Reasons for hair loss in three-month-old babies

Many parents, when their baby is three months old, will ask about the reasons for their baby's hair loss. It must be because the baby is losing a lot of hair, and parents are at a loss, so they ask relatives and friends, or doctors to find out the reasons for their baby's hair loss. What exactly causes a baby to lose hair at three months? Here, an expert will give you a brief introduction and answer the questions for parents.

There are many reasons why your baby may lose his hair, and each condition has its own different symptoms, causes, and treatments. If your baby's hair loss is due to medical treatment (such as a side effect of medication or radiation therapy), you may have already consulted your doctor about this.

Here are some other types of hair loss:

Bald patches that are red and flaky (sometimes black) may indicate tinea capitis, a contagious fungal infection that is the most common cause of hair loss in children.

Physiological damage. For example, girls may suffer from traction alopecia because they tie their ponytails or braid their hair too tightly or perm or dye their hair.

If your child is compulsively twirling or pulling his hair, it may cause it to fall out in random patches, a condition called trichotillomania.

If your child's hair loss is round and shiny, with no hair at all, it could be alopecia areata, which means your child's immune system is attacking the hair follicles and completely slowing down hair growth. Although this type of hair loss is usually localized, it can also affect hair all over the body.

Certain medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid gland) or hypopituitarism (an underactive pituitary gland), can also cause hair to fall out all over your child's head, but this is less common. Another reason for overall thinning of hair (rather than hair falling out in patches) is telogen effluvium. Hair has a growing phase and a resting phase. The growing phase lasts about 3 years, while the resting phase lasts about 3 months (although 1 to 6 months is normal). During the resting phase, hair stays in the follicle before new hair begins to grow.

Normally, about 5% to 15% of the hair on the scalp is in the resting phase. However, stress, fever or changes in hormone levels can cause a large amount of hair to suddenly enter the resting phase. When new hair starts to grow after about 3 months and the growth phase restarts, hair loss also begins. Additionally, the drop in hormone levels after childbirth is the reason why many new mothers and babies experience hair loss.

Here we would like to remind parents that when you find your baby losing hair, you must determine the reason why the baby is losing hair at three months old. Only by determining the cause of the child's hair loss can you analyze whether the baby is losing hair normally or caused by other diseases. Only in this way can you find the correct treatment method and make the baby have healthy and beautiful hair.