Can Babies Eat Honey?

Honey is a sweet, viscous food substance made by bees from the sugary secretions of plants (floral nectar) or from secretions of other insects (ex. honeydew), by regurgitation, enzymatic activity, and water evaporation. Bees store honey in wax structures called honeycombs. Honey is collected from wild bee colonies, or from hives of domesticated bees, a practice known as beekeeping or apiculture.

Honey gets its sweetness from fructose and glucose, and has about the same relative sweetness as table sugar. It has attractive chemical properties for baking and a distinctive flavor when used as a sweetener.

History of the sugar

Several cave paintings in Spain depict humans foraging for honey at least 8,000 years ago.

Most microorganisms do not grow in honey, so sealed honey does not spoil, even after thousands of years.

Archaeologists have discovered 5,500 years old ceramic jars in the tomb of a noblewoman near Tbilisi containing the world's oldest honey. The contents of the jars was still edible. Apparently honey never expires.

Sugar for babies

Unlike many of the other food restrictions during infancy, allergies and choking are not the issue in case of the honey.

It’s recommended to wait until your baby turns one year old before introducing honey because it may contain spores of bacteria that can cause botulism. Botulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, feeling tired, and trouble speaking.

Fortunately these bacteria are harmless to adults and children over 12 months, but it can make babies, whose digestive and immune systems are less developed, seriously and possibly fatally sick. For this reason, it's best to avoid all honey for the first year -- even jars that claim to have been pasteurized, since this process still can't reliably remove all the bacteria.

Honey goes well with bananas

Bread with Honey for Toddlers & Kids

Chop some bread slices into bite sized cubes and set them aside.

Heat 1 tbsp of butter or ghee in a pan and melt it. Then add raisins along with nuts. Fry for a minute. Then add the cubed bread pieces.

Toast the bread pieces slowly until golden. Then add honey and toss it well. Switch off the flame once done.