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I found an amazing article about this recently. Anyone else find it funny how there's a warning for HONEY (a natural food) but no warning against feeding a 10 mo old McD's chicken nuggets? ", wonders Darlene.
link to article and other wonderful honey information: http://dancingbeegardens.c
" "Do not feed honey to infants under one year of age" or some similar warning is common on honey labels. This is because honey may contain spores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Botulism spores are similar to seeds in that they are in a favorable environment they will germinate and grow into their vegetative phase. Infant botulism is caused when enough C. botulinum enter their vegetative stage and start growing rapidly in the infants immature digestive tract producing a toxin that impacts the child's neurological functions. Newborn babies lack the intestinal micro flora that prevent healthy children and adults from getting sick after ingesting C. botulinum. About half of reported cases of infant botulism have occurred in babies less than two months old. While it is believed that by six months of age most infants will have developed their intestinal fora to the point where they become resistant to C. botulinum (especially if they are breast fed), an additional six months has been added to the warning by the national Center for Disease Control (CDC) as a safety factor.
Symptoms of infant botulism include muscle weakness or loss of control such as droopy eye lids, weak cry, feeble sucking, drooling, lethargy, irritability, constipation, and progressive 'floppiness', all of which may follow an initial fever. An infant exhibiting these symptoms should receive prompt medical attention. Recovery is almost certain as long as the condition is diagnosed and treated early and the baby has not gotten brain damage. Infant botulism should not be confused with food borne botulism resulting from the consumption of preformed botulism toxin that can sicken older children and adults.
Infant botulism often occurs in babies that are not fed honey. This is because Clostridium botulinum spores are ubiquitous in our environment and found in soil, water, and on dust floating in the air. It is not known how many spores must be ingested before infant botulism will occur, or why only some babies seem to become sick. However, it does seem that chances of contracting the illness depends a lot on the immediate environment of the infant and the overall health and susceptibility of the baby. Infants may contract botulism from the surfaces in the environment, breathing dust in the air, or from water or food, as most foods will contain C. botulinum spores unless they have been processed in a way that has cleaned off or destroyed the spores and bacteria. The states of Pennsylvania, Utah, Arizona, and California tend to have higher instances of infant botulism than other states. It is believed that these states may have soils that have higher than average levels of C. botulinum spores.
C. botulinum in its vegetative stage can not survive in honey due to honey's antibacterial and antimicrobial properties that are well documented. In fact, when honey is ripe with a moisture content below about 18 percent, nothing harmful to humans can grow in it. Raw honey that is ripe is the only natural unprocessed food, that for all intensive purposes will never spoil when stored properly in an air tight moisture proof container. Honey does not need to be refrigerated.
There are several ways that honey controls the growth of bacteria and mold. The higher sugar content and the pH of honey inhibits the growth of molds and other pathogens in much the same way that sugar is used to preserve jams and jellies. Raw honey that has been unheated and unfiltered also contains the enzyme glucose oxidase which converts into hydrogen peroxide and gluconic acid as it breaks down on the skin. Thus, raw honey applied to a wound will be constantly releasing hydrogen peroxide that will help sterilize the wound area. In addition, honey is hygroscopic. This means that it draws moisture to itself. As a result, when honey comes into contact with bacteria, it will suck the moisture out of the bacteria killing off the microscopic critters. In fact, if you have botulism growing in a petri dish and add raw honey, the honey will kill the botulism. Given that honey itself will kill off botulism in its vegetative stage and that C. botulinum spores are prevalent throughout our environment and thus present in many foods besides honey, why do we focus specifically on feeding honey to infants under the age of one?
To date I have not been able to find any documented evidence of a single case of infant botulism that can be proven to be caused by honey. This may be because it would be considered immoral to conduct a study where babies were purposely fed honey contaminated with botulism spores in an effort to clearly prove cause and effect. However, this begs the question, why is honey the only food that is singled out for a warning label stating that it should not be fed to infants less than a year old?
When researchers investigate instances of infant botulism, they find that in most cases the child has not consumed honey. However, there have been cases of infant botulism where the baby had been fed honey at some point prior to getting sick. When this information is combined with the fact that about five percent of the roughly 2,100 honey samples tested have been found to contain C. botulinum spores, and in at least one case an infant that contracted botulism had eaten honey that tested positive, this identifies honey as a risk factor and establishes a correlation between honey and infant botulism. This is the reason why the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Health Canada, along with other public health associations and the National Honey Board all agree that there is enough of a scientific link between honey and infant botulism to warrant the precautionary measure of a warning statement. However, any scientist worth his or her salt will tell you: one of the most basic principles of science is that correlation does not prove causation. This basic truth seems to be what the CDC, AAP, Health Canada, and the National Honey Board want us all to forget."
