Maybe this will look like a stupid plea when I get into the office tomorrow
and can check my references but in my local paper today there appeared this
story:

"It took one aggressive doctor, an experimental drug and the U.S. Army to
give 12-week-old Abigail Mills the strength to fight a rare, painful and
sometimes fatal disease.
Shortly after Abigail was born, she began having problems - some symptoms of
which aren't unusual for newborns.
But the fact that she moved little and had a feeble cry alerted Dr. Richard
H. Schwartz to test and diagnose the baby with infant botulism.
"In her case, she had a very severe form of botulism," said Schwartz, who
works at Vienna Pediatric Associates and is affiliated with Fairfax Hospital.
 "The baby had gotten progressively weaker."
>>> here comes the good part everybody<<<
Infant botulism afflicts one or two babies in the Washington area each year
and 250 to 300 more across the country.  A paralytic disease, it affects only
infants between the ages of 2 weeks and 7 months who have somehow ingested
spores of bacteria found in soil samples, honey and from breast feeding.
[sic]
Once ingested, the bacteria germinate and create toxins in the body, building
up and binding themselves to teh nerves connecting to muscles.
Eventually, paralysis begins in teh face and descends toward the feet and can
result in sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS.  Treatment includes observation
in mild cases and ventilatory support in moderate to severe cases, when the
baby is unable to breath [sic] alone.
The experimental drug - botulism immune globulin, or BIG - with which
Schwartz treated Abigail enabled her to be removed from teh ventilator much
more quickly than without using the drug."

I guess you all can see where I need the help.  I NEVER HEARD of botulism
being spread via breastfeeding.  How could such a thing happen?  Is it
totally bogus?  Wouldn't the mother have to be quite ill?  I can recall
reading that one of many reasons not to spread honey on the mother's nipples
to entice an infant to nurse is because of the concern about botulism.....

This paper is in for a deluge of letters!  I WILL be checking my references
in the AM so I don't need help finding info in all the usual sources - but I
am also anxious to know of other experiences, references, etc. to use in my
response to this paper.

TIA for the help and the moral support.  Somehow when it's your hometown
paper printing crap it's so much more upsetting - not that this particular
paper has ever printed anything particularly good.  (They also can't write
very well, didja notice?)

Mary Renard