How dangerous is hypertrichosis in a child and methods for treating increased hairiness. Syndrome of excessive body hair in children Body hair in a child of 5 years

The dark bristles on the back of newborns look scary. But is it as scary as it seems to frightened parents? Why coarse hair appears on the back of the baby and what to do with it, we will tell in this article.

What it is?

The existence of newborn bristles is actively challenged by traditional medicine and is no less actively supported by non-traditional. In the people, this strange phenomenon is called "poker" or "tickle". The presence of such a phenomenon is said when dark, hard, like needles, hair are visible through the delicate and thin skin of an infant. It is believed that they are the cause of the anxiety of the newborn - the child may not sleep well, cry often, arch his back if he is laid horizontally.

"Thorns" are also suspected when the hairs are not visually distinguishable, but the child is very worried. Alternative medicine describes the condition as abnormal hair growth due to overwork of the hair follicles, but for some reason, the hair is denser than vellus and does not have an exit to the surface. Located between the dermis and the epidermis, they cause a child to have a condition that can be compared to the condition of an adult who lies on glass wool with his bare back.

Doctors deny the existence of such a disease in principle. They point out that it is a mistake to call such hair bristles. It is more correct to speak of lanugo. These are the hairs that grow on the baby's body while still in the womb. Lanugo appears after the 12th week of pregnancy and gradually disappears by the time of delivery. It has no color, and the hairs themselves are distinguished by excellent subtlety and weightlessness.

These thin hairs help to retain the original lubricant, which up to a certain point covers the entire body of the fetus. As the skin becomes layered and able to protect the baby, the lanugo begin to fall out. Scientists tend to believe that this mechanism is an atavism - a borrowed feature of distant ancestors. Among other atavisms, one can note the embryonic tail and gills at an early stage in the development of pregnancy.

Sometimes some factors that are not fully understood interfere with the processes of lanugo loss, and the child is born with partially preserved hairline. Then these first hairs fall out after birth within a few weeks. If the hair loss is delayed for some reason, some disturbance in the work of the hair follicles is not excluded, due to which denser hairs - “thorns” appear.

This phenomenon, according to official medicine, does not carry any danger in itself, and therefore no treatment is provided for it. But such an explanation does not satisfy parents who do not sleep for several days because of the constant anxiety of a newborn child.

What to do and how to roll out?

To begin with, mom and dad of a crying baby should make sure that the reasons for crying do not lie in something else. Toddlers can cry for a variety of reasons - from hunger, cold or heat, damp diapers or uncomfortable diapers, pain. If the little one is well-fed, clean, the room is cool and humid enough, the diaper does not cause allergies, the child is healthy and does not arouse suspicion from the pediatrician, but at the same time the roar is such that the neighbors have already asked several times if everything is in order in the family, it is worth a try detect a bristle if it is not visually visible.

Diagnosis of an indistinguishable bristle, which can be safely hidden from the eyes of others in the layers of the skin, will require some patience from the parents. First, the child should be bathed in warm water, steam the skin well, then gently blot it with a sheet or soft diaper. Avoid hard towel and rubbing movements.

A little breast milk should be dropped on the baby's back if the mother is breastfeeding. To detect "poker" in children who are bottle-fed, you can use baby cream. Milk or cream is rubbed into the skin of the back with soft movements for a long time until dark, almost black dots appear. If they appear, you can immediately proceed to rolling out the bristles, that is, to delivering the child from suffering. To do this, you can use one of the described methods.

bread

For this method, bread or a roll bought in a store is not suitable. Parents will have to bake the bread themselves. The dough should be made classic, on dough. From the still warm homemade bread, take a piece of crumb the size of a tennis ball and roll it up. Then, with intense circular motions, roll this ball along the back of the child. It is desirable to capture both the area of ​​​​the shoulders and forearms.

Usually hard and spiky hair remains on the bread crumb, and the child's skin becomes smooth and tender. If everything is done correctly, the baby will sleep more peacefully.

egg

Usually a chicken egg allows you to remove the bristles. It should be boiled hard-boiled, cooled to a warm state, cleaned. The skin of the back is rolled out with a warm egg in the same way as with a bread crumb. If done correctly, the stiff bristles will begin to leave their place, bringing noticeable relief to the child.

test

The dough for the procedure can be made in two types - either liquid, like for pancakes, or thick, like for homemade noodles. In the first case, flour, sunflower oil and warm water are used. While still warm, the dough is spread on the hairy back of the child, lightly rubbed into the skin, after which the baby is wrapped in a diaper and left for 15 minutes. After removing the diaper, hard "thorns" usually remain on the diaper.

