Mum issues warning after sleeping tot trapped between bed and wall

Emily Sykes woke up at 6.50am on July 23rd to the sound of her one-year-old son Charlton Gill whimpering. Concerned, the beauty therapist went in to check on him and give him his morning milk but was baffled when she couldn't find him.

The mum-of-two did a quick sweep of the house to check he wasn't anywhere else, but went back to Charlton's room and heard the whimpering again.

The 40-year-old was horrified to discover her son, who'd only transitioned from a cot to a bed the week before, wedged down the side of his bed in the small gap between the bed and the wall. Emily quickly leapt into action, dragging the bed out and scooping a teary Charlton up into her arms.

While checking him over, Emily noticed Charlton's right ear had turned purple and a blister was starting to form so rushed him to Airedale General Hospital in Steeton, West Yorkshire.

There, the tot had a CT scan that came back clear before being referred to Bradford Royal Infirmary in Bradford, West Yorkshire, where doctors checked the inside of his ear.

Now Emily, who feared he'd have lost his ear had he been trapped any longer, has moved his bed to the centre of the room and is sharing what happened to ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Emily, from Haworth, West Yorkshire, said: "I do feel sick and embarrassed. It's not a nice thing to think you can't put your child to bed safely at night. "He's growing up and from a safety point of view I thought I was doing the right thing putting him in the bed.

"His ear was bent the opposite way and flat to his head so the circulation had been cut off to the corner of his ear. "The top part of the ear was black and purple. As we were driving it was becoming quite swollen.

"His head was swelling. That's when I started to really think, 'oh my God, this is actually bad.' Up until that point naively I didn't. "I think reality hit and we were both quite emotional by that point. I said, 'I can't believe the gap. It wasn't even really much of a gap'.

"The doctors repeatedly kept saying 'he's a very lucky boy, he's very lucky he didn't suffocate.' "I felt awful and a bit naive. "I had no thought that there was ever going to be room to manoeuvre that the wall is a barrier, but obviously not."

After the scary incident, Emily has moved Charlton's bed to the centre of the room and has put bed guards on both sides of it. Emily said: "I feel awful knowing it could have been really dangerous, it makes me feel a bit sick.

"I assume he hadn't been there the full night, purely for the fact that I don't think he would have survived it if it had been that many hours. "Or I feel like his ear would have unfortunately dropped off with the lack of blood supply.

"Don't put beds against a wall, however minimal the gap might be. "Unless there's a full space for an adult to walk down the side of the bed I would say don't put them near a wall."