Urgent warning as little boy almost hangs himself on £10 summer ‘must-have’
A MUM has issued an urgent warning to parents after her young son nearly hung himself on a cheap summer “must-have”.
Justine Church, who lives in Strood, Kent, bought a fly curtain on Amazon and put it up at her back door to keep the flies out.
Her five-year-old son Miles though got the curtain tangled up around his neck when he went to walk through it on Thursday.
It is not clear what brand of fly curtain Justine bought from the online retailer but they can be purchased for just £10.
The mum-of-five told Kent Online: “I was at work and my husband was upstairs hoovering, obviously he couldn’t hear much because the hoover was on.
“His twin brother Darwin managed to untangle him but now it basically looks like he’s got whiplash around his neck, it’s probably going to scar.
“He was quite traumatised at the time and it was really sore because it’s like a burn.”
The mum, 42, said she was “distraught” when she found out what had happened, after she got back from work.
She said that when she was looking online she knew exactly what she wanted and placed it in her online basket and ordered it.
Justine said there was no warning on the package but having “Googled it” she discovered it had happened before.
She added that when she looked at the reviews on Amazon “there’s so many people it’s happened to.”
Justine urged other parents to be aware of the potential dangers fly curtains pose to youngsters.
She said: “It’s that time of year where you need to be more conscious of things like paddling pools, blind cords, the windows being open – I’ve got five children so I’m fully aware of safety issues around children and my house is baby-proofed.”
The concerned mum added that it was impossible to supervise her kids all of the time and they had fitted window locks as well as a padlocked gate and any blind cords are put up.
She said there was a legal disclaimer right at the bottom of the advert saying children must not go through it unsupervised but she added this was “not practical”.
Following the incident she took the curtain down and binned it.
Justine added she wasn’t looking for a refund but just wanted to make people more aware of the possible dangers.
However, she warned that things could have been very different.
She said: “If he hadn’t been untangled by his brother, I could have been burying him, it would have been a completely different story.”
A few days ago a shopper went online to rave about a £5 magnetic door curtain they had bought from Aldi.
Praising the product, the bargain hunter Kerrisaid in her post: ”I’ve been leaving my door open with the nice weather we’ve been having but I’m sick of the flies coming into the house.
”So happy with this cheap curtain from Aldi so thought I’d share!”
It’s not just Kerri raving about the affordable deal – others said it worked like a charm too.
A mum, meanwhile, warned: ”These are poor quality.
”Be careful anyone with children. The magnets very easily come loose.”