A 12-week-old baby born with severe facial deformities whose parents are locked in a battle with doctors about her treatment was placed under an interim protection order by magistrates last night to ensure she remains in hospital.

The baby's future will be discussed by a higher court today. Her parents had threatened to remove her from a Newcastle hospital claiming that she was being used as a medical experiment.

The baby was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare condition in which part of the face is missing. She has no right eye or ear, and half her nose and part of her right jaw are missing. Though the family were named and pictured in earlier news stories, they may no longer be identified for legal reasons.

The baby will need a lengthy series of operations to rebuild her face. Her parents, who were at Gosforth magistrates court yesterday, had her admitted to the city's Royal Victoria Infirmary for doctors to assess her prospects for facial surgery. But they raised objections when the doctors proposed to put a tube down her nose to check her respiratory function.

The parents argued that the procedure had already been carried out in Saudi Arabia, where the baby was born, and was unnecessary. The 25-year-old mother accused the hospital of using her daughter as an "experiment" because of the rarity of her condition.

She said yesterday: "No one is going to do an operation on our daughter that we feel she doesn't need."

The interim protection order gave Newcastle city council's social workers parental responsibility for the baby.

Margaret Asquith, head of the council's children's services, said last night: "Newcastle social services has assisted the hospital trust, in cooperation with the parents, to secure a 24-hour interim order to ensure that the baby remains in hospital. This will allow an opportunity for all the issues to be discussed fully and fairly before a higher court."

Parents, social workers and doctors were in discussions for most of yesterday to try to resolve the conflict. The case will today go to the Leeds high court family division, which has the power to take any decisions about a child's future.

Allan Levy, a QC who specialises in child law, said: "I would have thought that with this kind of difficult, controversial medical decision, which might be a life-or-death one, any reasonable local authority would invoke the jurisdiction of the high court."

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust said last night it was awaiting the outcome of legal action. "In the meantime, the specialist team will continue to take such measures that are necessary to act in the best interests of the baby in providing optimal care and treatment."

The trust said doctors treating the baby had had a case conference yesterday to consider how to keep her airway open and make sure she was getting adequate nutrition.

To reduce the risks that she might have a respiratory arrest and die, and to prepare her for reconstructive surgery, they unanimously agreed that she should have an exploratory operation to check her airway and then any treatment necessary to secure her breathing.

Any surgery was likely to be undertaken at either Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, or the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill, Glasgow, the two designated national centres, the trust said.

The girl's mother wants the operations to be carried out by a leading surgeon in the US and has set up a fund to try to raise £500,000.