So, an 8 month old and honey, reassurance please!

[ChirpyGirl]

it was daddy daughter day yesterday, and Dh was making pancakes with honey for DD1, and made another for DD2, and DD1 loves honey so there may well have been a lot of it.

I am not one to get precious about food but honey is one of the few things I am strict about, DD1 didn't have it until she was 2!
Can you reassure me that she'll be okay!

[NoBiggy]

There's only a problem if the honey has this botulism thing in it. Chances are it didn't and there's no problem.

No more until you're sure she can deal with it - explain to daddy! It's rare, but very, very nasty if infected I understand.

[ChirpyGirl]

Thanks, I had told him when DD1 was small not to give her honey but I forgot the 'man' setting that automatically deletes useful information after a set time (that's why they forget where they have put things...)
She is fine today, I assume it would come on quite quickly if it did have botulism in?

[NoBiggy]

Tried to find out for you, seems that symptoms come on in 12-36 hours.

You may find this interesting:

The symptoms of infant botulism usually begin with constipation. This is then followed by:

inability to suck,
floppy head,
floppy muscles,
weak crying,
tiredness,
irritability,
poor reflexes, and
heavy eyelids and flat, unfocused eyes.

The same article says that there have been no cases in Englnd and Wales since 2001.

[ChirpyGirl]

thanks for that, she is most definately not constipated so shall stop panicking!

[mumkin]

just to say my dh did just the same thing gave porridge with honey, then went on and on about how much ds ate, as he doesnt usually eat hardly anything, and ridiculed me when I told him about the botulism risk. I told him its not surprising he ate loads if it was covered in honey and to please not do it again, but luckily ds now eats loads of bread or porridge if covered in ripe plum. and I now know not to trust dh as of course he has never picked up a parenting book in his bloody life.........

[MissGreenie]

My daughter had botulism at 2 months old. I learned a lot about it during that time and after. Botulism is caused by a neurotoxin that lives in the dirt, just like tetanus. When the dirt is disturbed, up go the spores into the air. The two main culprits in the food study were corn syrup and honey. No one ever talks about corn syrup! We live in an agricultural area that is extremely dusty, and chances are it blew right in to the house. I think many SIDS cases are actually botulism. They never test for that. It takes two weeks to grow the culture to see if it’s really botulism. I took her to many doctors that said she was fine. As soon as I took her to the Children’s Hospital, they knew in seconds. Now I tell every mom that if something is wrong, skip the pediatrician and go straight to the emergency room. She would have died if I had listened to the doctors.