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Sweet baby toes can be the source of a rare but painful condition called toe tourniquet syndrome, in which hair wraps around the tiny digit, cutting off circulation.
When it comes to babies, it seems that danger lurks in the most unusual of places. Certainly one would never see a wisp of human hair as a menace.
But, as it turns out, if a single strand of hair wraps around a baby’s toe, it can cut off circulation and ultimately doom the appendage. Though rare, this happens often enough for doctors to have given it a name: toe tourniquet syndrome.
Michelle Whelan’s baby was one of the lucky ones. One day as Whelan was changing her infant she noticed that several of her baby’s toes were beginning to turn purple. Whelan was sure if she couldn’t find out what was wrong that her baby might lose one or more of her toes.
Fortunately for Whelan, the surgeon at her local hospital on Massachusetts' Nantucket Island, Dr. Timothy Lepore, recognized right away what had happened. He pulled out his magnifying glasses, spotted the culprit strand and cut it away.
Whelan’s story, along with many other intriguing cases handled by Lepore, are described in the new book “Island Practice,” written by Pam Belluck, a New York Times health writer.
“I didn’t know anything about toe tourniquet syndrome when I had my two kids,” says Belluck. “It’s not in any pregnancy books or first-year books. You’d think the hair would break, but it’s apparently very strong and can get 100 revolutions around a tiny toe if you have long hair.”
The actual incidence of toe tourniquet syndrome is unknown, but doctors have documented dozens of reports of rare cases. The problem doesn’t always involve the toes. A 1988 Pediatrics study reviewed 60 cases of what was dubbed “hair-thread tourniquet syndrome.” Of those, 24 incidents involved toes, 14 involved fingers and 22 painful incidents reported hair wrapped around babies’ genitals, including tiny penises.
As recently as this year, the Hong Kong Journal of Paediatrics reported the case of a 2 1/2-month-old girl whose right fourth toe was inexplicably blue and swollen -- until doctors detected an errant hair and removed it.
Lepore says he’s seen only three cases in his 30 years of practice. But he’s still on alert for the syndrome any time he sees a baby with a discolored toe or other digit.
“You’ve got to have a persistent paranoid suspicion whenever you see something that doesn’t look right -- like a blue or a red toe,” he says. “And you can’t let people blow you off. If your kid’s toe is blue there’s got to be a reason.”
The danger, if your doctor doesn’t recognize toe tourniquet syndrome, is that your baby could lose a toe, Lepore says. Don’t be afraid to mention toe tourniquet syndrome to the doctor if that diagnosis doesn’t get consideration, he adds.
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Something to be aware of when the grandbabies come to visit,,,Thanks,,,
you have gotta wash the baby!
Oh, brother. Everybody going to shave their heads now?
This actually happened to my chinchilla several years ago. She had carpeted hideaway house (made for cats) and a piece of nylon from the carpeting got wound around her tiny little finger. The vet had to use a jeweler's loop in order to magnify her paw and see what was causing the digit to turn red. Fortunately, the vet was able to cut it off, and 150 dollars later she was good as new. She is now 15 years old and still as cute as ever.
I have seen this happen to an infant's penis as well. It was very scarey trying to get the single strand off his penis without the help of any implements.
I would keep that a secret from him until the grave. Or wait until Thanksgiving dinner when he's about 23 to share with all the relatives.
Why would you ask the doctor if he knows about toe tourniquet syndrome? Just get a needle and remove the hair...save a trip to the doctor.
This happened to me when I was a babe. My mother had given me a bath and noticed that my toe was blue. She took me to the ER and was scared to death by the doc on call. He claimed I had some sort of tropical disease and was ready to whisk me off to the operating room to remove my toe and save my life. Luckily for me, a very gifted pediatrician was walking through the ER after his rounds and heard what was going on. He reached for a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers. Thirty seconds later my toe was pink and healthy. No idea what happened to the ER doctor.That doctor that saved my toe went on to become our family's pediatrician for a couple generations. Thank you for my toe Dr. Cox, you're well and truly missed!
When my son was a baby this happened to him. He was just walking and was limping. The first thing that I checked was to see if there was a hair on his toe. There was and I took it off. Funny thing was that I had watched an episode of All My Children and this happened to Ericas little girl. And they say you cant learn things from soap operas.
This totally happened to my baby 30 years ago. My long hair would occasionally get caught in our clothes in the dryer and I looked at her feet as I was changing her PJ's with feet in them one time and there it was wrapped around her toe. I couldn't get it off so I took her to the Dr. and she got it off.
