A FAMILY were left shocked after armed police at an airport made them dip an eight-month-old baby in disinfectant to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease.

Mother Dawn Coker said she was astonished when police at Tenerife airport made her son, Brandon, dip his shoes in the chemicals - even though he is too young to walk.

The family said they first realised there was a problem when they were asked if they had any food with them and were told at Manchester they could not take their baby food out with them.

Worse was to come when they landed in Tenerife, where they were told to walk through a disinfectant footbath flanked by two armed guards.

With mum and baby were 23-month-old Deeanna, six-year-old Daniel, Dawn's husband and several relatives.

Dawn, of West View, Blackburn, said: "I walked through carrying Brandon, because obviously he's too little to walk, he's not even crawling.

"The guards started shouting at me and I couldn't understand what was the matter. I was petrified. Then the guard made me stand Brandon in the disinfectant. He was only wearing soft shoes and they were soaked."

Despite the baby's sterilised food being packed in unopened tamper-proof jars, it was all confiscated, leaving the children with no food at all for the plane journey.

Dawn's mother Margaret Duckworth, of the Leamington Hotel, Preston New Road, Blackburn, said: "We had only paid £20 for each of the two smallest children and they were sitting on our laps, so they weren't entitled to a meal.

"We asked for the children to be given food, but the air hostesses said all food had to be pre-booked.

"Luckily there was some mashed potato in the adults' meals, so we gave them a few spoonfuls of that."

The family couldn't find their usual brand of formula milk in the tiny resort, and they had not brought their driving licences to visit a larger town.

Dawn said: "We found another brand but he didn't like it and it upset his stomach all week. It was a holiday of sorts but Brandon was upset all the time." Mrs Duckworth said they were considering complaining to the airline about their treatment.

She said: "We should have been told beforehand. Some babies are allergic to ordinary baby milk and need soya milk. If a family like that arrived without knowing, they just couldn't go abroad because they wouldn't be able to get it abroad."