All -
In reviewing the boards the last few weeks, I finally felt ready to post. My 2.5 year old daughter was diagnosed early January 2011 with Alopecia Areata. It started with a half dollar size bald patch on the back of her head (in early December 2010), then a few thinning type patches in the front of her head (late December and advancing in early January). Within the last two weeks I discovered two or maybe three dime sized spots on the back of her head.
We went to a dermatologist and a pediatric dermatologist and both recommended that we apply a steroid cream to the spots twice daily. I used a whole tube of the cream up within the first week and the dermatologist advised that more is not necessarily better :)
I am trying to stay positive that she is healthy and happy and will not know what is happening. I am praying that it is only patches, but setting myself up for totalis. I have my days - some I cannot stop crying because I am so sad for her and others I am fine and positive thinking that she is healthy and it could be worse.
Some questions -
1. How long did it take to notice some growth? I "examine" the spots nightly to see if there are any new hairs. Some along the hair line look like broken ones (very tiny), some randoms in the middle as well.
2. If all the hair fell out - did more and more patches develop until there was no hair left? Or did it thin out? How long did this take? Weeks? Months?
3. We had full blood work for anemia and thyroid and it came back fine, with one exception that her stored iron was on the low normal level - 11 - normal range 10 to 143. My pediatrician was not concerned, but with a contributing factor - I think he should be. But I will leave this to the specialist and try to get my fussy eater to eat more iron rich foods. I am thinking about gluten free as well.
I appreciate your advice/support. We are headed to another specialist but not until March 1st. We go back to our pediatric derm in two weeks.
- Jen