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I have decided to write a small article on the experience I had with my twelve week old daughter with something I never thought could happen. When my baby daughter was twelve weeks old i noticed her small toe on her right foot was very red and swollen looking. My baby did not appear distressed at first until I touched her toe, she then did appear to have some discomfort from it. On closer investigation of her toe it looked like something was wrapped tightly around her toe and the swelling was to either side but I could not release what was around her toe or see clearly what it was. I decided to check her other toes and on the other foot one of her toes were slightly swollen. with a pair of tweezers I removed what appeared to be several small white fibers. I took my daughter to our family doctor who referred us to the nearest childrens hospital to be reviewed by the paediatric doctors. It was decided that my daughter would undergo a general anaesthetic to lance the toe in order to relieve the pressure in her toe and to revive the circulation. The procedure took ten minutes. I am pleased to say my daughters toe is now ok and she will not have any problems but if it was not noticed when it was she could have lost her toe. The fibers had come lose from a pair of socks she was wearing and the socks were new. I had never heard of this happening before but have since found out that this is called hair/thread tourniquet syndrome and there have been cases in the past.

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