The BBC's Sheila Moss: Medical staff described the boy's behaviour as agitated

The toddler had been taken to Macclesfield District Hospital by the couple on Saturday morning.

They told doctors he had swallowed the tablet by accident.

The child was admitted but 10 hours later the couple returned and removed their son despite objections from medical staff.

The police were then called. They immediately went to the home of the couple, who live locally, but the house was empty.

Mike O'Boyle, director of nursing at the hospital, said: "There isn't a lot of clinical information about the effects of Ecstasy on a child this young so the poisons unit at Guy's Hospital in London was contacted.

"We would have preferred to have kept him in overnight to maintain the observation of him because no one has experience of the effects tablets like that have on two-year-old boys."

A spokesman for Cheshire police refused to comment due to the "sensitive nature" of the incident.