The second method involves preparing a thick and elastic dough from the same ingredients. A ball the size of a tennis ball is molded from it, with this ball they make circular movements with a slight pressure on the skin of the back.

If it is not possible to roll out all the hairs the first time, the procedure can be repeated, but a new batch of warm dough will have to be prepared for re-rolling out.

Bathing will help

A child with bristles or fluff on the back should be bathed carefully and carefully. Hygiene procedures will not help get rid of the bristles immediately, but the result will definitely be. Bathing water must be at a certain temperature - no higher than 37 degrees. Soaps and skin care gels are best avoided. If desired, you can add a glass of chamomile decoction to the water.

Do not use hard sponges and washcloths. A soft baby sponge with micropores is suitable for washing the back.

What can not be done?

Parents can find a lot of tips on the Internet for removing stubble, but we have listed above only ways that are safe for the child to remove coarse and unpleasant hair. Other methods can pose a danger to the health and even the life of the baby. Let's talk about this in more detail.

Advisers who recommend taking the child to the bath should be sent there as well. Steaming in the bath for a newborn is categorically contraindicated. The skin of the baby is thin, the network of blood vessels is located close to the surface, the thermoregulation of the baby differs from that of an adult, and therefore even a short stay in the bath can lead to hyperthermia with all the ensuing consequences - disruption of the central nervous system. Overheating can be deadly for a baby.

The recommendations of some healers regarding the use of honey and bee products for smearing and rubbing the skin of a child can be the beginning of a severe allergic reaction, because honey is forbidden for children under three years of age to use even externally.

First of all, of course, this question interests the mothers of girls. First, let's understand the terms. There are 3 types of hair:
- lanugo(original fluff) is the fetal hair that appears in the third month of fetal development and falls out at about 36 weeks. With premature birth, a child may be born covered with primordial fluff;

- vellus hair- it is light, thin hair, no more than 1-2 cm in length, containing almost no pigment;

- rod hair- coarse, dark, thick terminal hair.

There are several concepts associated with excessive hair growth. Hirsutism should be distinguished from hypertrichosis.

Hypertrichosis- this is congenital or acquired excessive hair growth, independent of the content of androgens - the male fraction of hormones (testosterone, androstenedione, etc.) that appears mainly outside androgen-dependent areas (pubis, thigh, axillary region, abdomen, etc.).

The transformation of vellus hair into rod hair occurs under the influence of androgens! It is called hirsutism and occurs in androgen-dependent zones.

It is very important - many factors influence the quantity and quality of hair - ethnic characteristics, systemic factors, the level of sex hormones and individual skin sensitivity to androgens.

Let's take a look at some of the causes of excessive hair growth in children. :

1. If you start from the neonatal period, especially in premature babies, often the entire surface of the body is covered with vellus hair - lanugo. Such hair gradually falls out, but their focal growth can persist throughout life. Sometimes this phenomenon is combined with some malformations, which requires a closer examination of the child.

2. If the baby is fast-growing, growth hormone in this case is actively manifested by hair growth on the forearms, shins, and is not observed in androgen-dependent places (this is different from other forms of excessive hair growth). This is not a pathology.

3. The easiest option is hair growth constitutional when either fluffy or even rod-type hair actively grows, but this is a hereditary feature, and / or due to a certain nationality (typical for Jews, gypsies, residents of the Caucasus, Greeks, etc.).

4. Particularly close attention of the endocrinologist is drawn to the growth of hair in a girl in areas characteristic of the action of sex hormones - the pubic region, armpits, chest, abdomen, inner thigh (especially if hair growth begins before 8-9 years, before puberty , this is called premature adrenarche), and in these cases it is important to know how puberty took place in women along the line of the mother and the mother herself. With this nature of hair growth, the endocrinologist specifies, with the help of a hormonal examination, the causes of such hair growth - HKN (adrenal hyperplasia, when there is a genetic tendency to hair growth, expressed by premature maturation in the form of the appearance of excessive hair growth, then in the form of a violation of the cycle, the early appearance of acne) . Other causes are also excluded - PPR (precocious puberty), hypothyroidism (lack of thyroid hormones), hyperprolactinemia, PCOS (formation of polycystic ovary syndrome), Cushing's syndrome (hyperproduction of adrenal hormones), acromegaly (hyperproduction of growth hormone), and are excluded of course, extremely rare tumors of the ovaries or adrenal glands, brain.

The examination is usually carried out by two doctors - a gynecologist and an endocrinologist.

5. Sometimes the cause of excessive hair growth is medication, such as corticosteroids (glucocorticoids), cytostatics, etc.

