A mother has told of her horror at finding her baby covered in blood inside a "coarse" wicker basket from Argos.

Victoria Novozhilova checked the Teddies Moses Basket was suitable for young babies before leaving tiny Alfie in it to sleep.

But when his cries woke her up in the early hours, she found him with appalling injuries.

Alfie had managed to scratch both his hands on the wicker until they were red raw and bleeding.

Ms Novozhilova said: "When I woke up in the morning, Alfie was crying and he raised his hands "I saw the blood on the side of the basket. I didn't understand where it came from. His hands were covered in blood."

The young mother, 19, shed tears as she remembered the distressed state in which she found her son.

Alfie is now 12 weeks old and his hands have since healed but his parents believe they could be permanently scarred.

Ms Novozhilova, of Dover Close, Southwater, Horsham, said: "The scabs are gone but you can still see marks on his hands. Because his hands are so delicate, the marks will stay there for ever now."

When the family complained to Argos, they said they were told other people had complained about the basket - listed as 376/0866 in the shop's catalogue - saying the handles had fallen off. The firm took the faulty basket from Alfie's parents to investigate how the baby hurt himself.

Alfie's father Chris Badger said the family had been given a refund of the basket's £29.99 cost but as far as he knows, the product has not yet been taken off the shelves.

The 30-year-old landscape gardener said he believed there should be some padding between the wicker and the lining.

He said: "Argos doesn't seem to care. I am not interested in money. They said: We will give you £50 in Argos vouchers.' "That isn't what we are after. We said: We want you to take it off the market.' "It is our first child. We obviously love him to bits. It was frightening. He was three weeks old. His skin was very tender. It was horrible to see."

Mr Badger added that they did not take Alfie to hospital because they discovered the injuries at 5am.

Instead, Ms Novozhilova bandaged him up herself.

They are still waiting for a report from Argos about what went wrong.

When The Argus checked, the product was still on sale on the Argos website, saying the basket was suitable for babies up to 13lbs.

A spokeswoman for Argos said: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

"Argos would like apologise for any distress caused to the family as a result of this unfortunate incident.

"We take events of this nature extremely seriously and are in the process of a thorough investigation.

"We ensure all products included in the catalogue and available online do comply with the relevant EU and British safety standards.

"All products are regularly monitored through our safety monitoring system.

"As a responsible retailer, all Argos products go through the rigorous safety procedures before being made available for purchase.

"Argos is also sorry to hear that when reporting this issue, Mr Badger did not feel our customer service was of a sufficient standard.

"Our records show that our executive resolutions team was in contact with Mr Badger, who declined to accept the gesture of goodwill that was extended to him.

"They also indicate that no other issue or problem regarding the product was discussed.

"The Argos store that received the refunded product followed our detailed safety procedure and the customer's product has been returned to our technicians for an examination.

"We are awaiting their comments on the amount of padding, which was the basis of the product complaint."

rachel.pegg @theargus.co.uk