Poor David Cameron. As you may have heard, his eight-year-old daughter was left in a pub on Sunday. The family had been out for lunch and the poor girl had nipped to the loo and everyone thought she was with someone else. She was without her parents, said to be ‘distraught’ for 15 minutes. Home now, and all fine.

Which parent hasn’t had a similar nightmare? It happens. Children wander off the second your back is turned, and most of the time wander back or are returned by a kind stranger. It happened to us last Saturday. We were watching a cousin take part in a huge children’s triathalon. Hundreds of children, hundreds of adults, lots of trees to hide in. Our son, aged three, wandered off with his cousin, also aged three. The organisers were wonderful, radioing everyone and helping with the search. He’d wandered off to the car park and was discovered by the cousin’s granny. All fine, though stressful.

I recounted the story to friends at the weekend and they came back with some ingenious tips which I thought I’d pass on.

• Put business cards in your child’s pockets and make sure they know to show one to a grown-up should they wander off on their own
• Buy a cool ID wrist strap from The ID Band Company. These come in all kinds of designs, including a cool camouflage that even a teenager wouldn’t mind wearing
• Make sure your child knows his name and surname. This really helps anyone putting a tannoy announcement out get their message across
• Don’t be cross when your child returns. You might be torn between wanting to hug them and shout for having put you through the stress mill, but positive means they won’t be too scared to return should they disappear again
• Remind even young children to look out for people in uniform at organised events. Point out what the organisers look like, giving lots of detail about ‘bright yellow jackets’ or ‘special hats’

Cool ID wrist straps that even the coolest teen wouldn't mind wearing