PANIC - have realised dd2 has eaten a home-made cake with honey in. Now feel like crying.

[GoingQuietlyMad]

I forgot that I had used honey in the recipe, and gave a small piece of carrot cake to dd1. Now I am staring at her in horror - what have I done?????

It was NZ thyme honey, but I think it was cooked through at 180degrees. Would this have killed the botulism?

Feel like crying. Does anyone know how dangerous this is?

what's so bad about honey?

she is only 9 months, and apparently it can cause infant botulism [horror emoticon]

I wouldn't worry AT ALL, I didn't even know there was a problem with honey. Honestly, she'll be fine.

i'm sure she'll be fine don't panic

Are you sure about the botulism? I've never heard of it! And they can eat an awful lot of things by 9mos.

You need to calm down a little. She'll be fine. The risk of botulism through honey is minute, afaik, and even less so with cooking. PLease don't panic.

afaik it should be fine if it was cooked properly.

and not all honey contains botulism, some cultures regularly feed it to babies and few of them get ill.....just like not every baby who sleeps on their tummy dies of SIDS but it does increase the risk

keep a close eye on her but i wouldn't worry too much

It's very rare tbh and as the honey has been cooked it should be ok.

Message withdrawn

VERY rare, really, don't worry It does seem they worry more about this in the USA.

Thank you all for reassuring me. There's part of me thinking "Don't be so silly" and there's the overactive imagination thinking about the worst case scenario.

I think it was just looking her little crumb strewn innocent face and thinking "How could I be so stupid?"

You're right about the risk being tiny. I just found a Guardian article which says mortality rate from infant botulism is only 1.3%, so the odds against the worst case must be very remote. Much less than choking for example, I suppose.

and it says it mostly affects under 6 months you'll be fine

You're not stupid but it really is such a minute risk that you really don't need to worry about it imo.

Really there are LOTS of people who think that the danger of this is a myth

Milk and honey was traditionally the first foods a baby ate

Don't worry unless she ate if after a large portion of out-of-date sushi

LOL at the out of date sushi!

I have started to calm down. I just experienced that horrible sinking in the stomach feeling you get when you think one of the dc is in danger, but am starting to realise it will be fine.

IF botulism was present in the honey
IF it wasn't killed during cooking
IF dd's digestive system isn't fully mature enough
IF she then contracts it
EVEN then only a 1.3% chance of it being fatal.

That is pretty remote, so you're all right.
Now I feel silly.

Thank you so much!

My MIL gave ds some honey when he was a baby. She had absolutely no idea it was a forbidden food for babies. I too freaked momentarily (although not to her obviously) but, as you know, the risk is pretty minute really.

this is why i hate all the 'health warnings' over foods. there was one 4 years aho-ish, about how the seals used on baby food jars could cause cancers. but the risk was so so so tiny, and my sister was so upset by it.

the chance of infant botulism occuring is so so so small, my parents used to dip dummies in honey and we all survived lol.

what is botulism?

If it's cooked it will be fine. I live outside the uk and was never given any info on not feeding honey to my DD. Lots of the baby food product in the shops where I live contain honey and there is actually a jar of honey especially aimed at babies so don't panic.

My kids ate honey sndwiches from babyhood, so this is a daft thing. It wasn't until they are older I realised that honey was on the no-go list.