Comment by Roslyn on June 29, 2010 at 10:15pm

Be sympathetic to your wife's feelings. As a mother it is very difficult to accept your child suffering in any way. You know first hand what your son will deal with from his peers take time to explain to her how your experience will help your son as he grows.

Comment by Antonio (Tony) Rivera on June 30, 2010 at 9:39am

Thank you for your comments

Comment by Maritza Stern on June 30, 2010 at 10:24am

Tony, I think Susan said it best, remind your wife that YOU ended up ok and that you found her, so your child will be much stronger because he already has a strong role model in dealing with alopecia. She's going to go through a transition period where she'll want to try everything to make his hair grow (that you shouldn't allow to happen) but we all know that very few people have a success rate and those that do, not for very long do they have that success. It's worse when the hair grows in and then falls out the second time. MUCH WORSE! You go through the feelings again, but more intensely. Let her join a support group and really get out her worst fears in front of the people who will understand the way she is feeling. Therefore you won't be alone in convincing her that it is a tolerable disorder. Try to tell her and especially your son that there are much worse things he could have, ie. heart disease, cancer, tumors, cystic fibrosis, paralysis, MS, etc., you get the picture. When you put things in those perpectives, life seems to be a whole lot better. Perhaps you can find some articles of children with such afflictions or have her volunteer at a children's hospital ward, once she sees those poor children with much more serious illnesses she might calm down and start to face what she is facing. Hope my imput helps. Best of Health to all. Please visit my son's article that came out yesterday at mycentraljersey.com and click on the health tab. He is 7 and is so very confident and loves to show off his alopecia when we go out. I've always spoken to him as an adult about his conditions and have used the method above to build up his confidence and oh boy is he confident. A little too much sometimes. Perhaps my son can be a penpal (e-mail) with your son. let me know.

Comment by Ann Cutts on June 30, 2010 at 11:25am

PLEASE SEE MY BLOG POST, i meant to add it here, but that didn't happen, sorry

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