Botulism in infancy

The authors describe a case of botulism in a 3-month-old infant infected with Clostridium botulinum type A. Symptomatology developed within four days, persisted for two weeks, then regressed. Symptoms were paresis of face muscles, hyporeactive pupils, loss of succion and deglutition, axial hypotonia, weakness of peripheral muscles, lability of the autonomic nervous system with acute episodes of bradycardia and constipation. Anomalies of the electroen-cephalogram and of the auditory evoked responses suggest that the toxin penetrated the central nervous system. Treatment was symptomatic, without need for assisted ventilation. It was not possible to detect the source of infection.