I just let me 6mo suck a piece of toast with honey on.

[RoseHippy1]

What an idiot. My nearly 2yo was having honey on toast and I gave my 6mo a small piece to suck as she was reaching out for it. I temporarily forgot (I blame sleep deprivation) about the 1 year rule. It’s not even UK / processed honey - it’s some posh organic honey which says on the label is from Bulgaria, a friend bought it me as a gift.

As soon as I realized what I’d done I took the toast off her. I struggle with anxiety anyway but I currently feel sick and terrified - she’s only 6 months!

I’ve been googling botulism symptoms and will of course be keeping an eye on her for the next few days. I don’t think I can cope with the worry - I get about 3 hrs sleep a night at the moment and am struggling to process this.

Please tell me You’ve accidentally given your babies honey and they didn’t die ?!

[BillHadersNewWife]

It's fine. Honestly. I had no idea about the honey rule and gave my DD1 a fair bit of it! This was 14 years ago but people seemed to just know this rule and I had no idea!

I also ate seafood and sushi and mayo whilst pregnant. A suck of honey won't give her botulism.

[RoseHippy1]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I suffer from postnatal ocd and anxiety around something bad happening to my babies / them coming to harm and am normally a super careful mum. I did know about the rule but it just slipped my mind whilst trying to keep them both quiet. I know the chances are small but my evil brain won’t stop! I’m hoping that her being 6 mo rather than 14 weeks or something reduces the risks . If it was some really processed stuff from Tesco I’d probably not be as worried. Thanks so much for replying !

[QueenWhatevs]

Infant botulism is a very rare disease in the UK and as such may not always be considered as a diagnosis leading to possible delays in treatment. There have only been a total of 17 cases since the first reported case in 1978 until the end of 2013 and no reported cases from 2014 until September 2017

Infant botulism is seriously rare. Botulism spores are also sometimes found in soil, and at least one case came from formula milk.

I fed my DS about a million Ellas Kitchen oat and raisin cookies before I read the ingredients and saw they're 7% honey. Ooops. He didn't get botulism. Try not to panic.

[RoseHippy1]

Thank you queenwhatevs xx

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

Mine all ate honey at an early age and they're all still with us, fit and healthy.

[picklemepopcorn]

It's extremely unlikely that she would get ill. Honestly on a scale of things to worry about, let it go. She'll soon find some really dangerous things to do, and you can worry about that instead!

[Mumofone1862]

When my son was 6 months old he had honey toast and Nutella on toast. Like you I was sleep deprived and forgot about the honey rule and very sleep deprived forgot Nutella had nuts in! It is so easily done, don't worry

[ArtichokeAardvark]

The risk of botulism is so low, I'm sure she'll be fine. Yes it's not a good risk to run, but she'll have had a miniscule amount off that toast.

[RoseHippy1]

Yes she’s also sitting up now and will sit outdoors on the grass while my toddler plays and does get soil on her hands so I guess I need the calm TF down and get this in perspective x

[notacooldad]

I didn't accidentally give the baby honey. I did it on purpose.
I had no ide t the time about this no g e both boys honey when they were under 1 and not s. One off either. They are perfectly normally people with no issues!

[ArtichokeAardvark]

Also - I'm sure a woman in my NCT group told me that traditionally in her culture babies are given honey as their first taste of food. They can't all have botulism!

[RoseHippy1]

Thank you everyone. The things we worry about

[RopeBrick]

Don't worry, honey itself is not a problem. Only honey with botulism is - and the honey clearly doesn't contain botulism or else you'd all be seriously ill.

Also, cases of honey with botulism are vanishingly rare.

[TottieandMarchpane]

She’ll be fine.

We know a lot now about very small, almost theoretical risks. Which helps us to minimise risk. Big it also makes the risks look larger than they actually are.

We’re only two generations on from all sorts of baby feeding madness. And those babies had probably been given brandy at some point too. Not to mention passive smoking ten a day.

Humans are much more resilient than bilked.

[TottieandMarchpane]

Blummin autocorrect.

But^

Billed^

[TiredandHangry]

I accidentally gave my DD honey the other week at 8mo. Properly panicked like you but she was absolutely fine. I must have spent hours googling infant botulism and partially reassured myself with the fact that of the very few cases of infant botulism in the UK, the majority were in babies less than 6mo.

[SoyDora]

I gave my 9 month old honey last week and have absolutely no excuse as he’s my third and know full well they shouldn’t have honey until 1! I just didn’t think, and my older DC were having a squirt in their porridge so I automatically gave him some too.
He’s fine

[itsgettingweird]

I didn't even know about it until this thread!

I also wasn't told to avoid pate, soft cheese etc.

Also drove to hospital to have my staples removed after CS.

Was pregnant and ds born in Spain. The rules were just different. Risks have always been about. I just think we are totally risk adverse nowadays whilst forgetting things like taking our babies in a car probably poses the most risk statistically!

Are you getting the right support for your postnatal OCD? CBT would probably be very helpful.

[TottieandMarchpane]

That reminds me, I wilfully ignored the “avoid peanuts” advice that was current during my first pregnancy, because it made no sense, there was no family history etc.

Sure enough, it was reversed a few years later.

That’s just me and I wouldn’t advise anyone to ignore advice, IYSWIM, but it’s very liberating to get into the habit of thinking about what’s behind the advice.

[prettyretro]

Well this is the first I've heard of no honey before 1 year old! Was never told by midwife or health visitor and can't remember reading it anywhere!

Both have had honey before they were 1 and now they are fit, healthy and honey loving 6 and 3 year olds!

[TottieandMarchpane]

You have to keep having babies to get the updates @prettyretro

[SoyDora]

prettyretro my older two are 5 and 4 and I was definitely aware of the ‘no honey’ rule... not sure how I knew though, think I must have just read it somewhere!

[mindutopia]

If the honey contained botulism, your 2 year old would get it too (just it’s more serious in under 1s). It’s incredibly rare. It’s worse to have that much sugar than the risk of botulism.

[prettyretro]

@SoyDora I honestly had no idea! I had all the books with my first and googled to an inch of my life with most things but genuinely never knew!

[Strawberrycreamsundae]

I just wonder how anyone ever had a healthy child years ago 🤔
I and most other pregnant women happily ate mayonnaise, seafood, nuts etc etc without any harm, and gave our babies honey without any problems.
Pregnancy and child rearing seems so complicated and rife with 'do nots', no wonder mums get so worried.