Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alyssa and mom Lori on July 4, 2008 at 8:49am

My dd8 has had alopecia since 2.5. Hers is primarily patchy loss but at one point she was probably around 70% hairloss. After talking to two dermatologist (pediatric dermatologist and a dermatologist that specializes in hair/scalp) and talking things over with dh as well as talking to people who have had cortisone injections we have decided not to try that route. As Alyssa gets older (probably teen years) and wants to try it we will revisit it but until she is old enough to actively make that decision on her own we won't do it. That is just our personal choice.

We have tried some creams We started with elidil which shortly later was announced that there was a possible link with cancer so we stopped that. Right now we have prescriptions for dermascalp and lidex as well as non prescription rogaine for eyebrows. We used them off/on however dd doesn't like the dermascalp that much. It makes her itchy, gives her scalp a flakey appearanc and makes the surrounding hair she has look greasy. At the moment dd has asked that we stop using them during the hot weather so we are taking a break. I feel at age 8 she is old enough to have imput and in this case I can see her point.

My dd however currently has most of her hair (though does have some noticeable areas of loss). If anything my gut feeling is that keeping dd on iron supplements (flintstones complete) since she is severely anemic otherwise combined with allergy medication (claritin) for seasonal allergies helps her more than the creams. She isn't using either of them for alopecia but I can hope that it helps.

I guess what we are mostly doing right now is trying to keep up her self esteem and follow her lead. She happily goes to school etc without a head cover and I think the other kids are used to seeing her. She does wear pretied bandanas or other hats outside for sun protection. She is nervous about loosing her hair and we have a wig on hand if it comes to that which gives her a small sense of comfort. The one thing I am trying to do is never have her feel ashamed about her hair or lack of.

Lori

Permalink Reply by Nicole on July 4, 2008 at 10:06pm

thanks for replying Lori.

At this point I believe IF I go with treatments for her it would be creams.

Permalink Reply by Maygensmom on December 11, 2008 at 12:36pm

You know, your daughter sounds a lot like mine. She is 13 now, but I notice hair loss during alergy season and I have her on iron. I wonder if there is a connection.

Permalink Reply by Kristin (Matthew's Mom) on July 11, 2008 at 4:21pm

My son has had alopecia since the end of second grade. We did however choose to do treatments, but he was onboard with it, because he did not want to lose his hair. Now that he is a teenager, we give him the choice. He goes back and forth. Some months he is ok, others he wants to try. He has a great network of friends and family. It is hard to decide at such a young age, on what to do, especially when all your efforts turn up nothing. Then you wonder why you put him/her through that. I get frustrated myself when all the efforts show nothing. But now that he is older, I will suppport him in what ever he wants to do.

Permalink Reply by Lynn AKA Mom of 2 w/AA on July 13, 2008 at 11:40am

My daughter was 9 when she first got AA. We didn't know what it was for a month or two, then we took her for treatment with Stanford Professor of Dermatology Alfred T. Lane. He was great! He told her, "I don't know how much hair you will loose, but we will get it to grow back." We treated her with a cortiosteriod (spelling?) cream and Men's Roggaine both twice daily. Over a total of seven months, her hair loss progressed to 1/4 her scalp hair right on top of her head, then within three months it grew back and she no longer needed to wear a head scarf or hat to school. She had a full head of hair for two years. Now she has spots and has chosen to treat those spots with shots to the scalp by a local dermatologist. The shots are keeping the spots from growing larger, although a new spot has appeared. My son is 10 and we just discovered his AA two weeks ago. He also chose to treat with shots, and is tolerating those shots. However, he does have a very small new spot. So far, none of the kids spots are larger than a dime. We are also using Men's Roggaine (twice daily). I've heard that you have to be consistent with Men's Rogainne and that you really shouldn't miss a dose. It's been three months into AA for my daughter, and we are seeing regrowth of light colored hair in her older spots. So far, my kids spots are easy to conceal and they don't have to wear hats, etc. I'll keep you all posted. Take care.

Permalink Reply by Maygensmom on December 11, 2008 at 12:39pm

Do either you or your husband have AA?

Permalink Reply by Terry Wagner on July 17, 2008 at 8:24pm

My son, who's 11, was just diagnosed in April. Doc gave us Olux-E foam to use 1x/day. Hair grew back pretty quickly. 6 weeks later he had another bout and then recently lost eyebrows. Doc said to use Olux-E foam 2x/day on both eyebrows and hair. eyebrows are coming back in as is the hair. his hairloss is sporadic and comes out in large areas.

Permalink Reply by Alexandra Youmazzo on July 31, 2008 at 12:34am

Our daughter was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata in June of '07 and we unfortunatly did do the injections at the recommendation of our dermatologist and for us it was an awful and painful experience. Our daughter looked at us and told us that she'd rather go bald, which she did. Now our daughter is completley bald and is starting to lose her eyelashes and eyebrows. She seems to have adjusted to her new look although at times I know that she is sad. I say encourage her to believe she is beautiful no matter what and that her hair is not her. We of course hope that they will find a cure one day.

Permalink Reply by Christel Hertz on August 11, 2008 at 5:00am

My daughter is now 8 and her alopacia started when she was 2. She has been completely bald for a few years now. We are currently trying DCP treatments which make her scalp red and itchy. She puts up with it. We have not had any great results. Her hair started growing back at christmas but a few weeks later it fell out again. We are still continuing but have lost hope. It's better we do not pay too much attention to hair regrowth so Jennifer can accept that she probably has to live with wearing a wig for a long time.

Permalink Reply by Kristin (Matthew's Mom) on August 18, 2008 at 12:08pm

Hello, I understand what you are going through, we also tried something similiar to the DCP treatments, we tried Dibutal squarate. It cause my sons scalp to become very red and itched. He hated the way it felt. I felt bad because his skin would crack and would bleed. We also had no adverse reactions to this treatment, and he decided not to continue with the treatment. Now we are trying a new treatment just to see if he can grow his eyebrows back. Right now that seems to be all that he really is concerned about. Hopefully something will click and the body will let it grow again.

Permalink Reply by Nicole on September 8, 2008 at 2:48pm

thanks ladies. We haven't done any treatments and her hair has slowly grown back in her one spot. It does seem to me that her hair is thinning out though. Especially on tops and the sides. The back of her hair is thick and curly as usual. :/

Permalink Reply by Eileen on September 9, 2008 at 8:33pm

Hi Nicole
have to agree with lots of what Lori has posted. My Kelly is now 7, diagnosed at 3. We started with probetesol(sp?) and another cream and she also did a two week stint of low dose prednisone...to try to stop the diffuse loss at the time...It worked somewhat. But Kelly hated the creams, and the more I read, the more I realized all the creams in the world werent worth risking her health. She has been 'treatment free' for about two and a half years now.
Like Lori, we are leaving it to Kelly to decide when she is old enough to actively participate in the decision.
Kelly has spotty AA, which is becoming more active again now, as always, since we are going into fall...a very active allergy period for her. Kelly takes otc antihistamines as needed for that. She also takes a multivitamin with iron...and we give her biotin and MSM as well. MSM is supposed to be an anti-inflammatory and the doc and the pharmicist said a 500mg tab daily could not hurt her, so we tried it.
Other than that, we just try to keep it positive. I will be going into Kelly's class next week to help her do a presentation to the class about her alopecia. We have done it each year and it helps alot...its gets the awkward questions out of the way all in one shot so she can just concentrate on being a third grader and having fun!
Good Luck to you in your decision.

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