More than 75% of parents in the East of England feel under pressure to be ‘perfect’, with one in three unwilling to admit when their child has had an accident or near miss out of fear of being judged.

The findings from Child Accident Prevention Trust are being linked to social media.

Katrina Phillips, chief executive of the charity, said: “Parents are living under a social media microscope, too scared to admit to less than Pinterest-perfect parenting for fear of being judged. This has worrying consequences for child safety.

“If parents no longer feel able to share their experiences or admit what they don’t know, we lose the chance to learn from each other and stop serious accidents to children.”

The survey also revealed that more than half (54%) of mums and dads in this region feel like they are not good enough parents - higher than the national average of 48%. While nearly three quarters (72%) of parents in the east worry about their child having an accident

The statistics have been released to mark Child Safety Week, a national awareness campaign which takes place during June 5-11.

Dr Ian Maconochie, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said more than 20% of total emergency department attendances in the UK were infants, children and young people, many of which are preventable.

He added: “One route to reducing these is to educate and inform children, young people, their parents and carers about the dangers and how to avoid them, which is why this campaign is so important.”

One bereaved parent has bravely decided to speak out.

George Asan’s two-year-old daughter Francesca died in 2016 after a button battery she swallowed became lodged in her throat and burned through, causing devastating internal bleeding.

Mr Asan wants to highlight the simple things that families can do to stop their children suffering a serious accident.

He said: “It is very hard for me to talk about losing Francesca, but I hope that by talking about Francesca’s death it will encourage other families to talk about accidents and ask questions about what they can do to stop them happening to their own children.”