Is a night-time cough keeping you and your child awake? Have different cough bottles not improved the nightly hack? A natural remedy is the answer to this perennial source of parental anxiety, US paediatricians have found.
According to research published this morning, a single dose of honey before bedtime provides greater relief from cough and sleep disturbance compared with an over-the-counter cough mixture.
Dr Ian Paul and colleagues from the Department of Paediatrics at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine looked at 105 children with upper respiratory tract infections to compare the effects of honey with dextromethorphan, a commonly used over-the-counter remedy for children's cough. Dextromethorphan is an active ingredient in products such as Benylin, Robitussin and Night Nurse.
The paediatricians randomly divided the children, who were aged two to 18, into three groups: one set of children received a single dose of honey; another group received dextromethorphan; while a third was given no treatment.
The remedies were administered 30 minutes before bedtime for one night to children who had been sick for seven days or less; the children's parents were asked to assess their child's cough and sleep difficulty the night before treatment and then again the night after treatment.
The results, published in the December issue of the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, show that honey yielded the greatest improvement in cough frequency, cough severity, child's sleep and parental sleep.
Most upper respiratory tract infections in children are caused by viruses and resolve spontaneously. It is not unusual for children to suffer between three and eight colds each year. However, the resulting cough can last for up to three weeks; persistent cough is a common reason for parents to bring children to see the family doctor.
Honey has well-established antioxidant and antimicrobial effects, which may account for its effectiveness.
Buckwheat honey, used in this study, is a dark variety of honey with a higher concentration of phenol compounds which are known to have an antioxidant action. Processed honey has a low risk profile in children older than one year; it is not recommended in infants because of a rare but potential risk of botulism in this age group.
Although dextromethorphan was generally well tolerated by children in this study, it has been associated with serious adverse events such as allergic reactions, dependence and hallucinations. It is increasingly being used as a recreational drug of abuse by adolescents.
"While our findings and the absence of contemporary studies supporting the use of dextromethorphan continue to question its [ the drug's] effectiveness for the treatment of cough associated with upper respiratory tract infections, we have now provided evidence supporting honey, which is generally regarded as safe for children older than one year, as an alternative," the authors concluded.