This sounds like a medical question to me. Probably her mother is already discussing it with her family doctor. She might also find an answer by emailing her question to flora-ask-doctor@flora.ottawa.on.ca,
see the "Ask the Doctors" Website at http://www.flora.org/ask-doctor/.
Meanwhile, I do think it could be some vitamin or mineral or other ingredient she is trying to get that is missing from her diet. I'm sure her mother has tried various things such as more fruit, more solid food, fish, oatmeal, raisins, real meat instead of the pre-chewed stuff they put in baby-food.
Perhaps the baby chews hair because it causes a lot of commotion and she needs the attention. If people would talk with her conversationally, waiting for and listening to her responses, she might feel more like part of the family and not
need to do strange things to break into "society".
Or maybe she likes the feeling of hair in her mouth - sounds repulsive to us but there's no accounting for tastes, and she is a brand new person who will develop her own likes and dislikes.
In other words, I have no idea what to do. If she were my grand-niece, I'd do nothing and leave it entirely up to the
child's parents. I'd even ask the grandparents to ignore it altogether and not even show their disapproval when it happens. I'm sure they had equal or worse problems raising their own children. Now it's somebody else's turn..
Truly yours,
GG
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