A single hair strand nearly cost a Wichita baby one of her toes. Post this incident the parents of the baby have been cautioning others regarding what is known as a ‘hair tourniquet’.

In January 2016, Wichita’s Scott Walker shared a picture of Molly, his daughter, and her swollen toe on social website Facebook, and just seven days after that, it went viral. Several others commented about experiencing a scare with hair tourniquets.

What happens is that a strand a hair or loose fiber wraps the finger, toes or even penis of a baby. In case not noticed timely, the strand can get tight eventually, causing the child to miss blood flow to that part of the body.

Dr. Amy Seery with Via Christi's Family Medicine Residency Program explained that in case this continues, it can result into serious damage to the tissue that could be permanent or in worst cases you might actually lose a finger or a toe.

After realizing the issue, Walker and his wife instantly look out for a way to remove the hair from the toe of Molly. Molly's skin around toe was badly harmed due to the strand but she was doing okay. It was quite scary for parents, but Dr. Seery said that worst cases are quite rare.

She said, “There's probably only a couple dozen cases across the county each year, it's very hard to track. The vast majority of cases are managed at home by parents who never think to report it to their physician”.

In case you want to keep your little one safe from getting a hair tourniquet, doctors suggest everybody to wash mittens or socks of your baby inside out and check all fingers and toes at every bath time.