I would like to start giving my 3 year old honey for his seasonal allergies. I'm trying to figure out if raw honey is safe for kids or should I be trying regular local honey? Anyone have experience or knowledge on this?
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The worry with raw honey is that it can carry botulism spores, which can cause food poisoning and botulism in kids and adults. Our ped so no honey at all under 1 and recommended pasteurized honey after that. I'm not familiar with treating allergies with honey, would pasteurized product work?
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I've given D raw honey for a cough at bedtime. Since he was probably 18 months. The biggest issue with honey, as @azjax: said, is the possibility for botulism spores, which the gut bacteria in kids under age 1 can't kill. But from what I've read, over 1 is fine. Raw or pasteurized.
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We do raw honey all the time after one
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We do this after 1...
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I've also heard to help with allergies it needs to be raw and as local as possible so it carries the allergens from your area. I have no problem with raw honey for my kids
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@gotkimchi: we have a local beekeeper and he has raw unfiltered honey and this what I want to try but want to make sure it is not going to be harmful.
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The recommendation is no honey before 1. To help with allergies you need local honey since it will use the pollen local to you.
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We keep bees, and the general rule is that the honey has to be collected within 5 miles of where you live (the closer the better) in order for it to be helpful with seasonal allergies. The bees have to be collecting pollen from the plants that are causing your allergies, and bees tend to stay as close to their hives as they can.
I've heard no honey at all before one, as others on here have noted. Maybe ask your pediatrician if she has info on whether raw honey is safe for kids. I haven't heard that it isn't, but I'm not an expert on that.
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We only use raw honey - our doctor recommended it (for this reason) after LO turned 1.
And yes to what @sauerkraut: mentioned!! We are lucky to get our honey from a farm that's 10 miles away (within the valley where we live), and we rotate through the "crops" throughout the year.
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I think you will find mixed thoughts on the effectiveness of this method of using local raw honey to treat allergies. We tried it and didn't see the effectiveness. Our pediatrician generally didn't recommend it as a solution (he felt like it was mostly hype and not effective, he didn't think it was harmful). He was more on board with taking an OTC med (Claritin or Zyrtec).
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our pediatrician recommended local raw honey to help build their tolerance for local allergens.... my 1.5 year old has been having honey for the past few months!
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@MamaG: Yeah I've read people believe it's helpful and others don't but I thought I'd give it a whirl. We gave him Zyrtec last summer and it worked pretty good. I started it again about 2 weeks ago but I have been noticing some pretty significant temper tantrums that he hasn't had in months. I'm beginning to wonder if the tantrums are from the Zyrtec, maybe he is just feeling crummy because his eyes are all puffy and sneezing or is something else going on.
@sauerkraut: thanks for the info. Very informative. The bee keeper is more than 5 miles away from us but I'm not sure we have anyone within 5 miles that makes honey. We have a wellness visit scheduled for next month and I will ask our ped about it. Thanks.
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It's totally safe after age one
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Both raw and pasteurized honey can contain C. bot spores. Pasteurization does not kill the spores which are found in the environment. Neither kind of honey should be given to infants under 1.
As far as I can tell from my food science resources honey is pasteurized to maintain the liquid consistency as long as possible and kill any yeasts that may grow if the moisture level gets too high. Neither of which are food safety concerns.
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Same as above posters with the age recommendations, obviously not applicable to you because your kid is older so you know at least their body and immune system is stronger. I would imagine that raw honey only would provide any potential benefits you're seeking and I assume that would be due to no pasturuization killing of bacteria or other helpful things in the honey. For me, unpasteurized stuff freaks me out and I stay away from it for myself and would for my kids too.
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we do raw local honey and local bee pollen in yogurt/smoothies.
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