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!