Young girl with excess body hair...

Hi all,

My daughter is around 5 and a half, and a moment we've been fearing has
come... she is fair skinned, but has a lot of dark body hair on her arms
and back - she has always had this excess hair.

We were hoping it would thin out as she got older, but it hasn't thus far.

We found out that a couple of weeks ago, some kids on the soccer field were
calling her 'hairy'. She's very shy about even talking about it... we
found out because she's been insisting on wearing a long sleeved shirt to
soccer practices - which is odd because it's getting so warm out. When we
probed, it came out that this happened.

We're pretty much trying to make her comfortable with herself and letting
her know that everyone is different & special, but she pretty much doesn't
want to be so different.

I know were not going to be able to shield her from childhood chides and
that she needs to be better preparted to handle these types of conflicts,
but... I also want to take a look into what modern medical treatment
options there may be for a 5 year old.

I know that we don't want to get into anything painful, or systemic, or
with side effects, so I doubt there's a magic bullet, but I thought I'd
ask...

On the other hand, I've also heard that removing hair makes it more coarse
when it comes back, so maybe we should just leave it alone...

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Full NameEntry wrote:
Hi all,

My daughter is around 5 and a half, and a moment we've been fearing has
come... she is fair skinned, but has a lot of dark body hair on her arms
and back - she has always had this excess hair.

We were hoping it would thin out as she got older, but it hasn't thus far.

We found out that a couple of weeks ago, some kids on the soccer field were
calling her 'hairy'. She's very shy about even talking about it... we
found out because she's been insisting on wearing a long sleeved shirt to
soccer practices - which is odd because it's getting so warm out. When we
probed, it came out that this happened.

We're pretty much trying to make her comfortable with herself and letting
her know that everyone is different & special, but she pretty much doesn't
want to be so different.

I know were not going to be able to shield her from childhood chides and
that she needs to be better preparted to handle these types of conflicts,
but... I also want to take a look into what modern medical treatment
options there may be for a 5 year old.

I know that we don't want to get into anything painful, or systemic, or
with side effects, so I doubt there's a magic bullet, but I thought I'd
ask...

On the other hand, I've also heard that removing hair makes it more coarse
when it comes back, so maybe we should just leave it alone...

Any thoughts or suggestions?


Hairiness in a child is occasionally something to worry about. If she
has become more hairy over the last year or so, and particularly if she
has developed breast buds or true pubic hair, then you would need to
have her evaluated for precocious puberty.

On the other hand, family history and ethnicity count for a lot.
Hispanic kids, in my experience, can often be quite hairy by Northern
European standards.

As to removing it, I can't help you there. I'm not a dermatologist and
I've honestly never confronted this particular question in my practice.


Mark, MD

"Full NameEntry" wrote in message
...
On the other hand, I've also heard that removing hair makes it more
coarse
when it comes back,

I don't believe that's correct. Shaving can make the hir that grows back
more noticable because then hair then has a blunt tip but the rate of growth
and general thickness are not effected...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hair-removal/AN00638

http://dermatology.about.com/cs/hair...ir_removal.htm

Well, I think it'd be best to check it out with a dermatologist.

*However, the short hair shaft may be more noticeable as it grows out
because it has a blunt tip instead of the normal tapered tip8* -- I
took this one from the 2nd above link.

I don't think it would be comfortable for the little girl if
noticeable...

But for the time being, another best thing to do is enhancing her
confidence and self-esteem.

love,
nina
www.asweetnectarwomb.lipblogs.com