I didn't know about honey!!

When I had a meal in Spain once, I had to ask the waiter to cut the heads off the fish before I could eat them but when I eat prawns, I suck the brains out. Yuck.

Spanish friend was surprised I didn't know about honey. She herself hadn't heard about not giving water to bf babies. Also said that Spanish bibles are weaned on tiny amounts of certain fruits

Oh gosh! How could anyone eat snail's or frogs legs! So disgusting. ?

I am shocked that the human race has managed to survive so long

Well reptiles are closely related to birds aren't they? and don't birds harbour salmonella too? (just a guess) but giant snails have salmonella too and they're nothing like birds LOL

Oh yes, salmonella. I always thought iguanas looked quite cute. And terrapins. Why are they so germ ridden then?

I'm not disputing that notanan, I'm just saying that it's the first I've heard of it. I was certainly not advised of it at the time and as a first-time mum I was very alert to what I should or should not be doing.

Just because it doesn't kill every baby that eats it, doesn't make it safe for babies in general. For the ones it does affect, it's very serious.

Well, DD tried to wean herself on dog food
(DH was in charge!)

Just found this thread and am shocked! My DS is in his late 40's and this is the first time I've heard of not giving honey to babies under one year old. Obviously he's survived and so has his son who's been given 'home-made' honey at times. I'll read through all the posts after I've eaten. Salmon and broccoli - is that ok to be eaten by 'the elderly'?

Jalima, does that mean that cat poo is okay? just no honey or terapins?

My mum had brought up five healthy kids so I listened.
right, but in general with the old advice and habits.. child mortality was higher, we are very lucky to avail of ongoing research and I think there are many women of your mothers generation who lost babies that would have lived if they had the benefit of todays advances who would not buy the "never did us any harm" rhetoric

Yes, it's salmonella

honey and terrapins are not recommended as first foods for babies.

wot, is it salmonella? - lots of exotic pets have that

I would never do anything to endanger a child's life but if we were to exclude everything from a babies life that has the remotest possibility of doing it harm, the child would probably die of malnutrition

not really. When I weaned my kids honey was the one and only food that was advised to 100% avoid before 1. Nothing else was banned..

nuts were allowed but recommended close supervision on first try and not whole solid nuts, grapes okay if cut, oranges with caution and stop if runny bums happened, runny eggs okay if lion marked… several things like that came with "cautions" but nothing other than honey was recommended to be totally removd from the diet (unless other issues/family histories)

Hardly gonna starve on that advice.

What's that food poisoning bug called? I can't remember much these days! Anyway, that's what iguanas carry.

Grantasticpasta

It's just that the shells are rather hard to digest imo.

oops, where are the Animal Rights people?

I used to buy local honey for DD but I'm not sure it made much difference.

Apparently having local honey (to your area) can help with allergies e.g hay fever. We use manuka honey for cleaning yucky wounds as it has antibacterial qualities.

The current medical advice is not to give babies under 1 honey as they cannot deal with the spores that our developed immune systems can deal with… however if your grandchild has just turned one then giving honey isn't against the guidlines anyway

Ha ha. Went to work and came back to find we're on Terrapins!! How did that happen :-) has made me feel much better though!

Iguanas are supposed to carry nasty germs.

My friend was most particular about scrubbing her hands, sterilising surfaces, tools used in cleaning out the tank after handling their terrapins.

You can't take chances with small babies; immunity will build up slowly but is not there naturally.

'Getting on a bit'. Thanks for that info. Agave's rather expensive stuff so I'll revise my thinking.