honey

[moonlight mom]

when is it OK to give honey? I have seen both 1 year and other sites that say wait 2 years. I am only asking because I made a really good natural cough syrup with honey that I would like to give dd (12 months).
Thanks

[sapphire_chan]

I've given honey already and started around a year.

Frankly, there aren't plagues of botulism poisoning in countries where they give infants raw honey from birth, so I can't really get too worried about the risks of pasteurized honey, y'know?

[kdtmom2be]

I would give it personally, because the chances of infection are low.

Just wanted to clear up a misconception though. While pasteurization of honey is hot enough to kill any live bacteria and hot enough to destroy botulism toxin, it does not kill the C. botulinum spores. IF these spores are in the right conditions they can grow and produce more toxins in a food product in which they are present. That said, the reason I would be ok with feeding honey is that it is not just salt and acid that make uninhabitable conditions for more bacterium, it is a more general thing called Water Activity and the water activity is very low in honey due to the dugar content. Chances of a botulism spore sporulating and growing under those conditions is pretty low.

[mama2peyton]

hi

Edited by mama2peyton - 11/10/10 at 10:03am

[Kim919]

Honey by itself is probably one of the safest food substances in existance. The presence of botulism spores would not have originated in the hive, but at some point in the storage/transportation process.

If you have a great cough syrup recipe I would suggest picking up comb honey from a local beekeeper and making a batch from that especially for your kiddo-s. My personal opinion is that feeding even a very tiny infant comb honey from a trusted source is equal in safety to my breast milk after encoutering all of the environmental polutants/food preservatives/illnesses/etc. that I do, and probably ten times safer then walking into a wal-mart with them.

My DD had honey in her diet from about 6 months. My mom keeps a hive of bees at her farm and that honey gets used a lot, so when she started eating with the rest of us I didn't make any effort to avoid it. I still avoid honey from commercial sources, but will probably stop doing that pretty soon.

[azdesertrn]

Botulism spores can be found in the hives, it is not a disease of the bees but can be brought in with dust- the spores are found many places in nature. (so its also possible to pick up the spores without eating honey)

The recommended age I usually see is 12 months, because the digestive tract should be more acidic by then.

Cooking or pasteurizing does not kill the spores. In the US about 5-10% of honey samples contain botulism spores. So, its not something I personally would choose to offer before 12 months.

I think its a great food for anyone older and I let my DD start having it around 14 months.

[fruitlove]

My DD has been getting honey mixed with other foods since she was about 13 months.