My son is only 3 and he has 2 autoimmune diseases, diabetes and alopecia. Alopecia attacks the hair folicles causing it to fall out. My son is bald and there is little chance of his hair growing back. I've read everything I can find about diabetes complications and this one isn't mentioned anywhere. Now it's always obvious that he has a medical condition and I don't get to choose whether I bring it up or not. Not that I mind talking about it, it's just, well, I'm sad for him. He already will have a hard time fitting in at school and such due to diabetes.
Hi Trish. Rather than being a complication of diabetes, it sounds like the hair loss is a co-occurring autoimmune disorder. Because T1 is autoimmune, many of us have other autoimmune problems as well, such as thyroid probs and Celiac disease. I have skin problems that my dr. thinks are immune system related. Unfortunately, keeping good control can help prevent D complications, I haven't heard of anything to prevent the immune system from attacking again.
Good luck to your son and family! That must be very difficult to have such an "obvious" and public problem.
Thanks for the kind words Sarah. To be honest, alopecia is a confusing condition. Not even the dermatologists can figure it out. The last time he saw his endo I showed her where some new hair has grown in and explained to her that the back of his head will be prickly with stubble one day and smooth again the next day. She said that that indicates it's not autoimmune because if it was autoimmune the hair folicles would have been killed by the antibodies and there would be no new growth. I'm more confused than ever.