A hair torniquet occurs when a loose strand of hair finds itself getting caught and wrapped around an appendage - a toe or finger normally - of an infant or young baby.

Although mostly found to occur in new-borns - when their fingers and toes are tiny enough for hairs to easily get wrapped around them and mum may be losing hair more readily, I was actually motivated to post this today after reading a story about an 15-month old suffering from one of these! 

A hair getting caught like this often results in inconsolable crying with no immediately obvious cause, redness and swelling of the finger or toe in question and an indentation where the, often-times hard to spot, hair is caught. It's important to release the hair as quickly as possible to avoid damage to the tissue, nerves or blood supply of the digit 

The story I read inspired me to share one way that that was found to resolve the issue - after several failed attempts: Hair removal cream! This was at A&E after 2 doctors at the GP surgery were unsuccessful with their own methods! Healthline also advise this, saying to seek medical assistance if your own attempts do not succeed after 5 minutes.

This isn't aimed to scare or worry but hopefully to add another little nugget of new-born knowledge to your parenting package in the unfortunate event that this happens to you and your little one! Everyday's a school day!