Organic Honey with Eucalyptus
It’s recommended that you wait until your baby is at least 12 months old before introducing honey. At first this didn’t make much sense to me until I found out that it is because of the fear of Infant Botulism. Even products with honey in them aren’t considered to be suitable as the bacteria Clostridium botulinum consists of tiny spores that can withstand very high temperatures.
So, when can my baby have honey?
By the time your baby reaches their first birthday their stomachs are usually developed enough to prevent the potentially fatal illness.
BiP tried some organic honey just a few days ago (she just had her first birthday!) and she loved it! She tried some on a bit of toast and her eyes almost popped out of her head! She thought it was great. It’s one less food to worry about and now I can let her loose on some honey and lemon chicken!
Ameena @ MummyinProvence
Ameena @ MummyinProvence lives in the South of France with her April 2010 baby BiP who was exclusively breastfed until she was 6 months old. Their diet is gluten-free, usually lactose-free and focuses on fresh meat, vegetables and fruit all farmed locally.
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yummy. I love honey.
This one drives me crazy – Especially when he was even younger, I was always nervous that there would be honey in something he was eating. (And we did accidentally give him honey baked ham on Easter – OOPS.) Realistically I think the chances are really low of something happening but it’s so serious that the risk isn’t worth it.
I will be excited to finally give my baby honey!
I think the risk is so small that it’s almost not worth worrying about but I don’t think I’d forgive myself if something went wrong! Tough call … honey was a hit and now BiP is whatever’s about it!
Nice to be able to give her a spoonful of honey the next time she get’s a cold!
Thanks for this post. I find myself telling people not to worry about introducing any foods… except honey. It’ll be nice to have a link to point them to.
And I’ve accidentally given Anneliese honey in things before. Oops. It was a tiny amount and she had like… less than a real bite… but like you said, if something had gone wrong it would’ve been awful.
3 more months! Well really 2.5 … how is she almost a year old???
I have a question about honey being in stuff – if it is cooked wouldn’t that kill the bacteria? What about a bread that has honey in the ingredients? Or is it still a risk?
I was told that even regular honey you can buy which is pasturised is still a risk. The temperature that is required to kill off all botulism spores cannot be reached in cooking or pasturisation so it’s best avoided until their first birthday – so, yes, that covers honey as an ingredient too. Hope that helps.