with older children before and they described it to each other as me being allergic to my hair. It seemed to work nicely for them, but obviously not with a 4 year old. So I am curious to know how do others explain their alopecia to very young children who are curious?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah McIntosh on September 2, 2011 at 7:16pm
I'm going to be sending a coloring book on alopecia to my sons early ed program to try to explain why he has no hair. When I go to the park though and the kids start asking and making comments, I ask them questions like how many of you have brown hair or blue eyes or wears glasses or may be a little chubbier, and they all start raising their hand for one reason or another and then I tell them we just don't have hair the same as some people may need glasses. Once they realize we're not sick they have a blast with my son and even me sometimes,lol. I also tell them not to feel sorry for us and that there's no reason for us to feel sorry for ourselves the same way there is no reason to feel sorry for themselves.
For the much smaller guys I tell them it's our lucky head and if their lucky we'll let them rub our head and then they'll be lucky for the day too, lol.

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