WAY before they decided there was a problem, I put honey on my kids' pacifiers almost daily.

They are still alive.

I'm not saying that you should feed your baby honey, just that I think the chance of anything happening because of it is fairly slim.

Linda

James :
I gave my babies honey. And vica versa. I take i
The chances are maybe 1 in 500,000 but I wouldn't take that chance.

I lost my wife to PML ( a 1 in 500,00 survey )
Now the treatment is going on Record. That don't help me much !!!

Get some Professional advice. Or you can Google the Mayo Clinic or University of Pa.

I would like to know the outcome. Send me an email.
LOU

They say not to feed honey to a child younger than 12 months.

Honey sometimes contains a spore of the bacterium Clostridium Botulinum. This can cause a rare form of food poisoning (botulism) in babies and, very occasionally, in adults. Babies under six months are most vulnerable. The symptoms of botulism appear around eight to 36 hours after consuming the honey or other contaminated food. Symptoms may include constipation, listlessness and lack of appetite. If you suspect your baby may be affected, seek medical help straight away. Although cases of botulism in babies are very rare, it is recommended that you don't give your baby honey until after his first birthday.

The earliest and most common symptom of infant botulism is constipation. Other symptoms include general weakness, a weak cry, a poor sucking reflex, irritability, lack of facial expression, and loss of head control. In some cases, the child may have trouble breathing due to paralysis of the diaphragm.

I gave all of my children honey without a problem but now that we know we shouldn't, why take a chance.

It is very unlikely that one day will cause a problem.

I think you should relax, and not panic, and just be very aware of any change for a few days.

Tactfully tell your parents to please not do it again because it has been determined to be unsafe.

As the mother of four (and all survived) I can assure you that your child will consume many things that will be a lot more dangerous than a little honey.

I recently tried to do some research on infants and honey on-line because I wanted to know if graham crackers with honey were an issue for my 11 month old granddaughter. We found she had eaten a couple of them.

I couldn't find anything about risk levels - it all focuses on DON'T DO IT - probably they are afraid that if they said it was low risk at some point too many people would feed their babies honey and one would have a problem.

I think the reason infants are susceptible and adults aren't is because their digestive tracts aren't acidic enough to keep the botulism spores from growing so I expect risk is dropping as the child gets closer to a year. There is probably considerable safety margin built into the "no honey before 12 month" rule. So the odds are probably pretty low that feeding a 9 month old honey once will cause a problem. There probably isn't a reason to freak out.

But what do we know? Can you call the pediatrician (or maybe even poison control - would they know?) to see if they can ease your concerns or if there is any action to take now to reduce the risk?

I hope your parents understand that it was a mistake and won't do it again and that this incident doesn't cause family issues. My husband provides day care for our granddaughter so we are pretty aware of the tensions that can develop between parents and grandparents about childcare differences.

James :
I just Googled the Mayo Clinic. There is all kinds of info
to look thru.
I typed in what you said " Infant Botulsim and Honey "

You daughter should be OK . I think there is sort of a Grace period.
I just glanced thru it fast. There are a lot of do's and don't do's for feeding.
Wish I had all this info, when I was raising the kids.
Lou

My parents and aunt always put honey on my pacifier when I was a baby and here I am! I do have bad teeth though. I don't think you need to worry too much, I would just keep an eye out to be sure she is not having any problems. If you are really worried you can call your pediatrition, I'm sure they are used to calls from concerned parents. I can't even count the number of times I called and had them tell me "oh, you don't need to worry about that".

Joanne

I'm also thinking that depending on if it was fresh honey versus, store bought ..there is a difference. Most store bought honey is pasturized or something along those lines.

Pasteurization isn't long enough or hot enough to ensure killing botulism spores - that is why non-acidic canned goods have to be processed in a pressure cooker.

Thanks for all the reassurances. I didn't realize that the 12 month honey rule was relatively new, i.e. newer than most of us. My mom's a honey freak, so now I'm sure I ate plently of it as well as a baby!