This happened to one of my kids and I thought that it was very uncommon before I read this article. I took my son to the doctor regularly and still one day I noticed that one of his toes was bigger than the others. When I looked closer, there was a deep gash on the under side of his toes. I removed the hair myself and there was a very long hair wrapped all around his toes. I felt so guilty because I knew it was my hair and that he must have been in pain for such a long time. As I was wrapping it, my son didn't cry or seem to feel any pain but I still felt so bad.
This happened to my daughter's baby. Thank goodness she saw his little purple toe, and saw the hair wrapped around it, and was able to snip it off before it did any permanent damage. We didnt know it was such a regular occurence.
In 1991, i had my 3rd daughter and had never heard of this - yet - while on maternity leave changing her sleeper and moving her feet around - my daughter screamed whenever I touched her foot. I panicked and didn't know what it was. I took her to a neighbor who was a nurse and encouraged me to take her to the ER. I have to admit - the nurses and hospital personnel doubted us and actually made us feel guilty because we 'didn't know' why she was in pain. Turns out the doctor found the hair wound tightly around her toe and it was severely cut - almost off. Luckily they were able to save it and she healed quickly. It's been that long and this is the first - ever - hearing about this. Thank you for relieving me of the unknown and answering the unanswered question!
Yes, I had heard of this danger when my boys were born. I also checked gowns, sleepers and booties for threads, etc. I heard that swallowing hair could do damage, strangulation of the bowel. I don't know if this is true, or not.
Something else to watch for - many years ago my husband and I were getting our kids ready for an all day outing to a fair. Our youngest fussed from the time we left the house. We changed him, fed him and held him and nothing helped. Finally, my husband just stripped the baby down and he couldn't believe what HE had done. When dressing the baby, he bent a tiny toe almost sideways (not under) in his sock and shoe - just horrible. I'll never forget how bad my husband felt - fortunately our baby's toe was fine and his fussy crying stopped, too.
You would think that if this had been going on for a long time everyone would have heard about it. Are women losing more hair than they used to or is their eyesight worse that they don't notice hair on the baby before it gets wrapped and how does it get wrapped around the toes?
What I don't understand is if this has been happening that frequently that doctors have given it a name, why hasn't word of this come out in the news sooner? I'm in my 50's and have never heard of this until today.
This happened to my children. My hair is thick and dark and always cut it short so when I noticed the baby's blue/purple toe I examined it very carefully and removed an extremely fine, long blonde hair that had wrapped around it. It can happen on other appendages as well....including the penis. That happened with my first boy...again long, fine, blonde hair that was difficult to see. So 2 of my 5 boys had this experience. I think it is not as rare as the article states; most parents simply remove it and get on with life. I never reported it. This was back in the early 80's and I forgot about it until reading this so it is something that parents need to be aware of. I bathed my babies daily but if you don't then you need to take extra precautions to check for this when they are newborns.
I am so glad to see this article. I hope it reaches some of the mommy blogs and mags. When my second baby was born, it was cold so he slept in footy pjs. One morning, as I changed him, I noticed his little toe was all blue. It was a string from the pjs that had somehow wrapped itself around his middle toe. I quickly removed it and started rubbing his toe. Nothing. I panicked and called his doctor. He giggled and said "It's very common." I was shocked but relieved. I rubbed and massaged that little toe till it turned pink. Whewww! That's a scary moment for a parent.
Don't worry about being an informed and active citizen in a democracy on the brink of ruin from lack of participation.
Quick look over there, its toe tourniquet syndrome! Freak out about THAT for awhile. Be sure to read all the celebrity gossip too. Do anything, as long as you remain diverted and marginalized and stay out of our way!
I bet Obama did this.
you hear this b....es? get to shaving
I had a hair wrapped around my private part and ended up losing it. They called me rod n' reel for years. ; D
My goodness. The hair on my arms just stood up. We have become "IdiocracY". Of all the stupid things....
Thank GOD I'm no breeder. I can't imagine wasting the sands of life's precious time on such insignificant, trivial, nitwit matters such as these. This is what happens when one is obsessed with what's going on in their vagina and uterus all day long. No integrity, no vision, no ambition, so short-sighted. What a sad existence they must lead the lot of them....breeding us to extinction and they're worried about the toes of their parasites. Pathetic.
Quit having children and you wont have a problem. The earth is overpopulated.
This is a very real problem and happened to my family. While traveling, our 5 month old son became inconsolable and would not stop crying. After an hour of wailing, and since there were no obvious signs of a problem, we decided to stop at a nearby USAF health center to get some advice/assistance. My husband was in the Air Force at the time. After a brief exam, a very alert pediatrician found that the problem was a hair wrapped around his toe. Since I had fine blond hair, it was almost invisible, especially since his chubby toe was swelling around it. He painstakingly extracted the hair, and within minutes, our always happy son was smiling again. You better believe that he was routinely checked from that point on.