Why is honey off limits for babies?
The first time I heard that honey was bad for babies, I was in a prenatal class at the university. It was such an off-the-cuff remark that we could have easily missed this important information, and I generally only found this food restriction coming up in conversation as an afterthought. Why was this not common knowledge? Or did I just miss it somehow? Granted, I hadn’t thought much about babies before I was pregnant, and jars of honey do even warn against feeding honey to babies. I just never noticed.
The general explanation we received (which is not entirely accurate) is that there are pathogenic spores found in honey that a baby’s immune system cannot yet handle, while adults can rid themselves of them just fine. As a scientist, I wanted to know more information. What types of spores? Should immunocompromised adults also avoid honey? Can the spores be filtered out of honey for consumption? So I started poking around in journal articles.
What spores are found in honey?
As it turns out, the primary spore to be concerned about is Clostridium botulinum, the organism that causes botulism. Nasty. The dormant spore form of C. botulinum, in most cases, is not exposed to conditions that will allow it to germinate, so the toxin is not produced. In adults, our gut flora generally outcompete the spores, keeping the harmful bacteria at bay; however, in an infant under a year old, the microbial composition in the gut is not developed enough to keep C. botulinum from germinating and producing a damaging neurotoxin. Honey should definitely also be excluded from the diets of vulnerable adults. Scary stuff.
There are additional types of bacteria and mold that can be found in honey, and another concern is how allergenic honey can be, thus, the recommendation for avoidance during the first year, much like other food allergens. The microbes found in honey can be irradiated from the substance with 99% effectiveness, and this can be useful in clinical settings when honey is administered to infants for nutritional reasons. This does not, however, avoid the potential allergic reactions that can occur due to other substances in honey, such as pollen, that can be very specific to the location where the honey was produced.
Prelacteal feedings of honey in Eastern cultures
As I was reading about spores and gut microbes, I saw another thread in the literature about prelacteal feeds in different cultures, primarily in central and eastern Asia. Instead of colostrum, the first food a newborn receives is a sweet substance, often honey, because it is thought that the first thing to touch a baby’s lips should be sweet. It is often commonly believed in these cultures that colostrum is too rich for babies, so the first attempt at breastfeeding is days after birth, often resulting in breastfeeding difficulties and a lower rate of breastfeeding overall in the population.
Does introducing honey as a prelacteal feed increase illness or fatalities in these newborns? Well, it appears that the data are not conclusive, and I would imagine that confounding factors related to other public health issues may make that difficult to determine. One article from Pakistan sought to refute the notion that giving babies honey was dangerous, citing that the likelihood of spores being present in honey was so low that it was not really a public health concern. Others advocate for community outreach in locations where this practice is common to spread awareness of the potential health risks of prelacteal feeds and increase breastfeeding in these populations overall. This interview provides a succinct overview of the issue. Interesting stuff!
Great post, thanks for researching this. It’s very hard to keep on top of everything babies can’t eat, as well as what they should be eating.
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Very interesting post. I remember been told in our anti-natal class that you shouldn’t feed babies honey but I don’t think they ever mentioned why! Thanks for sharing #stayclassymama
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Sorry that should have been #thatfridaylinky
Becky Clark recently posted…Have you seen my boobs? I seem to have lost them!
This was news to me! It goes along the lines of not using nurofen for chicken pocks! Why are these messages not conveyed.
Glad I could spread the word! Thanks for commenting!
Interesting, I had heard about it but never really delved much into the reasons why. Popping over from #ThatFridayLinky
This is fascinating and I had no clue really informative post Thanks for linking to the #THAT FRIDAY LINKY come back next week please
This is an interesting one, and did you know it’s not just “raw” honey. It is all foodstuffs containing honey? (Eg honey roast ham, honey cereal etc) it shouldn’t even be used in cooking as this doesn’t always kill off potentially harmful bacteria/spores. Thank you for sharing on #thatfridaylinky
Yeah, spores are pretty durable. Sort of the purpose of having a dormant phase; they can wait to germinate until conditions are more favorable. Thanks for commenting!
I only knew this until I had children of my own, but many people don’t know. Thanks for linking up to #ThatFridayLinky
Wow I did not know any of this at all! Great post 🙂 #ThatFridayLinky
WOW I had absolutely no idea about all this! Great to have some quality advice. Thank you for linking up to #ablogginggoodtime
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This is so interesting! I’ve often wondered about this – I think it’s a case of calculated risk, as with many of these things… #ablogginggoodtime
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I never knew you couldn’t give babies honey until I had my first. It was never explained to me why honey was so bad so thanks for sharing your knowledge in the post xx #ablogginggoodtime
This was an interesting read. I’m weaning at the moment and knew about the honey recommendation. I’d really like to know how likely it is that honey could cause problems. Is it a 1 in a million chance? Or 1 in 10? I couldn’t really find much info. #DreamTeam
Kelly | and Jacob makes three recently posted…Motherhood: It’s tough, even for royalty!
Based on what I read, it’s more towards 1 in a million than 1 in 10. Some studies talk about how overreactive it is, but of course, no one wants to risk it anyway.
Love this post. I ran a home daycare for years and I had so many parents in shock over the types of food to feed, and at what age. Honey was always the biggest surprise to them and I didn’t realize it could be as fatal as a peanut allergy until I was at a class in college. #DreamTeam
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I ended up doing a lot of reading on that because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I would have also been surprised!
Really interesting, I’d never given this much thought so thanks for sharing. #dreamteam
Very interesting post. I’m a big honey lover and only buy local honey for my allergies. It does seem to help.
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Thanks for this. I knew honey was a no-no but I didn’t actually understand why! #DreamTeam
This is really interesting. I knew that honey should be avoided for under 12 months, but I didn’t realise the depth of why. This is definitely food for thought. Thank you for sharing with the #DreamTeam x
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I didn’t realize certain adults have to be careful of honey as well. I knew about not giving honey to infants, but I extended that age to two..so my daughter was two before she ever tasted honey. Just to be safe haha. Recent news had an article about a five month old baby dying after being fed honey. It is such unfortunate news 🙁 #globalblogging
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Honey scared the sit out of me when the girls were babies. Of course I never actually looked into WHY honey was scary- just blindly followed Thanks for linking up to #globalblogging
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Very informative. I knew honey wasn’t ok for under 12 months but I didnt really understand why. Thank you for linking to #GlobalBlogging
This is so interesting. I only knew they weren’t supposed to have it until 12 months but never really investigated why. Thank you for sharing with #StayClassyMama