Honey Can Reduce Young Children's Cough

Honey can help reduce cough among toddlers, according to a new study.

The findings of the study published in Pediatrics comes at a time when no proper medication for cough is available for young children, particularly under four in the United States.

"Honey may be a preferable treatment of cough and sleep difficulties associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infections," medpage quoted the authors.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel included 300 children aged between one and five, having upper respiratory tract infections, nocturnal cough from a week. The researchers examined the efficiency of three types of honey -eucalyptus, citrus and labiatae.

The honey treatment was compared to a placebo treatment, a date extract. Thirty minutes before retiring to bed, participants were provided with a single 10-gram dose of placebo or one of the honey products.

Parents completed a questionnaire prior and after the treatment. The questionnaire contained five questions related to the cough like how severe it was and whether it caused any trouble for the parents at night.

At the end of the study, investigators noticed children's condition improving by each day. But the honey group showed better treatment (1.77 to 1.95 points improvement) compared to placebo (1.00 point).

Examining each category of honey, eucalyptus showed 9.88 points, citrus honey- 10.10 points and labiatae honey 9.51 points compared to the treatment with the date syrup (5.82 point).

Apart from the positive facts, the treatment showed some side effects. Stomach ache, nausea and vomiting were the side effects of the treatment.

Honey contains both antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. However, the researchers couldn't recognize the particular feature of the honey that led to the improvement.

The close link between the sensory nerve fibers involved in coughing and gustatory nerve fibers related to tasting sweetness may be the factors leading to the occurrence.

"This theory may explain some of the observed effect in patients treated with silan date extract because this is also a sweet substance," medpage quoted the authors as writing.