Don't give the honey for your baby

Feeding honey to your baby could be harmful if he or she is younger than 12 months of age. Honey could be the cause of a rare type of food poisoning called infant botulism--a serious, even deadly, illness. Honey is the food most commonly found to contain the bacteria causing botulism. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that honey should not be added to the food, water, or formula that is fed to infants younger than 12 months of age. This recommendation includes foods processed with honey.

Honey is a known source of bacterial spores called Clostridium botulinum that produce a toxin which can cause infant botulism. These spores can also be found in soil, water, uncooked food, and even household dust. Infant botulism can occur from breathing in vacuum cleaner dust, but eating honey is the number one preventable cause. While honey is safe for infants over 12 months of age, infants under 12 months of age have not yet developed beneficial bacteria in their digestive tracts that can control botulism spores. Therefore, do not add honey to baby food, water, formula, or medicine. Do not dip a baby's pacifier in honey. Even the honey in some processed foods can cause this problem. After an infant eats the spores of this bacteria, the disease can occur within a few hours or up to a week after the exposure.
Symptoms of infant botulism include weakness in the neck, arms, or legs; inability to suck or cry normally; inability to feed or swallow; and persistent constipation. The first symptom is constipation, which can appear three to 30 days following ingestion of honey. The next symptoms observed are listlessness, decreased appetite, and a weakened cry over the next several days. Gagging and sucking reflexes diminish and the child moves less and less. Infant botulism frequently causes an infant to have an unusual breathing pattern, which often requires putting the infant on a ventilator to help with breathing.
Most infants recover from botulism with hospital care. However, if infant botulism is not treated immediately, it could result in death. Hospital care is necessary. Identifying the botulism toxin in the stool is needed for proper diagnosis. This toxin can cause nerve damage for weeks or even months. Neither antibiotics nor antitoxin have proven beneficial in treating infant botulism and may even make the illness worse. There is also a link between infant botulism and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), because breathing is affected in the most severe stages of the illness. It is believed to be the cause of death in 10% of SIDS cases. As children get older, the stomach acid, bacteria, and the intestinal tract mature to make them less susceptible to the toxins that botulism spores produce. The single most effective way to prevent infant botulism is to avoid giving honey to infants younger than 12 months of age.

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Killer bees

"Killer bees" is usually a colloquial reference to the africanized bee, and it also may refer to:
* Killer bees (business), firms or individuals employed by a target company to fend off a takeover bid

Killer Bees may refer to:
* Killer Bees!, a video game for the Magnavox Odyssey
* The Killer Bees (SNL), a recurring sketch on the American comedy program Saturday Night Live
* The Killer Bees (professional wrestling), a professional wrestling tag team
* Killer Bees (film), a 1974 television movie featuring Gloria Swanson
* Killer Bees! (film), a 2002 television movie featuring Fiona Loewi
* Killer Bees (Texas Senate), a group of Texas senators, including Glenn Kothmann, who in 1979 went into hiding to prevent a quorum
* The Killer Bees (band), an American funk/soul/rock band co-founded by Papa Mali
* Killer Bee codename for Cammy White, a Street Fighter character.
See also:
* The Killer B's, a collective nickname for Derek Bell, Craig Biggio, and Jeff Bagwell for the Houston Astros in the 1990s whose last names started with B
* The Killer B's, a collective nickname for several starters for the Miami Dolphins defense in the 1980s whose last names started with B
* Killa Bees, a collective nickname for affiliates of the Wu-Tang Clan
* Attack of the Killer B's, a compilation album by Anthrax

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