Long-hairs with babies beware!

[Neoma]

You can't make this stuff up... (http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/14/12227285-hidden-hairs-can-strangle-babys-tiny-toes-doc-warns?lite)

[rock007junkie]

I read about this in the what to expect when you are expecting book. It freaked me out. When my baby was tiny I was constantly checking him for hair and other things.

[nobeltonya]

Wow, wouldn't have thought of that..

[Neoma]

I would never have thought of it, either, nobeltonya. One of my pet birds, who likes to walk around on the floor, gets one of my hairs wrapped around his toes or his long beak from time to time. It scares the heck out of him. And I'm always really careful to remove the whole thing so it doesn't cut off his circulation.

[honeybunnie8]

I found one of my hair wrapped around my babies finger once. It was starting to cut off his circulation. I think I had to cut it off since it wrapped its self a few times and got all tangled. If I hadn't noticed it I'm sure it would have caused a problem.

[torrilin]

That actually happened to my partner once. I haven't seen it happen to any of the family parrots, but I don't really get on very well with most of them, and the one who likes me best is not a very snuggly parrot.

But yeah, it can happen to anyone, not just babies.

[RitaCeleste]

Yeah, my kid has all her toes but I was constantly checking her feet for hair. She had hair removed from strangled toes a lot. I'm a heavy shedder and not the greatest vacuumer. She picked up hairs when she was crawling all the time. Always check fingers and toes. When they are older they will wrap their wrists in ponytail holders and rubber bands and ribbons. One of mine is gifted, so even the smarter ones need some watching. One kept trying to give me a heart attack with plastic bags from Walmart. She'd stick her arms threw the handles and wear them as backpacks. Kids.

[vindo]

Thats crazy, at first I thought it was a joke! :eek:

[shutterpillar]

Yep, freaked me out when my kids were babies. I was constantly checking their parts for hair.

It's easy to get wrapped around little fingers and other things when they do nothing but take huge handfuls of hair and yank it from your head. :D
Eventually just got myself a bob haircut. :P

[lapushka]

Saw this in one of those medical series once, can't remember the name. Mom's hair had gotten around baby's finger.

[OilPaint]

Good to know, but my first thought was, "Great! One more thing to worry about when my nephew is born!" :justy:

[dollyfish]

Thankfully it looks like it's incredibly rare.

But oh gosh...!

"Of those, 24 incidents involved toes, 14 involved fingers and 22 painful incidents reported hair wrapped around babies’ genitals, including tiny penises."

Poor babies! shudder:

[Pixieish]

DH has had this happen to him before. He wears steel toe work boots to work and one day he noticed his toe was really itchy but wasn't able to sit down and take his boot off. It bothered him the whole day until he finally got home and removed his shoes and socks and found one of my hairs wrapped tightly around his little toe, cutting off circulation and digging into his skin. He still likes to razz me about that and I still feel pretty bad. >_< I can't imagine this happening to a baby though, that's rough. :(

[luxepiggy]

Now I have a new excuse for avoiding babies! "No no, I'd better stay over here, wouldn't want to accidentally cause your child to lose a toe" (^(oo)^)v

[jacqueline101]

I've heard of babies getting lint from the floors in their mouth.

[patienceneeded]

I remember reading about this when my DD was a baby, freaked me out proper! I was always checking for hair wrapped around her tiny toes.

[annah]

Apparently that happened to my husband as an infant- so my mother in law warned me about it when my first was little. It's happened several times here, where I had to get out teeny scissors and cut it.

Also happened to my bird- from a string off of one of his toys. Somehow he got a single strand out, and wrapped it around his foot. It was a miracle I noticed before his foot was cut off completely (cage is hanging, due to too many little kids around here). The string had cut half way through his leg, and was incredibly difficult to get out of the wound. :(

[KwaveT]

This is freaky. One more thing to worry about around little ones. My mother and sisters know about this they will be worried like crazy around my nephew. At least good to know anyway.

[pepperminttea]

I would never have thought of it, either, nobeltonya. One of my pet birds, who likes to walk around on the floor, gets one of my hairs wrapped around his toes or his long beak from time to time. It scares the heck out of him. And I'm always really careful to remove the whole thing so it doesn't cut off his circulation.

I'm glad it wasn't just me who thought of pets. I'm always worried my hamsters will get tangled in my shed hair somehow; that bedding which looks like cotton wool can get tangled around their feet and lead to amputations, so goodness knows how much damage a strong, long hair could do.


Now I have a new excuse for avoiding babies! "No no, I'd better stay over here, wouldn't want to accidentally cause your child to lose a toe" (^(oo)^)v

:rollin: I'm borrowing that (hope you don't mind)!

[LaFlor]

Like I need something else to freak out over!

[Tia2010]

I never heard of this when my kids were little :disbelief ...I guess my kids should consider themselves lucky they survived babyhood with all their toes :p .... But, now when I have grand babies I'm going to be extra paranoid.

[FrozenBritannia]

This happened to my cousin and one of her babies too! Freaky.

[Jesabel]

She must have had some super fine light hair if it took a magnifying glass to figure out the mysterious purple toes

[barely.there]

yeah when my hedgehog walked around on the floor, I had to check her over after for dust + hair. her toes and quills would pick up everything. sometimes she'd have a long hair wrapped all around her and she'd freak out as I was pulling it off.

[piffyanne]

yeah when my hedgehog walked around on the floor, I had to check her over after for dust + hair. her toes and quills would pick up everything. sometimes she'd have a long hair wrapped all around her and she'd freak out as I was pulling it off.
I was about to talk about my own hedgehog I had years and years ago, when I saw your hedgie story. Weird we're right next to each other in responses, right?

My hedgehog escaped one day. We did EVERYTHING to find her. We left food on the floor and left someone on guard nearby, sleeping on the floor so they'd notice. We kept doors closed, or opened, listened, called in a Search and Rescue dog (he couldn't sense her: they train them not to pay attention to animal scents, or it would be too distracting), and more. When we finally found her, she had hair from the wig I had used a few years before when I was Ariel the Little Mermaid for Halloween (would hit Classic on me now, I bet, but it was loooong to me then!) wrapped around three of her toes. We had to get them amputated. She was otherwise alright, despite having been lost for over a week. We were so scared we'd find her dead! shudder:

I'm glad no one else who's posted before me has had to amputate. It's not a fun thing. Equally good luck to those following me.