Honey - what are your thoughts?

[Flossam]

We are all told not to give honey under a year due to the theoried risk of botulism. But I recently read an article which states that this was only on the basis of one study, and was the one factor which was preventable IYSWIM. It also went on to say that honey has been used throughout the ages as a staple food for babies. I found it really interesting, while I'm still not sure I'd give honey to my DS just yet, it kind of puts into perspective all these 'can't haves'. I'll see if I can find the article...

honey I poisioned the kids

I put honey and banana in DTs porridge sometimes as opposed to sugar.

I read that too flossam. Most interesting and another example of our obsession with H&S issues eh?!

I wouldn't give honey to an under one year old myself (I'm a food microbiologist) because of the way honey is made (ie from a bees bum without any heating or processing) spores of botulinum could still be present and could lead to infant botulism.

From what I can remember it is still quite common to feed babies honey in developing countries and they do have incidences of infant botulism whilst not as severe as botulism food poisoning can still be devastating for a young baby.

So personally I wouldn't risk it, it's only up to a year and they can have lots of other foods.

This all came about because my SF gets his honey from a friend who produces his own. There was no warning on it so I asked him why not. Apparently they do not have to label the product in this way, where as commercial honey makers do have to.

Although it does seem a bit mad when they are crawling and sticking the contents of plant pots in their mouths!

Although it does seem a bit mad when they are crawling and sticking the contents of plant pots in their mouths!

Apparently there have been no cases of botulism in the uk where they have been 'implicated by British honey'

It's one of those scenarios though isn't it? Is it because there is no danger, or is it because everyone has avoided it because of the possibility of danger.

Adult botulism is a really really nasty disease though, I looked after a lady who was very very sick with it for a very long time.

Thats a really interesting article Flossam. Remember thinking at the time that it was wierd not to give under 1s but didnt bother to look into it further as for some reason I was quite busy at that time and there was a lot of other things to think about. Cant think why

I thought I knew about the botulism, then my mum questioned me on it like I was mad! Had to go and look at the A karmel book in a bookshop to prove I hadn't gone a bit nuts!