End Fatigue

Honey as a Cough Remedy?

Honey is an excellent remedy to give your child if they are unable to sleep because of coughing fits. It outperforms cough remedies, and it's certainly safer.

Even a single dose given 30 minutes before bedtime can reduce the cough, researchers have found.

They tested several approaches on a group of 105 children who had suffered from a persistent cough caused by an upper respiratory tract infection. On the first evening they did nothing, on the second they gave the children one dose of buckwheat honey and, on the third, an over-the-counter cough remedy that contained honey.

Honey on its own outperformed the other two approaches, and in most cases gave the child—and the parents—a good night's sleep.

(Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 2007; 161: 1140-6).