Anyone's toddler pull their hair out?

My daughter is 19 months. Since she was a few months old, she has sucked on her first 2 fingers as a method of self soothing to go to sleep. A few months ago, she started also pulling her hair out with her other hand. Her hair is straight and fine, so it comes out easily. She grips her hair and then runs her fingers down and her hair comes out. It started in the back in the bottom, and she's been moving up the side of her head as each section comes out and becomes too short to pull. The whole left side of her head has bald patches now. Has anyone else been through this with their child? Is it normal? Anything that can be done to stop it?

Re: Anyone's toddler pull their hair out?

I have no clue how to stop it, but I know that my BIL used to do that too. So it's not unusual

Re: Anyone's toddler pull their hair out?

DD is 5 and has been doing this for years... she doesn't exactly tug on it but twirls it until it breaks off (or sometimes comes off at the root). I will say, as we're breaking the thumb sucking habit it's gotten better. At 4 we cut her hair into a little pixie cut and it stopped it dead in its tracks. When the hair grew back she started doing it again but much less severe (I used to find chunks of hair behind her bed that she was hiding!) Now I put that side of her hair up in a pigtail before bed to stop the urge and it works.