A mother from Belfast felt "shamed and humiliated" by a doctor for not breastfeeding her son who required serious treatment.
Seimone Burgoyne was looking to get urgent treatment for her son Rossa who was brought to hospital following a blockage in his bowel, Belfast Live reported.
The North Belfast mother flagged a number of issues in relation to her son's care and after three difficult weeks in hospital she was still looking for answers as to the problem.
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She alleged that when chatting with doctors about how her son was going to be helped for his bowel problem, which had him in pain, one doctor fielded some inappropriate questions.
Seimone said: "After Rossa had been admitted we had been speaking with a number of doctors and nurses about what needed to be done to help him.
"At one point, a doctor entered the room and immediately started to ask me questions about whether or not I had breast fed Rossa, and when I told him that I hadn't, he started to say that was the reason that he was now suffering with this painful bowel problem."
She said she felt appalled by the way she was spoken to by the doctor for the way she had raised her son.
"Since Rossa was born he has had a restrictive diet that I have taken strict care with, but this seemed to be ignored and I was instead being criticised about whether or not I breast fed my children.
"I was very upset about the entire incident and had to request that this doctor never come near our family again," she added.
Her son spent weeks "screaming in pain" with his blocked bowel as Seimone felt more could have been done.
She said: "The entire time Rossa's condition was continuing to deteriorate and he was on such strong drugs that he lost a kilo due to dehydration because he had stopped eating or drinking at this point.
"Near the end of his time there we were told to attend a multi-disciplinary meeting about his care, but when we arrived we were told that it had already finished and were given no indication about what was going on.
"I eventually was told that he had a foreign body in his bowel which was causing the blockage and he was taken for an operation to deal with it, but this didn't work. He then had another procedure which seemed to clear the problem, but when I asked the doctor if I could be told what had caused the blockage, I was told there was nothing there."
The Belfast Trust stated that it apologies if any remarks made by any member of staff caused offence.
A spokesperson said: "Belfast Trust would like to reassure Simone Burgoyne that the wellbeing and health of her son Rossa is of paramount importance to us.
"We apologise if any remarks made by any member of staff caused offence and whilst we cannot go into the details of an individual’s care, we will continue to liaise with Rossa’s family directly."
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