Reader story — Melissa, Minnesota, United States. Health focus: her daughter's H. pylori.
H. pylori, the gut infection none of us know we have
Some of us live with constant stomach pain, and it isn't always because we've enjoyed a few too many chips or overdone it on the fizzy drinks. Sometimes it's due to a common condition called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) — a type of bacteria that grows in the digestive tract and tends to attack the stomach lining.
H. pylori is usually contracted during early childhood through food that was not cleaned or cooked safely, or through drinking water contaminated with the bacteria. Research from the National Library of Medicine reports that over half of the world's population lives with the infection. For the most part, these people carry the bacteria in their stomach with no negative consequences — in fact, they don't even know they have it.
But for some, it can cause a host of problems, from stomach inflammation to ulcers to stomach cancer. It's worth understanding, before we go further into Melissa's story, what Manuka honey actually is at a chemical level, and what has and hasn't been studied. Laboratory chemistry has identified methylglyoxal (MGO) as the main antibacterial constituent of Manuka honey, present at far higher concentrations than in other honeys — a well-established chemical and analytical finding. However, it's important to be clear that this is a chemistry finding, not a study of any specific infection such as H. pylori.
"I knew something wasn't right. I shouldn't be able to tell what my daughter has eaten by what's coming out the other end." — Melissa
It was as though the food hadn't been digested at all. I shouldn't be able to tell what my 6-month-old daughter had been eating just by looking at her stool. As the months went on, I gently weaned her from breast milk and introduced more solid foods, which you'd assume would help her gain weight — but her growth slowed. In fact it slowed to the point where she started falling off the growth chart, which worried me. We booked an appointment with her paediatrician to find out what was happening, but were told everything was normal. Sadly, this misguided reassurance continued for a year. When my daughter turned 2, we moved her to a new daycare, and with that came a diet of sugar-laden foods — a diet that should have seen her put on weight, but she continued to plummet off the growth chart. None of it made sense. And then suddenly, one day, out of nowhere, she developed a stutter.
Connecting the dots to find a diagnosis
"Certain foods were causing an overgrowth of a certain bacteria, and that was causing her to stutter like crazy." — Melissa
As a neuroscientist, I understood there's a connection between the gut and the brain, so I started looking into what it could be. It was something she was eating, so we began tracking her food intake to try to figure it out. We narrowed it down to certain foods like apples and bananas. When she ate them, she would stutter terribly. So we decided to remove the foods and then slowly reintroduce them, but the stutter would return. At one point it was so bad that she would just cry. We decided therapy would be good for her — and for us too. It gave us the tools we needed to support her emotionally and to make sure she wasn't traumatised by it.
"It all started to make sense when she tested positive for H. pylori." — Melissa
We knew we needed help. So we went to a paediatric gastroenterologist who ran all sorts of tests, but once again we were reassured that everything was normal. At the time, I was working with a nutritionist to look after my own gut, as I also had digestive issues. So I ordered some tests through her for my daughter. One of them profiled every bug in her gut and tested for parasites and H. pylori. And that's when everything started to make sense — the test came back positive for H. pylori.
The road to recovery
Once we had the results, I sent them to the gastroenterologist, who suggested we start various medications, including stomach acid blockers, antibiotics, and a few others that targeted H. pylori infections. But my daughter was only 2 years old, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I felt putting her through that. So I did what any mother would do — I started looking into gentler options for H. pylori. I came across two research papers from the National Library of Medicine, The Antibacterial Activity of Honey on Helicobacter Pylori and Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity, which suggested that Manuka honey has been associated with antibacterial activity that some researchers have explored in relation to gut health. I also found research suggesting that lactoferrin, which is found in colostrum, may help reduce H. pylori levels — which made sense to me, because her digestive issues had begun when she was weaned from breast milk. I found a lactoferrin and colostrum product, and then set about finding a Manuka honey. That's when I discovered that not all Manuka honey is created equal.
"Finding the right honey was like finding the light at the end of the tunnel." — Melissa
I needed to know more about Manuka honey. I wanted to be sure that what I was giving my daughter was appropriate for her age and needs. So I did a lot of research and looked into whether Manuka honey was safe for children, how Manuka honey is made, how it is rated, and what MGO means. I was drawn to producers who really wanted to educate their customers and steer them towards a purchase that was right for their needs. I appreciated that.
"Things really started to move once we found a routine that worked for us." — Melissa
We paired 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of UMF™ 24+ | MGO 1122+ Manuka honey with colostrum twice daily for one month. After that month, she tested negative, her stools returned to normal, and her stutter significantly improved. I was so relieved — not only that my daughter was on the mend, but that I had followed my instincts. Today I continue to give my daughter Manuka honey intermittently. She's also had croup, which was just horrible, so I've used the Manuka honey to help soothe her cough, and found it comforting.
