West Suffolk Hospital has apologised after staff gave a six-month-old vomiting baby milk which was more than five months out of date.

Rosie Cox, 23, from Stowmarket, was left “shocked” and “distressed” when her son, Rufus, was given the milk at the Bury St Edmunds hospital on Monday night at around 10pm.

She and father Tom Palmer, 28, had been told by a GP to take him there for tests after a period of continuously vomiting.

“As part of these tests and observations, Rufus was given a 50ml bottle of Aptamil baby milk,” she said.

“After it was given to him, I noticed the bottle read that the milk was five months out of date. We had gone from worrying about the vomiting he had already been experiencing to a whole new problem which left us feeling helpless, panicked and all the more concerned for our baby.

“He was given the milk to see how he would react and then go home if he was ok.”

Rufus was taken to the children’s ward for observation while medics examined him to see if there had been any ill effects.

Miss Cox added: “The point of my complaint is that we place our absolute trust and the welfare of our child into the hands of the professionals who are supposed to help, not make matters worse. It also concerns me that the A&E department had even been storing milk that far out of date.

“It is extremely shocking and it left us worry stricken and in disbelief that this problem actually occurred.”

Rufus is now back at home after being discharged at around 2.30am on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for West Suffolk Hospital said the milk given to Rufus was heat sterilised and was not from a cow.

She said: “We are sorry that this incident occurred and would like to apologise to Rufus’ parents for any distress that it caused. We are pleased that Rufus has suffered no ill effects as a result.

“We will fully investigate what happened, and would like to reassure parents coming to the hospital in the future that we have already taken steps to make sure this error does not happen again.