BB>i have read a few books mentioning about not to give babies honey as there >is some irritating substance in it as referred to "honey botulism". do you >guys (and girls) know about this? where i was grown up (hungary) people >used to give babies honey regardless of age. i survived it. is there a true >reasoning behind all these or is it only the overcivilized worlds paranoia >(yet again helped by the "scientific" having no idea what they are talking >about:-)??? thanks: Hello Bela, You bet its bad, do a search on the internet and you will find several sites that say so and they would not lie, OJ.' You got it right, yes if honey or any substance like it is contaminated with botulism it can survive and be passed on to any person or infant. The way this started here in California was by an over zealous state health department doctor who was trying to link "infant death syndrome" or all crib deaths to honey. Honey was the target, it could have been any of a 100 other food products and other things that a infant puts in his mouth, including the nipple. Of course he attracted a following after going public, talk shows and all, and legal action was taken against "honey" and the defendants were all of us, packers, and producers. It was settled out of court, so to say, because of the high cost of defending such actions. The terms of the settlement were that the beekeepers payed to have pamphlets printed up which are given out by doctors specializing in infants. A worthy project and that was done. They wanted warning labels on all jars of honey, money, more money, and some more money. They had much scientific babble all of poor quality but enough to convince the courts to accept the case. It was clear by the evidence which in all cases the honey that was handled by the consumer in such a way that "dust" could enter it and contaminate it. It was also clear that honey was no more a suspect then almost any other food that contained sugar and was exposed to the air and contamination from the environment, such as any syrups, vegetables and you name it, open and put into a serving dish. In any case infants don't buy or eat much honey as a consumer group and we should not advice anyone to feed it to their new born. Why take a chance, and feeding clean honey to babies only increases the number of diapers you have to change anyway. ttul Andy- (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Santa on the Web <http://www.santamail.com>