Those most at risk from a home accident are the 0 to 4 years age group.

Falls are the most common type of accident, and they also have the most serious consequences. The kitchen and the stairs are where the majority of serious accidents happen, with a total of 43,000 accidents occurring in the kitchen and 58,000 on the stairs.

A recent survey found that 35.7 per cent of parents reported a minor accident had occurred as a result of leaving their child unattended in a room during the day.

The survey also shows that 39 per cent of mothers think about child safety as early as pregnancy, while 34.1 per cent of parents consider child-proofing their home as a top priority and over half (62 per cent) said that child- proofing the home was quite important but that the key to keeping a child safe was to keep a watchful eye on them.

Concern over their children hurting themselves by falling out of bed, led to Amanda Allerton and her friend Venetia Fuller, coming up with Dream Tubes.

"It is a really big step moving from the safety of a cot to a bed," says Amanda, originally from Harrogate.

Parents will come up with ingenious ways of stopping their young child falling out of bed, such as pillows along the side and on the floor.

"When Imogen was two and Freddie four they both would fall out of bed and I got to talking with my friend about what we could do.

"The only things on the market were rigid bedsides which aren't any use when you are travelling and we came up with the idea of Dream Tubes."

Dream Tubes is a unique bed guard for children aged from 18 months to five years old. It comes as a fitted sheet
which goes onto any standard-sized single bed, the tubes are inflated and then zipped in to the channels, protecting both sides of the bed, providing the child with a safe and cosy cocoon for a peaceful night's sleep.

"It gives you piece of mind, especially for grandparents and on holiday when the floors might be hard and could cause injury to children."

Amanda and Venetia tested out the Dream Tubes on their own children with great results.

The product was launched earlier this year and the pair cannot believe the success they are having.

"We thought we'd have a little cottage industry," says Amanda whose background is in marketing.

"But we now have a UK distributor and are selling in Asia, Italy, France, Turkey and Australia.

"It has been amazing. We have been very lucky with an awful lot of help and support from people."

Dusky Moon, the name of Amanda and Venetia's business, is launching a Dream Tubes version for cotbeds in September and has a number of other child safety and bedtime related products in the pipeline.

And Amanda is using Child Safety Week to urge parents to take ten minutes to carry out a risk assessment of their homes.

"We think our children are safe because they are at home, but we cannot keep an eye on them 100 per cent of the time. Parents should take 10 minutes just to have a look around the home to see what potential dangers there are. It doesn't always mean you have to spend money.

"More than 500 under fives are taken to hospital every week as a result of hot drinks spilling on them. It's just having that extra thought before leaving something around and just being aware of what could be a potential hazard for a small child."

www.duskymoon.co.uk

Child Safety Week runs until June 28. For more information visit www.capt.org.uk

MINIMISE THE RISKS

Most accidents in the home involving children happen between late afternoon and early evening, in the summer, during school holidays
and at weekends.

Factors such as stress, death in the family, chronic illness, homelessness or moving home increase the likelihood of accident.

Poor housing and overcrowded conditions lead to increased numbers of accidents.

Some accidents are caused by lack of familiarity with surroundings.

Falls account for 44 per cent of children's accidents.

www.rospa.com