6. If the cause of excessive hair growth is not specified, then such a process is interpreted as idiopathic hair growth, and it requires observation, and re-sampling in 1-2 years.

The examination includes blood sampling for hormones: a fraction of male hormones (total testosterone, free testosterone, dihydrotestostreon, androstenedione, 17-OH-progesterone, DGA-S, GSPS, prolactin, TSH, T4 free, and with the onset of menstruation - for 2-4 days FSH, LH.
Ultrasound of the pelvic organs and adrenal glands is also performed. Determination of bone age (x-ray of the hands), since the increased amount of male hormones in a girl closes the growth zones.
Sometimes an MRI of the brain.

Excessive body hair at the appointment is assessed
according to the official scale Ferrimon-Gallway : (a result of more than 7 points is a sign of hormonal disorders):

Upper lip
1 point - single hairs along the outer edge,
2 points - small antennae along the outer edge,
3 points - mustache on half of the outer area,
4 points - mustache to the midline of the lip

Chin
1 point - single scattered hair,
2 points - scattered hair, but their growth is more abundant,
4 points - continuous hair growth is plentiful.

Breast
1 point - hair around the nipple,
2 points - hair around the nipple and along the midline of the chest,
3 points - arcuate hair growth ¾ of the chest,
4 points - continuous hair growth.

Upper back
1 point - separate scattered hair,
2 points - a significant amount of scattered hair,
3 points - continuous hair growth is insignificant,
4 points - continuous abundant hair,

Lower back
1 point - sacral bundle (on the lower back in the form of a triangle),
2 points - sacral bundle and some hair on the lateral surface of the back,
3 points hair on ¾ of the lower back,
4 points - continuous hair,

Upper abdomen
1 point - individual hairs along the white line,
2 points - abundant hair along the white line,
3 points - hair growth of ½ of the upper half of the abdomen,
4 points - continuous hair growth of the upper abdomen.

lower abdomen
1 point - individual hairs along the white line,
2 point - hair strips along the white line,
3 point - a wide strip along the white line,
4 point - hair growth in the form of a triangle

Shoulder
1 point - scattered hair over ¼ of the shoulder, 2 points - more abundant by ¼, but not complete,
3 point - continuous insignificant,
4 points - continuous plentiful

Forearm

Hip
1 point and 2 points - continuous hair growth of the dorsal surface is insignificant,
3 points and 4 points - continuous abundant hair growth of the dorsal surface.

Shin
1 point and 2 points - continuous hair growth of the dorsal surface is insignificant,
3 points and 4 points - continuous abundant hair growth of the dorsal surface.

Hello dear readers. Hair on the body of a newborn can scare new parents. In this article, you can learn about the causes of this manifestation, symptoms and methods of dealing with this phenomenon.

The baby was born with body hair

In fact, parents should not immediately panic and worry if they notice the presence of hair in the baby in places other than the head. Most often, this phenomenon occurs in children in the first twenty-eight days of life. And by the first month, there is no trace of them left. However, there are other options when increased hairiness is provoked by deviations in the development of the baby. Then, you need to seek help from a specialist, undergo an examination and identify the exact cause of this phenomenon.

When my son was born, he already had hair on his head, and black (now he is fair). In addition, when I unwrapped him, I saw that on the back along the spine there was a strip of dark hairs, they were so airy, well, just fluff. But then I didn’t know anything about lanugo and was terribly afraid that this was some kind of deviation. The doctor, who came for the examination, explained everything to me, straight from the heart was relieved. So, I, like no one, understand the feelings of mothers who are faced with the appearance of hair on the back or other parts of the baby's body. The fluff rolled out on our own, about three weeks after the birth.

Lanugo

Almost all cases of hair on the shoulders, back and ears of the little one are explained by such a phenomenon as lanugo. It turns out that when the baby is in the womb, his body is covered with such protective hairs. In some cases, especially if the baby was born before the expected time, this fluff does not have time to fall off or be erased. And the phenomenon is quite normal when it lasts up to two months. In such cases, it is too early to talk about pathology. But if nothing changes in the future, and attempts to help the gun roll out are unsuccessful or the hairs begin to become blacker and harder, then you should consult a doctor.

Causes of Hair

If hair grows on the back of a child, you need to know what reasons could cause such a phenomenon.

