DOZENS of parents staged a protest outside a restaurant where a mum was told to breastfeed her week-old baby in the disabled toilet.
Ellie Webster, 23, was feeding her daughter at the W2 World Buffet in Middlesborough when a staff member ordered her to the loos.
She was told it was "company policy" and left in tears following her ordeal yesterday.
Ellie hit out at the chain on Facebook, and her post about the experience racked up over 550 shares in just three hours.
Today outraged supporters started a "nurse in" protest outside the branch over the "unacceptable" behaviour.
Lucy Cuzzocrea, who is mum to Maya, three, and Luca, one-and-a-half, organised the protest.
She said: "I was furious when I heard what happened to Ellie.
"When she first posted about it on Facebook she was actually still in there sat on the toilet crying.
"I just couldn't believe that this girl with a one-week-old baby had been sent to sit in a dirty toilet.
"I phoned up for her - I had never met Ellie before - but I phoned up and tried to speak to someone to tell them it was illegal and they need to sort it out but they were just totally unwilling to help until someone from the council went in there to tell them it was wrong.
"I don't take their apology as sincere."
Lucy, who is from Middlesbrough but now lives in Guisborough, added: "I don't want people to think that this kind of behaviour is OK, and that's why I organised this today."
Ellie was also at the protest and was overwhelmed at the support.
The mum to one-week-old Lottie and Logan, four said: "I never thought this would happen but I am so glad to everyone here."
"I've had thousands of messages, my Facebook has gone crazy.
"W2 have apologised to me but it's a bit late for that. It's already happened."
During the protest, W2 area manager Simon Tsang read out a statement on behalf of the business.
It read that it "has never been our company policy to tell mothers where they can breastfeed" and that the incident resulted from a "lack of communication within the company".
Simon added: "We have spoken to Middlesbrough Council and we have signed up to show our support of breastfeeding anywhere in our premises.
"We also called an urgent staff meeting yesterday and up-to-date training has been carried out."
Mum-of-two Ellie blasted the restaurant: "I couldn't believe it. It made me so upset but I didn't want to make a fuss so I just went, but I was crying all the way there.
"I got to the toilet but it was brutal. There was no way I was going to breastfeed her in there - it's not hygienic.
She hit out at the chain on Facebook, and her post about the experience racked up over 550 shares in just three hours.
The post led to the nurse in being organised.
W2 released a statement about the incident - blaming an "inexperienced" member of staff.
"We have received a lot of comments regarding a recent complaint made about breastfeeding in our restaurant," it reads.
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"Firstly, we would like to apologise to all parties involved. The situation that occurred was the actions of an inexperienced staff member. It is not our company policy to tell mothers where they can breastfeed.
"We have also spoken to the Middlesbrough Council and we have signed up to show our support of breastfeeding anywhere in our premises.
"Once again, we want to apologise to all parties involved. We can't change what happened but we will do everything to ensure it doesn't happen again including evaluating our staff training and informing all staff members of what has occurred."
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