Baby too young to eat solid food caught Salmonella from Honey Smacks, parents say 

A baby too young to eat solid food still got the strain of Salmonella that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks. 

After visiting relatives, Ashley and Mark Lyons’s otherwise healthy infant son did not seem to be feeling well, they told KSL. 

‘When he has one of those episodes where it’s really painful for him, he’s almost inconsolable,’ Ashley said.  

The couple took the two-month-old to a doctor near their home in Santaquin, Utah, where he tested positive for Salmonella. 

Further tests revealed that he had contracted the same form of the bacterial infection that has been linked to 100 sickened people that ate Honey Smacks.

At five months old, Andy Lyons is too young to eat solid food, but has somehow contracted the strain of Salmonella that the CDC has linked to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal

But Andy was not even old enough to eat solid foods. 

Now, three months later, the toe-headed baby’s appetite still isn’t what it was and he continues to have diarrhea, the family told the local news station. 

Andy is one of at least 100 people in 33 states to get sick from contaminated Honey Smacks. 

Kellogg's issued a voluntary recall of Honey Smacks after the CDC warned consumers 'do not eat this cereal' last week

Kellogg’s issued a voluntary recall of Honey Smacks after the CDC warned consumers ‘do not eat this cereal’ last week

Kellogg’s issued a voluntary recall of its popular cereal last week after the after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged consumers: ‘Do not eat this cereal’ in a July 12 tweet. 

The CDC first contacted Kellogg’s about its concerns in June and the company launched its own investigation in short order. 

But the cereal was pulled from the shelves too late to spare Andy. 

His parents told KSL that they do not keep Honey Smacks in their house. Besides, at under six months old, Andy is still on a liquid diet. 

Ashley and Mark hypothesize that – even though Andy didn’t eat them – he may have come into secondary contact with Honey Smacks when the family visited relatives who did have the cereal in their house. 

‘I don’t know if someone touched the cereal and then touched like a pacifier,’ his mother told KSL. 

The couple, their older son and the members of their relatives’ household have all remained Salmonella-free, but Andy’s symptoms persist. 

Salmonella infections are very common, sickening about 1.2 million people each year in the US. 

Ashley (left), Mark (right) and their older son (top center) are all symptom free. The Utah couple think their son got Salmonella after someone touched the cereal, then his pacificier

Ashley (left), Mark (right) and their older son (top center) are all symptom free. The Utah couple think their son got Salmonella after someone touched the cereal, then his pacificier

Historically, the bacteria has been most commonly associated with meat, poultry and eggs, but the CDC has also recently found it in grain products – like cereal and flour – as well as sprouts, nuts and fruits. 

About 94 percent of these infections happen when humans eat food that has come into contact with the feces of an animal that has salmonella. 

In some cases, it comes from direct contact with the an infected animal or, in rare cases, from human-to-human contact. 

Adjacent foods and surfaces or unwashed hands, too, can pick up and carry the bacteria, however. 

This may have been how Andy got his stubborn infection.  

Andy has struggled to eat for the past three months, since he came down with the food poisoning. He has dropped into the 0.33 percentile for weight for his age 

Andy has struggled to eat for the past three months, since he came down with the food poisoning. He has dropped into the 0.33 percentile for weight for his age 

‘He all of a sudden just tanked. He was eating less and less, his average for how much he’ll eat in a day has gone down each week,’ she told another local station, KRON4. 

‘After this he dropped down to the 0.33 percentile.’ 

Now, Andy’s parents are using extra calorie packets to supplement their son’s intake, in hopes that his growth won’t be stunted, KRON4 reported. 

For most people – and hopefully Andy, too – Salmonella clears up with antibiotics. But as he continues to battle the infection after three months, his parents are worried about rare complications that could cause immune system dysfunctions. 

The bacteria is none to predispose a very small percentage of those who catch it to an autoimmune disease that causes Reiter’s Syndrome, a rare form or arthritis. 

But it is far too soon to tell if Andy will be among that small fraction of sufferers. In the mean time, Ashley and Mark are doing their due diligence to prevent that.   

‘We actually have several different appointments set up this week to check on different parts of his tummy,’ Mark told KSL.  



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