Patient's question:
My daughter has thin hair, with a ring of little to no hair. My mother-in-law says it's baby. What causes this?Doctor's answer:
Baldness on an infant's head is caused by physiological reasons. Since babies spend most of their time lying down, if the pillow is not breathable, combined with their rapid metabolism, the area of the head that comes into contact with the pillow tends to get hot and sweaty, causing the scalp to itch. Newborns cannot scratch with their hands or express their itch verbally, so they typically alleviate the itching on the back of their heads by shaking their heads from side to side. Frequent shaking can lead to baldness on the head.