Minutus

As someone pointed out, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense (why would under one year be more susceptible to botulism???). I would suspect rather that there's a choking risk for younger infants, because the honey is sticky (like peanut butter, which they also warn about for infants). Rosemary

I've heard this warning before, not to give raw honey to babies under
one year, but didn't recall the exact reasoning. So, I just now turned
to a good ole Google search and found this paragraph in the middle of a
dissertation on many benefits of honey:

"The concern is with infant botulism.

Botulinum spores are found widely in soil, dust, and honey. Adults who
swallow botulinum spores are almost never affected. When infants swallow
the spores, however, the spores can germinate in their immature
gastrointestinal tracts and begin producing botulinum toxin. This has
occurred even when the honey was only used to sweeten a pacifier
(European Journal of Epidemiology, Nov 1993)."

The full article is at

http://www.drgreene.com/21_825.html

Nafisa
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Interesting! Thanks. Rosemary

The reason I read definitely had to do with a bacterial-type thing, and the
reason given was that an infant's immune system is not yet mature.
Shannon

on 12/9/04 5:38 PM, Rosemary C Hyde PhD at rosemarychyde@mindspring.com
wrote:

Thanks, Shannon, for your description of wounds for which honey works
particularly well. My black Lab gashed his belly on some barbed wire last
weekend, leaving a gaping wound. Hypercal lotion cleansed it, but calendula
ointment wasn't helping much. A bit of raw honey did the trick!

Peace,
Cinnabar