1. genetic predisposition. Especially if, in addition to the back, other parts of the body are dotted with hairs.
2. Increased testosterone levels.
3. If the child was born much earlier than expected, most likely such hair is the fluff of newborns, which simply has not had time to roll up yet.
4. Stigmas are deviations in the growth and development of hair.
5. If the child is already more than three months old, and the congenital fluff is still preserved, this is a symptom of pathology. You need to consult a doctor for advice. The specialist will be able to draw some conclusions already during the initial examination, and will also prescribe a number of tests, including genetic ones.
6. If the presence of hair on the body of the baby is not the original fluff, then their appearance can be caused by diseases such as hirsutism, hypertrichosis, or Corneli de Lango syndrome.
7. There are cases when doctors cannot immediately determine the causes of increased hair growth. Then the diagnosis of cacidiopathic hair growth is made.

Symptoms

The baby may show signs that indicate not only the presence of hair, which the mother may not have noticed yet, but also that their presence spoils the life of the crumbs, causing discomfort and even pain. Therefore, it is important to consult a doctor in such cases in time.

These are the signs:

1. The peanut cries "bitter tears", becomes irritable.
2. The baby loses his appetite, he begins to act up.
3. The child does not sleep well, both during the day and at night. Often wakes up, moping.
4. In the “lying on his back” position, he begins to arch, and maybe even cry.

Ways to get rid of lanugo

1. The most important thing is to observe the rules of personal hygiene. Daily bathing is important, wiping places with hair with a soft washcloth. After the water procedure, you can treat the areas of localization of hair on the body with a children's anti-inflammatory cream. Over time, the hairs will begin to become quite thin and soft, and they can be easily removed by running a cotton swab (slightly moistened) over the place of their growth.
2. The physical activity of babies is important. Parents need to stimulate the little one to turn or independently turn the baby from back to tummy and vice versa. In addition, you can not do without light gymnastics. Thus, you can contribute to the early fall of the gun.
3. In addition, some parents resort to folk methods of dealing with unwanted hair. They use honey or yeast, brown bread or even breast milk. Using these products, you need to massage in circular motions, thereby rolling up the fluff.

After reading this article, you came to the conclusion that the presence of hair on different parts of the baby's body does not always indicate the occurrence of pathology. The presence of a gun in a newborn in almost all cases indicates lanugo, and they disappear naturally. However, if the increased hairline worries the little one and even causes pain, then it is better to consult a specialist rather than self-medicate. In any situation, try to remain completely calm, because the little one feels his mother's mood very keenly.

Excessive hairiness in a child is called hypertrichosis in medicine. It is customary to talk about the disease only if hair growth is noted in those places where this is not provided for by the ethnicity of the child and nature. The first signs can be observed in a baby after birth or appear at an older age. Both boys and girls of any age are equally affected by hypertrichosis.

Causes of the problem

Neonatal hypertrichosis can have the following causes:

• pathology of a pregnant woman, mutations during the development of the fetus;
• genetic predisposition;
• maternal infections or medications.

The cause may be the child's illness:

• brain injury, tumors;
• bullous epidermolysis;
• local hair growth can be caused by trauma to a specific area of ​​the body;
• dermatomycosis (fungal skin infection);
• anorexia, disturbances in the work of the central nervous system, epilepsy;
• endocrine pathologies.

It is believed that the sudden appearance of excessive hairiness is a harbinger of the development of a malignant tumor, especially if the cause of the disease has not been identified.

Characteristic symptoms

The main symptom of hypertrichosis is a large amount of hair on the body, even in places where they should not be in principle: palms, neck, stomach. However, it is necessary to distinguish the norm from the pathology. So, for girls under 9–10 years old, a large amount of hair in the legs is not the norm and can be considered a symptom of hypertrichosis. The same applies to the area of ​​​​the armpits, the pubic part. Normally, hair should appear there after 10 or even 12 years.

A newborn may be born with fairly long hair, but it is soft and light (fluffy). This is not a symptom of the disease, such a fluff falls out very quickly. For a young man, hair in the region of the upper lip, on the ears, and chin is a variant of the norm, and for a girl, it is a symptom of the disease.

The ethnicity of the child is also important. For example, for the Mediterranean type, fused eyebrows are the norm, for the Asian type it is already the primary sign of hypertrichosis. Dark-skinned children have genetically more body hair than fair-skinned children (northern type).

Types of disease

Depending on the part of the child's body, abundantly covered with hair, we can talk about the types of the disease:

1. local hypertrichosis. It can be prothoracic, lumbar.
2. General - implies total body hair. Basically, this pathology is congenital: a lot of hair on the baby’s body is not replaced by “new”, but continues to grow and become tougher.

Hirsutism is a separate subspecies - this is a "female" disease, which is manifested by body hair against the background of an excess of male hormones. May be accompanied by baldness, increased muscle mass, amenorrhea in girls.

