No honey til one year - we're close enough, right?

Mrs.Greg · July 2012

My girls will be one in just a week. I'd like to give them some of these oatmeal bars that I make. They are sweetened with 1 cup of honey. The batch makes 18 so there's hardly any honey in one of them. Its ok for them to have one, right?

katie4253 · July 2012

Are they baked? If so, they are fine. They so no honey because of botulism. Baking it would kill that.

dairygirl19 · July 2012

A week I would do it too.

Like Katie said, anything baked or cooked is fine..it's the raw stuff.

I think I put some raw honey on toast a few days before LO turned 1. She lived. My pedi said these ages are guidelines and while it's good to follow them a week or so one way or the other isn't going to matter. It's not like you gave a six month old honey as a first food.

I will say though, honey was the only thing I was super strict on.

PurpleDrewbie5 · July 2012

I am sure you'll be fine. One week is close enough. I really don't think baking makes any difference though. Our pedi said no honey raw, baked or otherwise until one year. But one week out is close enough

jessicaclare · July 2012

Baking doesn't actually take care of the botulism toxin. However, at the week before they turn one, I would give it to them.

beachgirl24 · July 2012

What did your pedi recommend? I would go with that.

katie4253 · July 2012

jessicaclare:
Baking doesn't actually take care of the botulism toxin. However, at the week before they turn one, I would give it to them.

Yes, it does. It doesn't kill the spore, but kills the toxin. It will regrow with the right conditions. But, you have to foster that growth.

jenb_99 · July 2012

https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/infantbotulismhoney.htm

Then again, here a link to CDC reports for the past several years. 80-something babies were reported to have contracted botulism in 2010, and none died.

I haven't knowingly fed DS honey yet, but I wouldn't freak if he ate a few bites of cookie or bread that contained it.

ChelsiAnn13 · July 2012

PurpleDrewbie5:
I am sure you'll be fine. One week is close enough. I really don't think baking makes any difference though. Our pedi said no honey raw, baked or otherwise until one year. But one week out is close enough

Ditto on the baking part. You need to cook the honey at a temp so high that even baked goods wouldn't survive in that heat to get rid of botulism spores.

I was wondering the same thing though, I want to make a cake that has honey in it for her 1st birthday.

[Deleted User] · August 2012

katie4253:
Yes, it does. It doesn't kill the spore, but kills the toxin. It will regrow with the right conditions. But, you have to foster that growth.

Re-posting from one of my BMB's resident microbiologists:

DoctorWorm222:

C. botulinum spores are heat resistant. In healthy adults, ingestion of spores isn't such a problem - they're killed in the intestine. But this isn't the case for infants. In the infant gut, they can proliferate and release a potent toxin that causes flaccid paralysis.
The take home message: If the honey is infected with C. botulinum, it doesn't matter if you cook it.
When some bacteria (like Clostridium botulinum) encounter environments that are unfavorable for growth (like honey, which is very dehydrating as you suggested), they undergo sporulation (formation of bacteria spores). For bacteria, forming spores is like going into "survival mode" - they are forms of the organism that are highly resistant to heat, salt, dryness, chemical treatments, UV light, etc. The spores can survive these "hostile" conditions for a long time - until they encounter conditions that are favorable for growth (like the infant intestine).
Honey, in and of itself, is not toxic to infants. Most honey isn't infected with C. botulinum - just as most chicken isn't infected with Salmonella. However, when infants ingest honey that's infected with C. botulinum spores, the spores are able to germinate. During this process, they release a very potent toxin that causes muscle paralysis. The digestive tracts of healthy adults are too acidic for germination, so the spores pass through harmlessly. A baby's stomach is less acidic than that of an adult, allowing for bacterial growth. But once they get a little older and transition to solids, the pH in the stomach drops. That's why they recommend waiting until age 2.

[Deleted User] · August 2012

And form my BMB's other resident microbiologist:

smit5009:
The toxins are heat labile at 185 deg F but I second that the spores themselves are heat resistant so ingestion of spores by infants is a risk.

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No honey til one year - we're close enough, right?

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