Danielle Beardsley was horrified to see her five-month-old Elliot Thomson’s toes were red raw after removing his sleepsuit one morning last month.
The 34-year-old was having her twins weighed by the health visitor when she spotted a ‘bunch of hair’ wrapped around three of her son’s toes on his right foot.
Her tot had developed hair tourniquet syndrome, which mostly affects infants when hair becomes tied around their toes, fingers, tongue or umbilical stump.
The mum-of-four was told Elliot may lose his toes if she didn’t take her little one to hospital to have the hairs removed.
The distraught restaurant shift manager rushed Elliot to A&E where doctors removed the hairs – vitally restoring the tot’s circulation.
She believes either hers or her older daughter’s hair got caught in the sleepsuit because she hadn’t washed it inside out, leaving it to wrap around Elliot’s toes for the 12 hours he wore it.
‘Guilty’ Danielle now wants to prevent other kids facing the same accident by raising awareness of how dangerous hair tourniquets are.
Danielle, from Corby, Northamptonshire, said: “As we were undressing Elliot I looked down and saw his [second] toe was really, really red.
“[The health visitor] said ‘I think that may be a hair tourniquet’ as we could see all the fluff and hair that had got tangled up in his second, third and fourth toes.
“The second toe had the most amount of hair around it and was slowly pushing into the skin more and more.
“The hair had wrapped around one toe three times.
“She said it was quite bad and the colour of his toe was quite concerning so she told me to get to A&E straight away.
“She said if the toes start to lose circulation for too long, that’s when it can lead to amputation.
“He could’ve potentially lost two or three toes if this hadn’t been spotted. They said it was lucky I had caught this and could’ve been worse.
“I put his sleepsuit on the night before without realising that [the hairs] were already on there so he’d fallen asleep with it on and as he wiggled it just got tighter and tighter.
“I didn’t realise you’re supposed to wash your sleepsuits inside out to prevent anything building up at the bottom of the sleepsuit and causing this to happen.
“I was shocked and it really did scare me.
“I did have a bit of mum guilt to be honest. It’s not something that crosses your mind every evening.”
Danielle rushed Elliot to Kettering General Hospital in Northamptonshire where doctors were luckily able to remove the wrapped hairs.
She admits the incident ‘scared her’ and is warning other parents about the dangers of similar incidents.
Danielle said: “A&E were absolutely fantastic. We got in and they removed it straight away with a tool.
“It could’ve been mine or my daughter’s hair but I’m tying my hair back now and checking clothing regularly.
“With these tourniquets, especially with babies, it can go quite bad, quite quick.
“They need to come off straight away. It’s not a matter of hours, it’s minutes.
“Wash your clothes inside out and if you have access to a tumble dryer, use that as it can suck a lot of the fluffy stuff out.”
