IN THE third such incident in the US since Christmas, a little girl's hair has been torn out after getting caught in the mouth of a battery powered doll that mimics eating.
Three year old Carly Mize, of Greenville, South Carolina, started crying when her doll snagged her hair. Her mother, Ms Tammy Mize, said a patch of hair was pulled right out of her scalp.
"I thought maybe she had stuck her finger in the doll's mouth, so I checked her fingers, but she was still crying," Ms Mize said. "When I picked Carly up, the doll was attached to the back of her head."
The Cabbage Patch Snack Time Kid doll, which is supposed to "eat" plastic french fries and other fake food, has no onoff switch. Ms Mize said she tried to prise the doll off Carly's head with no success.
"It kept rolling her hair inside the head," she said. "It pulled her hair completely from the root. She is completely bald for maybe a hands length all the way down the back of her head."
Carly had received the doll for Christmas. The incident happened while she was shopping with her mother.
On Thursday, a doll belonging to 7 year old Sarah Stevens of Griffith, Indiana, had to be taken apart piece by piece when it chewed its way up her hair to her scalp.
Early on Saturday, another of the dolls chewed the hair of seven year old Amanda Gomez of New Haven, Connecticut. Her family said emergency workers had to take the batteries out of the doll and cut the girl's hair to free her.
Fewer than 10 such incidents have been reported to the doll's manufacturer, Mattel Inc, since it went on the market in September, company spokeswoman Ms Lisa McKendall said.
"They've been isolated incidents," she said. "All of our products go through rigorous safety testing. We would never introduce a product that we didn't feel passed all the . . requirements."