My daughter picks her hair and eats it on the sides and in the back

I have question about my daughter's hair. She is a African American and she is 7 1/2 years old. At a very young age she began pulling her hair out and eating it and that last up until she was about 5 years old and she only really picked it in the back and sides of her hair. I took her to 2 dermatologist and the first tested her for a fungal infection and it was positive and he gave me some shampoo to clear it up which did not work. The second dermatologist gave me a cream that did not work. Now she is 7 and she still picks it out a little bit. So I took her to another dermatologist April 5, 2010 and they tested her head again for fungus and they said its going to take about 6 weeks for the test results. They gave me Loprox shampoo to use in her hair for right now and they said that if the results come back negative then she might have trichotillomania and I would have to take her to a behavior counselor. So I was looking at her hair last night and I see that it is shedding also and it looks like more hair is falling out but not from her picking it. And a few weeks ago her and my son were playing and he pulled one of her braids completely out and he didn't even pull it that hard she said. If you could please please help me I would really appreciate it, I'm getting a little stressed out about this cause my daughter gets teased about her hair missing on the sides and the back and I don't know what else to do. I don't know if she's lacking a vitamin or nutrient or what? I never had this problem with my hair before neither has anyone in my family or her father's family. And I don't want to cut her hair all off bald cause she will really get teased plus I did that before when she was younger because she  just had a handful of hair at the top, that's how bad it had got.

I had a talk with her last night and she informed me that she eats her hair sometime, she said that she will go in the bathroom in school and suck on it, throw it away or eat it. I told her that if she continues to keep picking the way she is then I will be forced to cut it all off again and she started crying and that crushed me. I really don't no what else to do.

Any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

[sweetpea03]

I'm sorry to hear about this. There are a number of reasons that may lead to brittle hair or hair loss. Ring worm is one possibility. And you said your daughter pulls out her hair as well, which adds to her hair problem. You can try using a new shampoo, such as Head and Shoulders Intensive Treatment. It does take a while for this infection to be cured, around 7 weeks. hope it gets better soon.