Consuming honey AROUND baby

knottiee1a56cf2220e8e26

**cross post**

So to start, I will be admit that I am completely neurotic over the weirdest things.

Now, I know babies under one cannot consume honey but what’s the concern about someone eating something with honey and then holding the baby? My family got a honey baked ham today to eat with our thanksgiving feast, and I have told everyone they had to wash their hands before touching the baby because I’m worried that they will get botulism spores from the honey on the baby,  and then he would put his hands on the spores and then put them in his mouth. Can someone talk me down or is this a valid concern?

00kim00

Holy cow, yeah, this shouldn't be a concern. While having people wash their hands before holding the baby is great, it's not because of botulism. In fact, having people wear masks around the baby and making sure they're vaccinated for covid, the flu, and whooping cough would serve you better. There are fewer than 100 cases of infant botulism a year in the US, and I'm not sure that those even caused death (https://www.emergency.cdc.gov/agent/botulism/clinicians/epidemiology.asp). It's extremely rare and very unlikely your child will get it. Granted, still don't feed baby honey before he's one. On the other hand, children on the US are dying from respiratory illnesses (covid, flu, whooping cough, RSV, etc.) on a daily basis in the US. And thousands die each year from SIDS (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db427.htm).

If you're going to be neurotic about something, I'd prioritize safe sleep. But if you're lax enough about the respiratory diseases that you're gathering with a group and eating together by same therefore maskless (not necessarily a bad thing- those are also rare to cause severe disease and death, and none of us want to raise our kids in a bubble), then botulism shouldn't take up such a big space in your head.