Long, who researched infant botulism for years, also found a link between breastfeeding and botulism. Almost all of the cases she studied were among babies who had been breastfed, rather than formula-fed. Babies who are breastfed have a different gut microbiome composition that the bacteria may be better able to grow in.

Long cautioned that the correlation shouldn’t affect parents’ feeding decisions.

“You shouldn’t live in fear of infant botulism,” Long said. “It’s a very tricky, unusual, short-lived risk period.”

Quick diagnosis

Doctors assured the McMonagles, of Lafayette Hill, that there was nothing they could have done to prevent their daughter from getting sick, and that she’d begin to recover as soon as she got the medication.

Still, the parents were shaken after days in the NICU with their daughter hooked up to a mess of tubes and wires. Doctors took Colleen off the ventilator after a few days, but she was still too weak to breathe on her own, and they put her back on it so she could continue to regain her strength.

“I felt so defeated,” Julie McMonagle said. “You just don’t know. Everyone’s recovery story is different.”

After two weeks, the family went home.

Colleen is back to smiling, laughing and, now 5 months old, trying to keep up with her older siblings.

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