When a woman has a baby, she is very careful about what she feeds it. Our topic today is when and if you can give honey to a baby. In general, honey is very beneficial, but giving honey to a baby can also be dangerous.
You know that honey can also act as an allergen, so you have to be very careful with it, not only for babies, but also for adults. giving honey to your baby earlier than it should have it is dangerous because it can cause many problems for the baby.
It is true that honey is useful, strengthens immunity, but honey should be given to a baby after one year of age. However, it is not just real and pure honey, but also those baby foods that contain it. If it consumes honey before it is a year old, it can lead to serious consequences.
Potential harms of giving honey to a baby under 1 year old
- If you give honey to a baby under the age of 1, it can cause botulism. It is a disease that affects the baby's digestive system. And the disease itself is caused by a specific bacterium. This bacteria can also be found in honey. For this reason, for a baby who is not a year old, it is very dangerous. Symptoms of this disease can be constipation, reluctance to suckle, very quiet crying. In general, botulism is food poisoning caused by honey;
- If you give honey to a baby under the age of one, it can damage the teeth that have not yet come out. When you start feeding your baby something other than breast milk, you're stressing it out. This is due to the fact that they are used to breast milk and when you start giving them foods that taste and look different, they get stressed. Most mothers, when the child refuses to eat baby purees, add sugar or honey to add extra flavor to the otherwise tasteless puree. This should not be done, because both sugar and honey harm the teeth that have not yet come out, because they destroy their enamel and lead to caries, which will appear at a later stage;
Giving honey to a baby who is already one year old
After the child is already 1 year old, its digestive system is more developed. Before the age of one year, the baby's digestive system is not able to produce the important oxygenates in the stomach, but after the age of one, it is possible. These acids help eliminate the botulinum-causing bacteria found in honey.
It is good that when you start giving honey to the baby, it should not be in large doses. As we have already said, honey is an allergen and therefore one should be careful with it. It should be started in small doses and watch carefully what will be the reaction of the fragile child's organism.
You should avoid giving your baby honey cookies, pastry products that have honey in them, etc., because even after they have gone through some processing, they still have honey toxins in them.
