There's a fine line between being a protective parent and wrapping kids up in cotton wool.

And now an expert has claimed the latter can actually be detrimental to a child's development because it 'suffocates' their growth.

Dr Zoi Nikiforidou, a senior lecturer in early childhood studies at Liverpool Hope University and mother to a young toddler, says British adults are currently in the grips of an 'identity crisis' when it comes to raising children.

She argues bruises are 'trophies of playtime' and urges parents to start trusting their children when it comes to negotiating danger.

While there's clearly a duty of care to ensure children are safe, Dr Nikiforidou says denying them opportunities to hurt themselves - both emotionally and physically - is setting them up for failure in later life.  

Here she shares her practical top tips with FEMAIL to help stop you raising a 'cotton wool kid'. 

We need to trust our children because they know, innately, what to be fearful of. They can sense danger at a biological, molecular level - otherwise we wouldn't survive as a species.