Check for Stray Hairs on Your Child’s Fingers and Toes
New parenting comes with an endless list of things you could never have imagined to trigger panic. Dear . Cat litter box . Soft bed linen . Baby monitors are used as spy cameras . Here’s one more thing to add to the list: your own hair.
On an alarming Reddit thread, moms and dads share their horror stories of a condition called a hair tourniquet, which happens when hair or thread wraps around a toe or toe so hard that it puts that toe in danger. This sometimes happens when a strand of hair gets caught in a baby’s sock or pajamas. As the tiny toe wriggles, hair can curl around it.
One Reddit user wrote: “It happened to my youngest daughter when she was 2-3 months old. She screamed, and nothing could comfort her. My mom told me that if the baby is crying and cannot be comforted, undress him and examine every part. She had a hair tourniquet on her second toe. It was so tight, her toe started to turn purple. ” Another said that a child entered their medical clinic with a hair tourniquet on the penis, which can happen when the hair gets into the child’s diaper. “I am convinced that babies and young children always literally do whatever they can to hurt themselves,” said one commentator.
While tourniquets are not uncommon, it is good to know that permanent damage from this condition (including the most frightening: losing a finger) is very, very rare. However, new parents may well be the time to finally get the Roomba.