Infant Botulism is a type of food poisoning caused by a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum. According to Health Canada, since the first reported case in 1979, there have been 42 reported cases of infant botulism in Canada. Three of these cases have been linked to the consumption of honey. In 2014, According to the CDC, there were 128 cases of infant botulism were reported in the United States.
This bacteria forms spores which when swallowed by a baby will start to produce a poisonous toxin in the baby’s intestines. This toxin, known as botulin causes the various muscles in a baby to be paralyzed. The symptoms then develop because of this paralysis including, poor sucking, weak cry, irritability, lack of facial expression(i.e. cannot smile because the facial muscles are paralyzed. The most dangerous part of this infection is that if the diaphragm, our main breathing muscle, becomes paralyzed, than the baby will have trouble breathing. Note that a person with botulism cannot spread it to other people(ie not contagious).
Symptoms of infantile botulism inculde:
- Baby is too weak to cry or suck as usual
- Baby does not have any bowel movements and has weak muscles
- The baby’s neck is quite week and so the head is wobbly
- The arms and legs are weak
- Baby is unable to swallow
If your baby develops any of these symptoms, call your doctor.
Treatment
The treatment is to hospitalize the affected babies and to help them breathe and eat properly. This “supportive treatment” may be required for a few days or up to even a few weeks until all of the toxins have left the body. Most babies do recover completely and this is without any antibiotics or specific antidote or antitoxin treatment.
Why is honey a problem for young babies?
Although many people seem to know that there is some problem with giving honey to young babies they do not know exactly what the problem is. Honey itself is a natural product that is generally thought to be very healthy for people. However, there have been some cases of a very serious disease that had been traced to honey. Why is honey a source of botulism? It is not very well understood because we know that most homey produced in North America is not contaminated with botulism bacteria. Experts think that the honey gets contaminated by the spores from the dirt. The bees pick up these spores
from the soil and then bring it to the hive, contaminating the honey that they produce.
How can infantile botulism be prevented? DO NOT GIVE HONEY TO YOUNG BABIES
Although infant botulism is very rare, it is better to be safe and not take chances. For this reason, parents and caretakers should not give honey to babies less than one year of age. Also, honey should never be added to baby food or placed on a baby’s pacifier. THIS APPLIES EVEN IF THE HONEY HAS BEEN PASTEURIZED because pasteurization does not kill the Botulism
spores.
NOTE: Light or dark corn syrup is often used to help babies with constipation. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that due to the potential theoretical risk of botulinum contamination babies should also not be given corn syrup that has not been pasteurized(sterilized) or declared “botulism spore free”.
RELATED TOPIC: Honey should not be given to babies