Baby & Toddler Hair Loss

Why Do Babies Lose Their Hair?

It’s perfectly normal for your baby to lose the hair they had when they came out into the world — be it a little or a lot — several weeks or months after birth. In fact, most infants will go through a stage of hair loss. It’s nothing to be concerned about.

So why does this loss of baby hair take place? Well, to begin with, all babies grow a thin layer of hair while in the womb. This wispy layer of baby hair is called lanugo and appears all over a baby’s body. The purpose of lanugo is to protect your little one’s delicate skin from the amniotic fluid in which they are submerged while in utero.

Most of the time, a baby will shed their lanugo while in the womb. Lanugo appears sometime around the 16th week of gestation and ordinarily falls off between weeks 32 and 36. However, this is not always the case. Some babies are born with lanugo all over their body. While this is slightly uncommon, it is not a health concern.

After your baby was born, they stopped receiving hormones from your body. This led to a dramatic decrease in their hormone levels, which in turn causes their baby hair to fall out. This means all of your baby’s hair — whether it’s the hair on their head or the lanugo on their body — will fall out in the first four to six months of life.

Another factor that plays a role in your baby’s hair loss is the fact that they spend so much time on their backs. Your little one is on their back for at least the 14 to 16 hours they spend sleeping every day. (It’s extremely important for your child’s safety to always put your baby down to sleep on their back. Never mind the bald spots!)

If bald spots appear on the back of your little one’s head, it’s nothing to worry about. These are a normal effect from your baby spending so much time with the back of their head against various surfaces. Try to give your little one plenty of tummy time, and hold your baby in a carrier whenever possible.