Losing hair with type 1??

I'm somewhat new here so please bear with me. Our daughter, age 11, was diagnosed in June with type 1. I have noticed recently (in the past few weeks) that she is losing quite a bit of hair. After each shower the shower floor has quite a bit of hair all over it. When she brushes her hair, she is losing a lot. Could this be from the insulin? She has never had this problem before.

Erica
Daughter Makenna dx 6/10 type 1
Son, John age 7

 

We went through the exact same thing! I thought Ashleigh was going to go bald. She would actually plug our drain up with her hair. Several times a week my husband would fish a hair ball out of our shower drain. We asked our endo about it and he said most likely what is going on is that when her BS were high (before diagnosis) she stopped losing her hair. But now that her sugars are in range all the hair that she would have normally lost is all falling out. So it seems like she's losing a ton of hair. We also had her checked for thyroid problems since hair loss is a symptom, but her thyroid levels were fine. Ashleigh's hair loss lasted probably 4 months, but within the past month I haven't noticed it as much.

 

it could be from the trauma to her body at diagnosis, if this is it then you will have to increase her protein intake.

 

Poor baby- could it be stress related?

 

We had the same problem for a while after diagnosis. It seemed worse than it was because dd has very long hair! I didn't know about giving the extra protein, wish we had!

 

Went through the same thing. She was diagnosed last April and she was losing a lot the first two months, still did the third and fourth months but not as much as the 1st two.

 

My daughter's hair went oily after diagnosis and have been since???

 

I would get her thyroid levels checked out, just to rule out any thyroid issues.

Or maybe it's just the stress of diagnosis.

How old is your daughter? Could she be going through hormonal changes?

 

Ditto

Our lovely long haired blonde, lost so much I was worried also, however oddly enough, I have noticed after about 5 months, she has lost hardly any, as in her clothes aren't covered in it etc, nor the bath or the lux!!

It will improve, take care.

Kind regards

 

My daughter went through the same thing, it was scary to me, I didn't want to point it out to her. But it stopped within a few months and her thyroid has always been normal.

 

Is she getting enough Vitamin D?? I also think it is probably related to the stress of all the high blood sugars.

 

Madison went through the same thing. She has the thickest hair imaginable and she was losing it in clumps a month or two after diagnosis. The shower was covered, her clothes were covered and her brush was full. Her endo said that it was from the being SO sick at dx. Her body was working so hard just to stay alive that it didn't send any nutrients to her hair and that created weak hair that broke or fell out easily. It fell out for a couple of months and then stopped. She has her thick thick hair back.

There are other reasons such as thyroid, but Madison's was from being sick.

 

We've had questions related to hair loss and type 1 diabetes submitted to our online diabetes team for years and years, so this experience -- while rare -- is not unique.

You can search for "hair loss" in our "Ask the Diabetes Team" section to read some of the answers:

http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/dteam/d_0d_000.htm

 

Alex lost alot of hair shortly after dx. But it seems to have been temporary.

 

Hair Loss

My daughter Sydney lost her hair and eyebrows / eyelashes . She is Type 1. The alopecia aereata (hair loss) we found to be due to celiac disease. Might check for this as it is more common than you know.

 

I lost a fair bit of hair after dx, just from being so sick. I also have thyroid issues now, which can cause hair loss as well, so you should probably have that checked out to be certain..

 

I'm having issues my child hair is coming oout a lot in the back I will go to a dermatologist

 

My son has a friend (that's a girl) that has Alocpecia. She has lost all her hair. Alopcea is also an auto-immune disorder. Luckily, it is coming back now. Hopefully that isn't what your daughter has - seems like other children on here have had similar hair loss with high blood sugars . Hopefully it resolves itself.

 

I also am a vote for checking Thyroid levels - a bad thyroid is a common cause for hair loss - but it isn't the only cause.

 

My son has long gorgeous hair. He lost a ton of hair after dx in Aug '10!!! Thought he was going bald!!!!!!!!! But it was stress I guess because it has been fine lately. All growing back thick. But yes it has been oilier than in the past. He has to wash it more often, sorry to say he is at the age he does not like bathing. Oh well, thats a young teen thing I guess.