"It tastes fantastic — the best-tasting honey I've ever had. Very rich, with caramel and floral notes and a slightly bitter aftertaste. I love it." — Melissa
Everyone's getting honey for Christmas
I recommend Manuka honey to all my friends and family, especially for coughs and respiratory symptoms. My friend's 4-year-old son had a terrible cold and had been up all night coughing, so I suggested she try Manuka honey. She was so relieved when it soothed his coughing fits. She rang me straight away to tell me how grateful she was, and how much of a difference it had made to his sleep.
"I have a PhD and I'm a scientist, so it's in my nature to be curious, to observe, and to question and test everything — but I just want people to give Manuka honey a go. It's worked for my family." — Melissa
What does the research actually say about Manuka honey and H. pylori?
Melissa describes herself as a scientist first, and it's in that spirit that we think it's worth laying out, plainly, what the current evidence base does and doesn't cover — because the honest picture is more nuanced than a single family's success story, however meaningful that story is.
In laboratory (in-vitro) experiments, Manuka honey has inhibited the growth of several bacterial species, though sensitivity varies widely by organism, and gram-negative bacteria have sometimes shown reduced responsiveness compared to gram-positive species. These experiments were conducted on bacteria such as E. coli, S. aureus, and P. aeruginosa — not on H. pylori itself. This means the evidence supports general antibacterial plausibility only, and cannot be extended to confirm activity against H. pylori specifically, which is a gram-negative organism with its own distinct physiology and gastric environment.
It's also worth noting that antibacterial potency doesn't reliably scale with UMF grade. Laboratory testing across UMF 5+, 10+, and 15+ Manuka honeys found that a higher UMF rating did not consistently predict stronger antibacterial activity, and in some cases lower-graded honey performed better. This suggests UMF/MGO grade alone is an unreliable proxy for antimicrobial strength — and, again, this has not been tested against H. pylori or in any clinical population. Separately, in-vitro testing against oral bacteria found that Manuka honey needed to exceed a certain non-peroxide activity threshold (NPA >15) before showing meaningfully greater antibacterial effect than ordinary honey. This is limited to oral pathogens tested in a dish, not gut bacteria, and offers only indirect, low-confidence relevance to H. pylori, a gastric organism in a very different environment.
Perhaps most directly relevant: the only identified human clinical trial of oral Manuka honey intake and gut effects — conducted in healthy adults aged 42–64 (n=20), consuming UMF 20+ honey daily for 4 weeks — found it safe to consume, but reported no measurable benefit to gut bacterial levels, and explicitly noted no observed digestive-health benefit despite anecdotal claims. This trial did not include children, did not test individuals with H. pylori infection, and cannot be used to infer that oral Manuka honey treats or resolves H. pylori in a paediatric population. Because the study also measured glycation markers, readers managing diabetes or blood sugar should note this trial involved non-diabetic healthy adults only.
Put simply: no paper in the available evidence base directly studies Manuka honey's effect on H. pylori, on paediatric populations, or on individuals with confirmed gastrointestinal H. pylori infection. Existing antibacterial evidence is drawn from other bacterial species, in-vitro assays, and adult wound, oral, or gut studies — reviews of Manuka honey's composition describe antimicrobial, antioxidant, and wound-healing properties studied mainly in vitro or in adults for other conditions entirely. None of the available literature specifically evaluates Manuka honey against H. pylori infection or in children, so any extension of these findings to a child's H. pylori case, including Melissa's daughter's experience, remains anecdotal rather than evidence-based, and should be understood as such.
None of this means Melissa's experience isn't real or meaningful to her family — it clearly was. It simply means the research hasn't yet caught up to test the exact scenario she found herself navigating, and we think you deserve to know that clearly before making decisions for your own family.
Could Manuka honey help your H. pylori?
Melissa's daughter experienced digestive issues, H. pylori, and a stutter, and this had a significant effect on her day-to-day life. Melissa found that pairing Manuka honey with colostrum coincided with her daughter's H. pylori test turning negative, and we're so thankful to Melissa for sharing her story. As outlined above, this is one family's personal experience rather than clinical proof that Manuka honey resolves H. pylori — but if you're curious to learn more about the research landscape and want to explore Manuka honey as part of a broader, medically supervised approach to gut health, our educational articles are here to help you make an informed choice, alongside your healthcare provider.
We do not recommend Manuka honey as a replacement for seeking professional medical help. If you're feeling unwell, please seek medical advice and always consult medical professionals in an emergency.