Hair tournequettes are a thing! Be aware!

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tecumsehmaverick

New member
First of all, everyone is okay, but we had a scare. I have an 11 week old. He usually isn't that fussy after I feed and change him, but last Monday at his 4 am feeding, it took me almost 2 hours to get him back to sleep. At his 8 am feeding, I was wondering why he still wouldn't calm down, and then I saw it. My long ass hair was wrapped around his little toe and it was SO SWOLLEN and beet red and I swear it was starting to turn blue.

I tried to get scissors under it but it was too tight. I couldn't even get my nail under it. I grabbed my pocket knife but then put it down because I didn't want to cut his perfect smooth skin by accident as he was screaming and flailing. My poor little baby! My husband was working an hour out of town and my parents and in laws are out of town. I was thinking, "what do I do, what do I do?! I need this off now, I need help!" So I did what any panicked new mama would do. I embarrassingly called 911.

I felt so silly explaining to the dispatcher what happened, and she was so nice and told me she would send someone. I was expecting a police officer to come assess the situation. Y'all, here comes a damn firetruck!

Three very handsome young firemen come and see what's up. I show them, and they grab their pocket knife and hold his little toe steady and it seriously took them 5 solid minutes to get my damn hair off of his little toe.

They asked me if I was a first time mom.... ha. Was it that obvious?

I looked it up online afterwards and turns out it's not that common, but common enough that it has a name. A hair tournequette. I may have over reacted by calling 911. But I had no idea this was a thing. I should have called his pediatrician, or gone to an urgent care. Or even tried some of the home remedies like giving him a bath.

But I did what I did, and now I'm telling everyone I know with little babies to watch out for this. It happens with 2-6 month olds, and hair or thread or strings can get wrapped around fingers, toes, or even genitals. It's not that common, but keep an eye out y'all.

Edit: Thanks so much for the support and advice!!! I'm going to get some Nair to keep in the house from now on. And don't worry, looking back I can't help but laugh at the huge fire truck coming down the street too 😂
 
@myooran Thank you! That's what I thought. I thought for sure it would be a quick snip and all done. Although a little embarrassed I was glad of my decision when it ended up being a bit of an ordeal.
 
@tecumsehmaverick Never feel bad for calling for help! You did the right thing. This happened to my one year old! I put in a pair of socks in the morning. At around noon I had him outside his socks got wet so while he was nursing I took off his wet socks only to be horrified by what I saw a lot of hair wrapped tightly around two toes. I ran inside my house with my toddler still attached to my boob and used scissors to cut through the hair it took a good minute . I still check his socks and footies and diaper every time I change his diaper or put in a new pair of socks/ jammies . He probably had the hair wrapped around his toes for four hours!! If he didn’t get wet, Idk when I would have checked him!
 
@tecumsehmaverick They always warn us new parents about this but I feel like I rarely hear any real life stories about it! I’m sorry you experienced it but thank you for sharing and giving us a warning! I’m glad you and LO are okay. You’re doing a great job 💕
 
@tecumsehmaverick If you haven't already done one, I strongly recommended doing infant first aid! The course I did went over all these "common" injuries I'd never heard of, and helped explain when to call emergency services, or when to call nurse on call/your gp/ emergency department. We also did burns, choking, head injuries, fevers dehydration and a few other things. Worth every penny.
 
@onetruefreedom No, I was lucky enough that COVID restrictions had eased enough to run the class at limited capacity. Im in Aus, so our situation is very different to the majority of people on here.

I did a 6 hour class that was run by a couple of midwives in our area. All socially distanced with masks and tracking of course, but at a time when we also had 0 community transmission.

You should check out red cross, or st John ambulance for online sessions, or see if your local hospital has any recommendations.
 
@deesweetz We did tiny hearts education. A bit expensive but it was worth it. My sister did st John's ambulance, and loved that too. Both based in Melbourne.
 
@tecumsehmaverick My husband managed to loosen it just enough with cetaphil baby oil, then carefully slid manicure scissors (the super long pointy ones) under the hair and cut it. We were lucky, sounds like alot of people had to go to the er.
 
@tecumsehmaverick This happened to my son's penis. Somehow he grabbed a handful of my hair and stuffed it down his diaper at 6 months old. When he wouldn't calm I stripped him naked and started checking for anything wrong. Found it tightly wrapped around him and the second I took it off he peed.

It's super common, but no one warns parents to keep a look out for it.
 
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