Families warned over the use of this popular hot weather item that could 'detach' a child's finger

Families have been warned over the dangers of buying dodgy fans online to cope with the heatwave as children risk cutting their fingers off.

Trying to get a baby to sleep at night is hard at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a heatwave and while many ask is it bad to sleep with a fan on? Others worry about the cost of running a fan.

But before you rush online to snap up another air cooling device for the home or baby's room, aside from checking if your baby's bed is safe, you should check your fan guard.

Some air coolers are said to be wide enough for children to stick their fingers through, and risk slicing off their digits.

Customer reviews left for some products bought online claim that the guards tend to have the same fault - enabling kids fingers to touch the blades.

One concerned shopper wrote, "Yes, my toddlers fingers can touch the blades. Very disappointed."

While another fumed, "I just tried to stick my pinky in, which went up to the middle finger joint and I was able to reach the blade edge.

"The closest distance from grill to blade is 1.5 inches, and tiny fingers certainly would get in there."

A third warned, "Even though toddlers fingers are short they're definitely thin enough to fit through the grill screen."

One dad revealed his three-year-old son was rushed to hospital for his finger to be "reattached" after he pushed it through the grille while the blades were rotating.

In an interview with Israel Nation News he warned, "This fan has stainless-steel blades and the product insert says that the mesh is especially dense for ‘maximum safety'. 

"My son had to be taken to hospital and underwent an operation to reattach his finger."

A safer way would be to choose a bladeless fan like this one on TikTok...

@vortexair

♬ original sound - Vortex Air UK

The warnings come after seven million Baby Shark bath toys were recalled over 'impalement' injury risk. Other items recalled previously include Asda baby sleeping bags and a popular bath seat and a Maxi-Cosi Coral XP car seat which was recalled earlier this year.

But there are a variety of ways of how to keep your house cool in summer aside from buying a fan, and you can read up on more tips at goodto.com