Q: Is it safe to eat honey while I am breastfeeding my 3-month-old?
A: The danger associated with honey and infants comes from the risk of the honey being contaminated with the botulism bacteria, which produces a deadly poison in the intestine of the infant. According to Dr. Thomas Hale, author of Medications and Mothers’ Milk, neither the bacteria nor the poison itself is secreted into breast milk. This would seem to indicate that honey a nursing mother eats should not pose a problem to her breastfeeding baby.
By Melissa Clark Vickers
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
