Possible connection between Hyland's teething tablets and infant botulism?

[Amila]

I don't want to create a scare because this is all completely unknown at this point, but an aquaintence of mine on facebook has a 5-month old baby battling infant botulism right now (hes ok though!). Apparantly this is pretty rare where I live (CHOP sees 5 cases a year). But there have been three babies taken in for this in the past few weeks, and it appears to possibly be linked to Hylands teething tablets. The toxicologist mentioned something about rurally grown chamomile, since the spores are in the soil...

Anyway, nothing conclusive, but maybe hold off on using them for a few weeks just to be on the safe side.

[leighi123]

A baby on my ds's birth board who lived near us got bella donna poisoning from hylands, using it according to directions. Apparantly the amount of bella donna in them varies a lot depending on what batch you get.

It was really scary!

I just used clove oil and an amber necklace for ds, no risks to that that I know of and it worked great.

[angelachristin]

I find both of these things to be really bizarre and implausible, just given how homeopathics are made...basically the amount of the substance that is left is so little as to be imperceptible, it's more of an idea than a substance, it's so diluted...a child could eat 3 bottles of homeopathic belladonna and not get poisoned...and regarding the botulism, i'm thinking there is another common link they are missing...

[BathrobeGoddess]

moved to health and healing...

[BathrobeGoddess]

Botulism needs a warm moist environment to survive so teething tablets sound like a very improbable way of getting it...you can get it from improperly kept leftovers or home canned goods that are low acid. Mayo used to be a huge cause of it in homemade school lunches before the ice pack

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by angelachristin

I find both of these things to be really bizarre and implausible, just given how homeopathics are made...basically the amount of the substance that is left is so little as to be imperceptible, it's more of an idea than a substance, it's so diluted...a child could eat 3 bottles of homeopathic belladonna and not get poisoned...and regarding the botulism, i'm thinking there is another common link they are missing...

This.

[noobmom]

I hope all the babies get well soon.

To me it seems more likely that the babies got it from their environments (it can be in dirt and we know babies stick their dirty hands in their mouths), but I don't discredit what you're saying. Thanks for the info and definitely keep us posted on what the toxicologists determine.

[savithny]

Same kind of people who would be using Hylands might also be using honey for coughs and irritation, and that's a known risk....

As for the belladona: of course its *supposed* to be diluted so many times there is, in essence, no atom of actual belladona -- but what if that process isn't well-supervised? I have no idea how they do it (or even how they prove the active compound was ever actually involved, since the point of the dilutions is that it drops to untestable levels in the final product), but I can conceive of manufacturing errors in which it might not go through all the dilutions...

[pumpkinhead]

Originally Posted by angelachristin

I find both of these things to be really bizarre and implausible, just given how homeopathics are made...basically the amount of the substance that is left is so little as to be imperceptible, it's more of an idea than a substance, it's so diluted...a child could eat 3 bottles of homeopathic belladonna and not get poisoned...and regarding the botulism, i'm thinking there is another common link they are missing...

This.

[MountainMamaGC]

I checked with Hylands about the bella donna thing when my DD was a little baby. Those bella donna poisoning stories are urban myths. When it doubt check the Hylands website. If a baby got poisoned recalls would be issued.

Not sure about the botulism, but if there is something up with that I am sure there will be a recall ASAP.

[pumpkinhead]

Originally Posted by BathrobeGoddess

Botulism needs a warm moist environment to survive so teething tablets sound like a very improbable way of getting it...you can get it from improperly kept leftovers or home canned goods that are low acid. Mayo used to be a huge cause of it in homemade school lunches before the ice pack

C. botulinum spores can survive almost anywhere. The spores themselves are not particularly harmful and are probably injested from time to time. Adult/older child stomach acid's ph will kill them if we eat them. However, if a baby gets botulinum spores in their stomach before a year, their stomach isn't generally acidic to kill them yet. In order for the spores to germinate and grow they need an air free (anaerobic), mostly neutral ph environment with a good source of sugar. This describes an infant's large intestine. This is how infants can get infant botulism from honey. It's not the bacteria itself that is the issue, but the toxin it makes when it grows. So, something like mayo would already have the bacteria growing and producing toxin in it. Getting spores into a baby from the environment is sort of different.

But in any case, due to the nature of homeopathic remedies, it doesn't make any sense that there would be soil bacteria in the teething tablets. As an aside, doesn't homeopathic chamomile and belladonna for calming go against the homeopathic law of similars?