Personally I’ve always loved the flavour of honey, so I often opt for it when I fancy something sweet. But the recent case of infant botulism in a 15-week-old baby who'd been fed honey concerned me. Although honey wasn’t definitely the cause of the botulism, it showed that health warnings to parents about feeding honey to babies aged less than a year aren’t being followed.
Infant botulism occurs when babies under a year old ingest spores of Clostridium botulinum. Due to the immaturity of the baby’s gut flora, the spores are able to germinate and produce a toxin in the intestinal tract.
Bearing in mind how incredibly rare the illness is – only eight cases had been reported in the UK until the end of 2008 – some might say it’s barely worth worrying about, or that by highlighting the issue we’re being unnecessarily scaremongering.
But the illness can sometimes be fatal. So why bother taking the risk, especially when there are other important reasons not to give honey to a baby? For the first six months babies only need breast milk or infant formula, and as far as those precious milk teeth are concerned honey is no less damaging than sugar, despite it being thought of as ‘natural’. It’ll also encourage a sweet tooth in just the same way.
Honey may well be a nice treat for us grown-ups, but when it comes to babies there’s no doubt that it’s best to just steer clear.