A baby was left screaming in pain when her Tesco nappy burst open and burned her skin, claims her mother.

Alice Mortimer, ten months, was sleeping in her cot when the Tesco Loves Baby Superfit Size 3 nappy ripped at the seams, spilling chemical granules across her back and bottom.

Mum Emily Mortimer, from Braintree, was horrified to be woken by her crying daughter and said it happened just two years after her young son suffered similar injuries.

Mrs Mortimer, 27, who spent £3.50 on the pack of 50 nappies said: "I was absolutely shocked because this is the second time this has happened, and the nappy wasn't even slightly full.

"When I complained at Tesco the first time, they were absolutely amazing and really, really apologetic.

"They sent me a letter saying that there was nothing wrong with the nappy and this was a one-off and wouldn't happen again.

"This is the very next time that I bought the nappies after the first incident, the same thing has happened again."

Mrs Mortimer tucked Alice into bed at around 9.30pm on September 11, only to hear her crying out in distress at 7am the following morning.

The nappy, which is supposed to last for 12 hours, had torn at the back and spilled through Alice's vest and on to her skin.

After seeing her daughter's injuries, Mrs Mortimer immediately put Alice in the bath before treating her skin with Sudocrem.

But the incident brought back horrific memories for the mother-of-two, whose son Jack suffered chemical burns from a Tesco nappy two years ago.

Mrs Mortimer, who owns her own company, said: "After the first time, Tesco gave me free Pampers nappies to replace the ones that I took back.

"They also gave me loads of creams and things for Jack but his skin took about 5 or 6 days to heal completely, because the contents of the nappy had burnt a layer off.

"The store forwarded the complaint to the head office though and they were shocking.

"In the letter, they sent me a £2.50 voucher, telling me to buy my son some sweets- my son was 10 months old, so I didn't buy him sweets.

"I was like, I'm not doing this because I want free stuff, I'm doing it so that it doesn't happen to other people."

A Tesco spokesman said: "We are sorry to hear of this incident and are urgently investigating.

"There is nothing more important than the safety of our products and all of our nappies have passed independent quality checks to make sure they are safe for use.

"We will update Emily with the findings of our investigation."