Isabella is a great daytime sleeper… Provided she’s in the ergobaby… And I do this sway – squat- sway, sway – squat- sway… The warmth and continuous motion, with its essential vertical and horizontal components, lulls her into a lovely sleep… Only to be broken immediately when you stop… The fear of having an overtired and overstimulated shrieking baby compared to a happy angel- baby, driving my motivation to continue, despite the previous night’s lack of sleep.

I’m the one at the coffee shop for mothers group, standing by the table… Sway- squat- sway, sway- squat- sway with my little bundle of joy snoozing away happily. Our orders are the same each week… Sticky chai tea with honey on the side… So basically tea that has been soaked in honey with extra honey on the side. Yum! That sweet, golden nectar gets poured onto a teaspoon from a little pot and straight into my mouth, missing the tea altogether, to provide me energy to get my legs through this next sleep cycle… What would I do without that extra kick?

The chemicals in honey depend on what flowers bees have been busy buzzing around. Unfortunately some of those flowers, like Australia and New Zealand’s Paterson’s Curse, have something called pyrrolizidine alkaloids in them which transfer to the honey.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids have been identified by the WHO as a serious human health threat. Even at a low level of exposure, they can cause the gene mutations linked to leukaemia, breast and liver cancer and chronic lung disease.

The tolerable safe intake level set by Australian regulation authorities is 142 times that of the level Europe thinks is safe! According to a new extensive study, all but 5 Australian honeys would have failed the European standards… Although apparently a lot of European honey didn’t meet their own standards either!

Until our regulation authorities get their act together, I think I’m forced to sadly reconsider my sticky treat. As the offending flowers luckily aren’t in my area, I’m hoping to source a small local honey provider. Until then, Bez, my husband, has given up honey for now too… He’s missing honey in his morning porridge like the desert misses the rain. As a dentist, my suggestion of his using brown sugar instead didn’t go down well… It doesn’t have the catchy apparent health benefits, like honey, to justify the potential tooth sugar exposure it seems. And of course, sugar is what causes our teeth to decay. Any recommendation of alternatives to keep him happy?