The one-year-old boy, known as Baby RB, was the subject of an emotionally charged High Court case after his father challenged doctors who argued that the child’s life support should be switched off “in his best interests”.

The father later withdrew his objections and the judge agreed he should be allowed to die in peace.

His mother told the Mail on Sunday newspaper that the couple, who are separated, had cuddled him as they switched off his life support system on Friday and he died shortly afterwards.

She told the newspaper: “When they took his tube out, I was cuddling him. It was so amazing to see him without it — it’s the longest we had seen his face properly.

“The last thing I said to him was that I loved him and would always be there for him.”

The boy was thought to have congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS), a rare neuromuscular condition which severely limits his ability to breathe, move his limbs or make facial expressions.

The court was told that he had such acute breathing problems that if the ventilator had been slowed even by a fraction, he would have died.