Re: the botulism discussion (which came up in the Bottling regulations thread)
Botulism spores are omnipresent.  You can not avoid them.  They are in dust, dirt, air, on your clothes, on all your food, everywhere except maybe a lab-grade clean room.  The botulism spores are already in the infant's stomach from his/her other foods (and hands, binkies, etc).  They are in your stomach right now, too.  The botulism spores are not a problem, though.  The botulism toxin is only expressed when the spores start to germinate - which they will do enthusiastically in any dilute sugar solution.  

In an adult stomach, that's still not a problem because while your stomach juices dilute the honey to the right range, the acid levels in your stomach are more than enough to take care of the bugs.  The digestive systems of infants, on the other hand, do not yet produce enough acid to protect them.  The botulism bacterium flourishes in the dilute sugary environment with little to no acid to slow them down.
Note that the botulism bacteria will flourish in ANY sugar solution.  Honey gets a bad rap as if it poses a special risk.  You should avoid giving infants ANY high-sugar foods until their systems are developed enough to handle it.
According to the CDC, there are about 95 cases of infant botulism a year.  In my opinion, honey gets the blame for two reasons, neither very good.  1) For years, honey was the only source of concentrated sugar available to most people so it was the only food you had to warn new parents about.  2) Honey is perceived as magically "healthy" leading some parents to feed their kids honey when they would never do the same with syrup.  

I have long felt that the honey warning label should be rewritten to say: Do not feed high-sugar foods (including honey) to infants under 1 year of age. Mike Rossander

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