I've talked before about how Kaitlyn is quite shy and that she gets quite anxious about things, especially new people and new situations. It also causes her to have these nervous habits. She started out picking the skin on her lip. She would pick it until she had these huge sores all across her lips. We finally broke her of that one. Then she moved on to chewing on her clothes. After that she moved on to the last one that she has been doing for a while. She twists her hair, and since she has curly hair, it will twist into knots. Then when she gets it into a knot, she will yank the knot out, pulling extra hair with it. When we went on our vacation to California she yanked out so much hair that she gave herself a bald spot. We thought she had gotten better until church yesterday when she yanked out a huge chunk. Something had to be done, so I took her today to cut off her hair. We didn't go boy short, but pretty short. I seriously cried when the lady was cutting it off. Kaitlyn actually likes the cut, which is a good thing, but I hate it. Aaron and I warned her that if she still twists when it is this short that we will shave it off. Hopefully this will break her habit and by the time it grows back out she won't do it anymore. Any advice from anyone would be appreciated :)
The picture is from my cell phone, so not the best quality.
5 comments:
Her hair looks really cute! I don't really have any words of wisdom for you. Eric used to have the hair-twisting thing going on too. He would do that to his hair while he was falling asleep at night or if he was nervous. Watch out though- ever since we shaved his head, he's been obessed with MY hair. He's always playing with it and twisting it around- especially when he's tired or scared. Hopefully yours doesn't start getting tied in knots!
Poor gal getting nervous! :( I think her new do is darling, but I would be right there with you crying watching it get cut off. I hope she will get out of that habit. I don't have any words of wisdom, but I remember Lara Farley telling me that for busy-body kids who like to fiddle (like ADHD), a good thing is to give them a paper clip and let them bend it all over the place. Maybe there's something similar that Kaitlyn might be able to substitute--like if you tie a bunch of yarn together. She could twist it and pull it and then if it gets trashed, just give her a new one??? I have no idea if that would work or not, but just a thought.
I think her hair is darling! She just needs a flower clip at her right ear. I know how to make them if you're interested...
Oliver does a lot of the same things - chewing on clothes, anxious over any change, always has to have things exactly the same, etc. It sounds to me like her anxiety over other things is manifesting. She might be nervous about the new school year, not liking the change in classroom, or is just adjusting to something. I just talk to Oliver a lot about what he's feeling and try to figure out a connection somewhere so that I can help him feel more at ease. These types of kids are also very smart and are sometimes over-thinking things to cause the anxiety or are just bored, so sometimes just giving them something to do to stimulate their minds helps to distract them from the nervous habits. My mom has helped me learn these kinds of tricks to help Ollie. That's a very long comment. You can call me or email me if you want to talk more. angollie33@yahoo.com or 801-867-5061. I've really been wanting to visit you lately. Oh, and I think her hair is cute!
Poor Kaitlyn--just about the nervous habit; her hair is darling short! How is she doing? I was so irritated reading the comment you left on my blog! I kept reminding myself that there are "good" and "bad" in every profession, but seriously?! I am glad you switched pediatricians. I mean, I don't think there is any research by anyone anywhere that supports putting children on "diets." His comment showed a significant lack of nutritional knowledge.
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