On the 'net I found the same thing as Cloud Swift, that everything focusees on "don't to it" rather than "how bad is it" or "what to do if it's eaten", and I found that a bit frustrating. We'll keep an eye out for warning signs, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Nothing was said to my mom - yet. DW didn't have the heart to, being as she thinks mom was still recovering from the guilt of letting my daughter fall headfirst off the sofa on Sunday in front of a decent sized audience. Or about the way my father thought the exersaucer should be in a different part of the room, so he yanked it up with no regard for the fact that my daughter was standing there holding onto it. BOOM! (I don't think he noticed it then, either.) Three hours at my parents house and the poor girl came home with more bruises than she gets in a week.

Anyway, thanks again - we feel better!

Fenworth,

Why do all the bad things happen with other people. My sis and her DH were watching the girls this weekend and they went shopping. When I take all the kids to the grocery store, the girls will hold onto the sides and ride and Hayden would be in the baby carrier in the basket. I usually have a full cart load and it is heavy. Well they went shopping and the shopping cart tipped over on Peyton, she is 2 and a half but only weighs 25 pounds, just a little thing. My sis and her husband were blaming each other, Rhiannon was freaked out, the only one just crying was Peyton. They ended up taking her to the ER and by the time they got to see the Dr, Peyton was running around the room and her leg didn't hurt anymore. If it happened here I would have just let her rest at home and be on the phone with our Dr. (you know it is a small area when I have our Dr.'s home number on my cell speed dial).

I think part of it is as parents we are up on all the new things and always aware of what they are doing and where they are. Others that haven't had little ones around for a while aren't used to it. Not that we haven't had our fair share of tumbles at our house.

Stacie

You know I would run it by your pediatrician's office. The symptoms listed on the internet may not be the only ones or the important ones to look for. I know honey is a big no no for babies... I think it even says so on the honey bottle. And I know thousands of people have eaten it as a baby and are find, but if there's a warning on the honey bottle itself, you should follow up with a doctor.

Its always better to be safe than sorry when dealing with a baby's health. It's nice to get 'advice' or info from people on the internet, but your kid's doctor is the one that gets paid to know the facts and give the real medical advice.

Ok, I took some of your advice and call the dr's office. Just got a call back, not from the dr. himself but from one of the nurse practitioners. She seemed very nonchalant about it, just said don't do it again. I'm taking that to imply there's really not much risk, and will keep an eye out for any symptoms mentioned above.

James, I know it's easy for others to say, but I wouldn't worry too much either. My extension service say that there are about 110 cases of reported botulism per year and 75% of those or so are infants.

They say incubation can be anywhere from 6 hours to 10 days, and that corn syrup has also bee implicated in infant botulism, something I didn't know. Both the grandkids got Karo syrup in their bottles periodically, for constipation, at the doctor's suggestion!

At any rate, the chances are pretty low, but I'd make sure your Mom knew the risk so it didn't happen again. No sense taking avoidable chances.

Annie

Annie,

All my kids got the Karo syrup in the bottle. I knew the practice but my Dr. told me that it was okay. We also used Gentian Violet on the babies when they had thrush. Yougurt on their bottoms when they had yeast rashes, and cornstarch straight as a baby powder when they had rashes.

Funny thing is Dr. said to us the Karo syrup, my sis's pediatrician said never to do that. I think that there are so many different ideas. I know that my Doctor is a lot more laid back and is okay with home remedies.

Stacie

I hope the current mommies don't put honey, Karo or anything sweet on their babies' pacifiers! All that's doing is furthering a child's preferences for sweets to say nothing of teeth erosion. A baby will come to associate the soothing calm of the pacifier with sugar-based products as one in the same, which can last a life-time habit!

arline

Uh-oh - I saw on the Mayo Clinic site that maple syrup can have the same issue. I have substituted maple syrup for honey in a bread recipe so that it would be okay for my granddaughter. I guess that didn't make much difference - though at 11 months the risk should be quite low.

arline, given the sweetness of human milk, the sugar preference and association with comfort is pretty deeply ingrained so I doubt that a sweet something on a pacifier makes much difference one way or another. But my kids never used pacifiers and while my son and DIL tried a pacifier a couple of times with my GD, she wasn't very interested so I've got no personal experience there.