A Melbourne toddler died after consuming his mother’s liquid nicotine while her head was turned.

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died aged 19 months last June after consuming the substance his mother had poured into bottles of vape juice as she tried to quit smoking, the coroner’s court was told on Monday.

She had turned around to put some of the bottles away at their north-western suburban home before finding one of them in her child’s mouth.

The woman washed out the boy’s mouth and called an ambulance but he died in hospital 11 days later.

Coroner Phillip Byrne said it was not a case of neglect but a “momentary lapse of vigilance” by the child’s mother.

He noted the child was much loved and well cared for, and his family were shattered by what had happened.

Everything possible had been done to save the boy’s life, Byrne added.

The mother had imported the liquid nicotine from the US 18 months earlier and was mixing it with vape juice in an attempt to quit smoking.

It is illegal to buy or sell liquid nicotine in Australia.

Byrne will hand down his findings into the boy’s death at a later date.

The inquest has received submissions from health experts and the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association about whether liquid nicotine should be legalised.