Treatment Methods

If signs of excessive hairiness are found in a child, it is necessary to consult a dermatologist, endocrinologist and pediatric gynecologist (for girls). Primary examinations are aimed at determining the level of hormones and endocrine pathologies.

For the treatment of hypertrichosis, it is necessary to establish the exact cause of the occurrence and eliminate it. Drug treatment is prescribed for hormonal failure. If the disease is caused by heredity or intrauterine malformations, the treatment consists in mechanical hair removal. The most popular and safest method today is recognized as electrolysis. It consists in the destruction of the hair follicle, which subsequently guarantees the absence of hair growth in the treated areas. The procedure is carried out in several sessions. For example, to completely remove hair from the chin, you need to spend about 60 sessions during the year.

This procedure can only be used in adolescents after the end of puberty. Children under this age are prescribed special depilatory creams or hair bleaching with ordinary hydrogen peroxide.

The increased hairiness of the baby should alert parents in order to identify developmental deviations in time. But not always it is a symptom of hypertrichosis. Take a closer look at the child's relatives: if many of them also have extra body hair, most likely the child simply inherited this feature.

In the people, such a disease is called by some "Kocherga", others by the bristles of babies. In fact, this is not at all a typical disease, although it can bring some discomfort to newborns, and sometimes it can be painful.

After the birth of the baby, some redness of the skin appears on the body, which is called “physiological erythema” in medical language. After a couple of months, this phenomenon disappears, however, some peeling sometimes occurs at this place, very similar to the one that appears with. It is under this flaky skin that very small hairs are found, which can even be physically felt if you run your hand along the back of the baby.

The reasons

Reliably even to modern medicine, the true reasons for the appearance of this bristle on the back of a baby are still unknown, there are not even approximate assumptions. Although the fact that such a bristle is present in babies is indisputable. There is reason to take certain actions when:

• The child is worried;
• Sleeps badly at night;
• Constantly crying;
• Pediatricians cannot determine a good reason for this condition.

In such a situation, it is necessary to try to remove the existing bristle. Such a procedure will not harm the baby at all, even when the reason lies in something else. We also recommend reading about.
All mothers will be interested in how to treat it.

Symptoms

Usually parents detect the presence of hair like this:

• The baby is crying;
• Refuses to eat
• Sleeps badly;
• When you try to lay on the back, immediately begins to arch and resist.

To begin with, it is advisable to consult a pediatrician in order to exclude other possible diseases. In the event that nothing else is found by the specialist, the probability is high that it is the bristle that torments the child. Moms often do not understand this, being very perplexed about this. Many are convinced that the baby has nothing of the kind, since his back is completely clean, there are no visible hairs. However, it is worth trying to remove the bristles, because all the recommendations on this matter are safe and absolutely harmless. The hairs are completely invisible to the naked eye, because they grow under the skin on the shoulders and back, interfering with the baby, causing him suffering. Usually, mothers are sure that all such statements are fiction. But most newborns have hair on their backs that disappear on their own when they reach six months of age. You should not torment the child for six months, it is better to get rid of them immediately.

These hairs can roll down, secretions accumulate on them. All this is capable of:

• Be rude;
• grow;
• Inflame;
• Cause pain.

Also, such hairs can break out, because they grow under the skin, often breaking out with the continuous movements of the baby, moreover, along with the roots.

So that the child does not become further restless, constantly irritated, it is imperative to get rid of the bristles. To do this, there are traditional methods that are somewhat similar to each other. It is enough just to stop at a more suitable one.

Treatment

When bathing (you can read about how it is performed separately), you need to steam out the baby’s shoulders and the entire back, then rub honey into them. After that, a bristle will appear on the skin surface, only these unwanted hairs will remain carefully removed by hand, performing circular movements. Good results are shown by using a non-rough washcloth, a small massage mitt. In addition to honey, it is also recommended to use:

• Regular yeast dough;
• Bread (only black);
• Yeast (only fresh).

There is also such an effective remedy as breast milk. It is enough to sprinkle them on the child's back area, and then lightly massage. Just a couple of procedures are enough for the child to calm down, start sleeping soundly, acquire an appetite and stop crying.

It will seem to some that such advice is somewhat strange, there is no logic in them, but all of them have been practically tested by many generations, effective and bring significant relief to the baby.

Conclusion

When performing the procedures, it is necessary to ensure that the bristles completely disappear in a maximum of a couple of weeks. Otherwise, it is worth visiting a doctor, since such a phenomenon may also indicate the presence of a hereditary disease - Corneli de Lange syndrome. In order to be guaranteed to identify it, you will have to consult a neurologist and a geneticist.