Blogger Courtney Adamo devastated after Instagram temporarily shuts down account for re-posting picture of toddler's stomach

Ms Adamo's account was briefly deactivated after she posted a picture of her 18-month-old daughter which the site deemed 'inappropriate'

A London-based blogger was devastated after Instagram deleted her account because she had shared a picture of her toddler which the site deemed “inappropriate”. (Instagram )

A London-based blogger was left devastated after Instagram deactivated her account because she had shared a picture of her toddler which the site considered “inappropriate”.

Courtney Adamo writes a blog for the online boutique Babyccino Kids. On it, she described her upset after releasing her Instagram account, which has over 40,000 followers, had been shut down.

The mother-of-four last week posted a picture of her daughter Marlow in yellow wellies holding up her dress and revealing her belly button. The next day, Ms Adamo said she received emails from the social media site telling her they had removed images from her feed which violated the rules.

After realising the picture of her 18-month-old had been removed, the 33-year-old re-posted the image, only to discover hours later her account had been disabled.

Video: Instagram closes account after 'inappropriate' photo

She wrote on her blog: “I thought it was such a sweet photo of my baby girl and her gorgeous, round belly (and outie belly button). And I love that her pride is so evident in the photo – such a sweet and innocent shot.

"I never, ever, ever would have thought that posting this photo of Marlow would lead to this. Instagram has deleted four years of my family photos and memories: all the photos of our travels, my children’s birthdays [...] All of it gone. I am sick just thinking about it."

Her story was quickly shared across the internet and saw the hashtags #BringBackCourtneyBabyccino and #savethebelly spring up rapidly, with calls for her account to be reinstated.

Many expressed their anger at the idea that such an innocent picture could be considered in violation of Instagram’s rules or deemed in any way inappropriate.

The online outrage was followed by the site's decision to reactivate her account, much to Ms Adamo's relief. She said after: “I want to make sure that my experience is educational for others and changes an Instagram policy that is overbearing and imbalanced.”

A spokesman for Instagram said: “We try hard to find a good balance between allowing people to express themselves creatively and having policies in place to protect young children.

“This is one reason why our guidelines put limitations on nudity, but we recognise that we don’t always get it right. In this case, we made a mistake and have since restored the account.”