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Honey and botulism - help please

  1. #1
    putput is offline Registered User
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    Unhappy Honey and botulism - help please

    I've just fed my 8month old daughter a slice of bread and realised it has honey as an ingredient. I can't believe I've been so stupid. My daughter is allergic to soy and eggs so I had checked the ingredients to make sure it was soy and egg free but didn't consider the risks of honey. What should I be looking out for to ensure she does not suffer from infant botulism. She is asleep right now and I am scared of something happening to her in her sleep.


  2. #2
    AndreaY is offline Registered User
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    I wouldn't worry about it, the baking would kill off any of the botulism, it is actual honey that you should be worried about as it has not been heated to kill off the germs.


  3. #3
    putput is offline Registered User
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    Hi,

    Thank you for your response. Is this definitely the case? I've been trying to research but not finding anything to put my mind at ease! Thank you so much if you can confirm there isn't an issue due to baking.


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    AndreaY is offline Registered User
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  5. #5
    putput is offline Registered User
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    Thank you so much, Andrea


  6. #6
    ladybug is offline Registered User
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    Actually baking isn't guaranteed to kill the botulism spores and most likely won't. If you bub hasn't shown any symptoms by now then you are ok but you should not continue to use products with honey in them until babies reach a year. The only way to kill the botulism spores it to thoroughly pasteurise which uses much higher temperature than baking. So unless the honey used in the bread was pasteurised before added to the bread dough, there is still a risk of botulism.

    See below.

    http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weekl...fant_honey.htm

    AndreaY didn't fully read the url she posted. According the WHO website URL she referred to, "Commercial heat pasteurization (vacuum packed pasteurized products, hot smoked products) may not be sufficient to kill all spores and therefore safety of these products must be based on preventing growth and toxin production."

    Last edited by ladybug; 12-17-2008 at 08:52 AM. Reason: misspelling

  7. #7
    putput is offline Registered User
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    Thanks ladybug.


    I understand it can take up to 36 hours for symptoms to show and on some sites it says up to 30 days! All I can do is pray that my foolishness hasn't caused my daughter any harm. Anyone know where I can buy bread that doesn't contain honey, soy or egg???? I can't get my daughter to eat anything but she did seem interested in bread.


  8. #8
    AndreaY is offline Registered User
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    Sorry, but don't think pasteurization heats to higher temperatures, it is only sterilisation that does that. If the bread is made with the honey as bread ingredient, it'd have been baked to 180C or higher (at least for all the breads I know). This is higher than pasterization. Also processed food as mentioned in the quoted article is not the same as baking. Obviously if the bread is just coated with honey afterwards, it's a different matter altogether.

    Anyway, if you are unsure or worried, you should not feed it to your baby, no harm in waiting a few more months.


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