Sara read an article that stated honey was more effective as a cough suppressant in young children than actual cough medicine. I’m not sure if this is the same article or not, but I did find this link, which I assume refers back to the same study.
This is a pretty good tip since A) we already have honey, B) honey has no side effects, C) honey is bound to taste better than cough syrup, no matter how many artificial flavors they jam in there, and D) I’m assuming honey is cheaper than cough syrup (though I’m not sure). Also, the article points out that the FDA has recommended you don’t give cough syrup to kids under 6, but honey is okay for kids over 1.
In short, why wouldn’t you give your kid honey instead?
So, is it true? Well, Evie has been sick lately and we gave it a try. We’ve had mixed results. The first time it worked really well, and her cough more or less disappeared for a couple of hours. The second time, it didn’t seem to do anything at all, though maybe her cough would have been that much worse with nothing. The third time it seemed like she was coughing less, but it’s hard to tell.
So I guess it’s just one of those things; until we can invent a time machine and go back and try it both ways, once with honey and once with cough syrup, we’ll never really know if she would have coughed less with the syrup. I will say this though, Evie was begging us for more “medicine”. Somehow I don’t think that would have happened with the cough syrup!
Shane Halbach 
Not to knock its potential cough defeating purposes, but if you remember, mom used to give me my asthma medicine in honey, and I hated it so much that to this day if I smell honey I feel nauseous…
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Yes, I was thinking about that when I made the post. Why did you hate taking a spoonful of delicious honey every day so much?
I think that’s all psychological on your part! I think it was more a reaction to being forced to take that medicine every day, control issue-wise, than any knock on the tastiness of honey.
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Timing coincidence. One of the developers on our team is actually a beekeeper and just gave everyone on the team samples of four of his gourmet honeys. Quoting from the acacia honey label (translated from its original Hungarian): “Its taste is nice and soft, a perfect sweetener for food and drinks. It has an antiseptic effect and is good against coughing.” So, my Hungarian honey-making colleague clearly agrees with the study. At least for honey made from acacia.
Personally I can’t stand the taste of cough drops and would usually rather cough than suck on a cough drop. (I never understood those kids in school who ate them like candy! Blech!) So I usually eat honey when I have a cough. It’s definitely better than nothing, but as an adult, I don’t think it works quite as well as cough drops. I don’t know about cough syrup, though. But the downside is that I have to take my teaspoon of honey more often. And is that really a downside?
PS – The acacia honey is awesome! As are the other three varieties. I’m almost willing to forgive the buggy code that was made by the same hands.
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Honey is a great remedy for coughs – we buy an all natural Hyland’s cough medicine, the main ingedient is honey. Also, if you buy a local honey, it is supposed to help boost Evie’s immune system to battle local allergens. I’m sure your cute farmer’s market has some!
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