Mum Kelly Brown today told how her son could have died after eating a chocolate flapjack, not labelled as containing milk products.

Felix, just 23 months old, had an allergic reaction and went into shock after eating a chocolate flapjack bought from Nature's Harvest health food store in Banbury.

Mrs Brown found him in his bedroom about 90 minutes after he ate a piece of the flapjack, in a "very distressed" state, with a rash and a rapidly swelling face.

She rushed him to the town's Horton Hospital where nurses managed to stabilise his condition.

Staff told Kelly that if he had eaten the whole bar he could have died.

Daventry manufacturer House of Goodness Ltd has now withdrawn thousands of the bars from sale at shops across the county. Mrs Brown, 33, who lives with husband Julian and daughter Poppy, five, at Briggs Close, Banbury, said today she was extremely shaken by the ordeal.

She said Felix suffered from asthma and had allergic reactions to dairy products including milk and eggs. He also has reactions to nuts and tomatoes.

She said she had asked the shopkeeper for a flapjack that was free of all these products and he found two with labels indicating they were - one was chocolate flavoured.

Felix can't eat most chocolate because it contains milk but up to now he has been fine eating chocolate flavouring.

But having seen his near fatal reaction she contacted the manufacturer and was told the chocolate flavouring contained whey powder, a milk extract, which did not appear on the labelling. Mrs Brown said: "If he had eaten the whole bar he would have died according to the medical staff. It was a shocking experience, really dreadful. What do I believe when I read the labels on products? Are they safe or not?

"I am relieved they have been taken off the shelves. If it just saves one person going through what I have been through it is worth it."

House of Goodness Ltd was today unavailable for comment.

Story date: Saturday 30 January

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.