Dad’s Viral Post Draws Attention to Common Hazard for Babies

Recently, a Wichita dad’s viral post drew attention to common hazard for babies that may leave them without their limbs’ appendages without parents’ even noticing it. The man posted a photo of his 19-week-old baby girl’s toe which was wrapped in what looks a hair tourniquet.

Though that may not seem much, the toe was swollen and started to bleed. The dad explained that she almost lost her toe. But fortunately he and his wife checked attentively the source of the baby’s distress.

New moms and dads are not aware of the hazard hair tourniquets pose. Many of them never even heard of such thing. But medics know about it and science even gave a name to the condition: the hair tourniquet syndrome.

The syndrome affects newborns and really young infants when a hair or fine thread wraps around their fingers, toes and even penises. Doctors explained that such surprise tourniquets are hazardous because they shut down blood circulation within hours. If left unsolved, the tourniquet can have devastating consequences. In the worst-case-scenarios, babies could either lose their limbs or develop a strong infection.

The infant’s dad, Scott Walker, and her mother had no idea why the baby seemed so agitated and refused to stop crying. First they thought that it is only normal for a kid of her age to cry for no apparent reason.

Luckily, so much agitation overheated the baby, so her mother had the idea to undress her. When she took off her sock she saw that one of the little girl’s toes had a tightly wrapped hair tourniquet on it.

The dad recalls that his wife immediately turned on her ‘medical emergency superpowers’ and somehow managed to remove the piece of hair without further hurting the baby. But the tourniquet was so tight that the hair managed to cut through the skin. The dad was inspired to take a photo of the swollen toe and post it on Facebook as a warning for other parents.

He was relieved when the baby calmed down. He said that he doesn’t want other babies to endure such pain caused by  an easily preventable accident.

The infant’s mom said that there are many pieces of her hair around the house though her spouse ‘vacuums like a mad man,’ especially after she delivered. The woman added that at any given time such accident could happen to other babies and parent know little about it.

Image Source: Flickr