A Hospital has apologised after a mother found a needle floating in her week-old son's medicine.

Julie Webster noticed a green object in the bottle as she was about to give baby Joshua a dose of his antibiotics.

She said: "I saw something in the liquid but thought it was just part of the medicine."

But two days later, after her community midwife advised her to change the bottle, she poured the medicine down the sink and the needle dropped out.

Miss Webster, 30, of Fitzherbert Drive, Brighton, said: "I felt sick and horrified that I had been giving this medicine to my son.

"When the midwife came round I picked the needle up with a pair of scissors because I didn't know if it was sterile or not.

"The midwife said it made her feel sick too."

Doctors at the Royal Sussex County Hospital prescribed the medicine for Joshua after noticing small spots on his neck when he was born.

Miss Webster said she and her partner Wayne Knight, 30, were reluctant to give him antibiotics because he was so young.

A midwife made up the medicine, Floxapen syrup, by injecting sterile water into a bottle of powdered antibiotics.

Joshua, now seven weeks old, has fully recovered from his spots and the hospital has since apologised for the mistake.

But Miss Webster, who also has a daughter Lauren Knight, five, is unsure whether she could ever trust doctors again.

She said: "You put your body and your life into their hands. It has made me think. If my children have to go into hospital this will always be at the back of my mind.

"I know they are busy and short-staffed but if a mistake like that can be made I dread to think what else could happen."

Miss Webster wrote to the hospital for an explanation and to ask if her son's medicine could be tested as she was unsure if it was infected.

She said: "They apologised and said a mistake had obviously been made.

"Then I phoned the hospital advocate because I was not happy with the response. I felt like I was perhaps being fobbed off."

Clinical midwifery manager Helen Rogerson phoned Miss Webster to reassure her the needle was sterile and invited her to visit the hospital to see how medicine is made.

Mrs Rogerson said: "I understand how worrying it must have been for Miss Webster. Under normal circumstances the needle would have been discarded and the midwife concerned, who is an experienced member of staff, has already apologised for the error.

"All the midwives have been told of this incident and reminded of the need to be vigilant when preparing medicines."