link to article and other wonderful honey information: http://dancingbeegardens.c
" "Do not feed honey to infants under one year of age" or some similar warning is common on honey labels. This is because honey may contain spores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Botulism spores are similar to seeds in that they are in a favorable environment they will germinate and grow into their vegetative phase. Infant botulism is caused when enough C. botulinum enter their vegetative stage and start growing rapidly in the infants immature digestive tract producing a toxin that impacts the child's neurological functions. Newborn babies lack the intestinal micro flora that prevent healthy children and adults from getting sick after ingesting C. botulinum. About half of reported cases of infant botulism have occurred in babies less than two months old. While it is believed that by six months of age most infants will have developed their intestinal fora to the point where they become resistant to C. botulinum (especially if they are breast fed), an additional six months has been added to the warning by the national Center for Disease Control (CDC) as a safety factor.
Symptoms of infant botulism include muscle weakness or loss of control such as droopy eye lids, weak cry, feeble sucking, drooling, lethargy, irritability, constipation, and progressive 'floppiness', all of which may follow an initial fever. An infant exhibiting these symptoms should receive prompt medical attention. Recovery is almost certain as long as the condition is diagnosed and treated early and the baby has not gotten brain damage. Infant botulism should not be confused with food borne botulism resulting from the consumption of preformed botulism toxin that can sicken older children and adults.
Infant botulism often occurs in babies that are not fed honey. This is because Clostridium botulinum spores are ubiquitous in our environment and found in soil, water, and on dust floating in the air. It is not known how many spores must be ingested before infant botulism will occur, or why only some babies seem to become sick. However, it does seem that chances of contracting the illness depends a lot on the immediate environment of the infant and the overall health and susceptibility of the baby. Infants may contract botulism from the surfaces in the environment, breathing dust in the air, or from water or food, as most foods will contain C. botulinum spores unless they have been processed in a way that has cleaned off or destroyed the spores and bacteria. The states of Pennsylvania, Utah, Arizona, and California tend to have higher instances of infant botulism than other states. It is believed that these states may have soils that have higher than average levels of C. botulinum spores.
C. botulinum in its vegetative stage can not survive in honey due to honey's antibacterial and antimicrobial properties that are well documented. In fact, when honey is ripe with a moisture content below about 18 percent, nothing harmful to humans can grow in it. Raw honey that is ripe is the only natural unprocessed food, that for all intensive purposes will never spoil when stored properly in an air tight moisture proof container. Honey does not need to be refrigerated.
There are several ways that honey controls the growth of bacteria and mold. The higher sugar content and the pH of honey inhibits the growth of molds and other pathogens in much the same way that sugar is used to preserve jams and jellies. Raw honey that has been unheated and unfiltered also contains the enzyme glucose oxidase which converts into hydrogen peroxide and gluconic acid as it breaks down on the skin. Thus, raw honey applied to a wound will be constantly releasing hydrogen peroxide that will help sterilize the wound area. In addition, honey is hygroscopic. This means that it draws moisture to itself. As a result, when honey comes into contact with bacteria, it will suck the moisture out of the bacteria killing off the microscopic critters. In fact, if you have botulism growing in a petri dish and add raw honey, the honey will kill the botulism. Given that honey itself will kill off botulism in its vegetative stage and that C. botulinum spores are prevalent throughout our environment and thus present in many foods besides honey, why do we focus specifically on feeding honey to infants under the age of one?
To date I have not been able to find any documented evidence of a single case of infant botulism that can be proven to be caused by honey. This may be because it would be considered immoral to conduct a study where babies were purposely fed honey contaminated with botulism spores in an effort to clearly prove cause and effect. However, this begs the question, why is honey the only food that is singled out for a warning label stating that it should not be fed to infants less than a year old?
When researchers investigate instances of infant botulism, they find that in most cases the child has not consumed honey. However, there have been cases of infant botulism where the baby had been fed honey at some point prior to getting sick. When this information is combined with the fact that about five percent of the roughly 2,100 honey samples tested have been found to contain C. botulinum spores, and in at least one case an infant that contracted botulism had eaten honey that tested positive, this identifies honey as a risk factor and establishes a correlation between honey and infant botulism. This is the reason why the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Health Canada, along with other public health associations and the National Honey Board all agree that there is enough of a scientific link between honey and infant botulism to warrant the precautionary measure of a warning statement. However, any scientist worth his or her salt will tell you: one of the most basic principles of science is that correlation does not prove causation. This basic truth seems to be what the CDC, AAP, Health Canada, and the National Honey Board want us all to forget."
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