The mother of a 5-year-old boy issued a warning after her son’s swim trunks caused a medical emergency.
She said the netting got caught in the boy’s private area. Collins then ran to the front desk of the hotel where she was staying to get a pair of scissors.
However, they told her to go see a doctor before the boy, Jack, was taken to the hospital.
The netting was wrapped too tightly for it to be removed comfortably, and the doctors had to give him an anesthetic before finally removing the shorts.
After several hours, the boy was then sent home after doctors determined that no damage was done.
The Mirror reported that the same hospital had another boy come in with the same injury.
Collins said that parents should try and remove the netting on children’s swim trunks to avoid this from happening again.
Tesco, the firm that produced the shorts, issued an apology.
“Whilst we will be conducting an investigation with the manufacturer we would like to assure our customers that our swimshorts meet the industry standards required for the mesh lining,” the company said in a statement.
“Although the overall percentage of occurrences is relatively low, minor to severe pain and bleeding has been caused by swim trunk mesh in hundreds of cases. There are some indications that boys living in the USA may be more prone to incidents occurring, as the mesh has larger holes,” the website says.
The website says that it’s best to cut the mesh underwear out of swim trunks.
“In some cases attempts to remove the shorts has resulted in injuries that cause substantial bleeding and even a trip to the hospital,” the site says.
Collins, after the incident, said that Jack has “been warning all his friends as he doesn’t want the same thing to happen to them. I never imagined something like this could happen but I want all parents to make sure they remove the netting from swimming shorts.”
Some commenters noted that it was “common sense” to wear some type of underwear under netted shorts. And some parents said they don’t buy or use them.
“Why do [they put] those nettings in the shorts in the first place? I actually wanna know, it’s really bothering [me],” one asked.
Said another, “Or just let them keep their undies on too. The netting helps them stay up. I have a super skinny kid, and he has always worn both undies & the swimsuit with netting. Then I read about this. Even though his little brother is not a skinny thing, he was in a swim diaper until he got potty trained a couple of weeks ago. Undies + swimsuit. Extra protection.”
Added another, “I always cut it out then stopped buying them and just had my son wear soft cotton shorts as bathing suits..he had gotten such a bad rash from those bathing suits!”
One suggested that parents should have their children wear basketball shorts or something similar.
