For kids' coughs, silence is golden and sweet

By ALEXIS GRANT

Parents might consider giving their coughing child honey instead of medicine, according to a study released Monday.

Buckwheat honey — a dark variety sold in most grocery stores — relieved children's coughs and helped them sleep better than dextromethorphan, the drug in most over-the-counter cough suppressants, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Honey also beat out no treatment at all.

"(Honey) is a cheap and effective treatment," said Dr. Ian Paul, lead investigator for the study. "Consider using this as a treatment before going to the pharmacy to pick up an over-the-counter cough and cold medicine."

Honey has long been used by some parents as an alternative treatment for cough, although it should not be given to children under 1 year old.

The study comes at a time when parents are on the lookout for new ways to give sick children relief. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended last month that children under the age of 6 not be given over-the-counter cough and cold medicines.

For the study, 105 children ages 2-18 with upper respiratory tract infections that kept them awake at night were given either a dose of buckwheat honey, honey-flavored cough syrup or no treatment half an hour before bedtime.

One dose measured one-half teaspoon for children aged 2-5, one teaspoon for children aged 6-11 and two teaspoons for children aged 12-18.

A better night's sleep

Parents of the 35 children who received honey, given either on its own or with a non-caffeinated drink, reported they coughed less and slept better than those who gave their children nothing. The group that used honey also reported more favorable results than those who used cough syrup, but since the study group was small, those differences weren't statistically significant.

One local pediatrician said she wouldn't discourage parents from trying honey with their children, but more studies are needed to draw solid conclusions.

"In older children, if it makes them comfortable and it helps them sleep at night, then there may be a potential benefit," said Dr. Sara Rizvi, assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine who also works at a primary care clinic at Texas Children's Hospital. "I would be reluctant to routinely recommend to all parents that they give honey, because in some rare cases children can have reactions to honey."

Paul, a pediatrician who practices at Penn State Children's Hospital and teaches at the university's College of Medicine, said he began the study because he was frustrated no treatment had been proven beneficial to relieve the common children's cough. Several years ago, he led another study that showed over-the-counter cough medicine was no more effective than placebos.

Honey not for infants

Honey is not only cheap and readily available, it's also generally safer than cough medicine, which can have side effects or be administered in the wrong dose.

Honey should not, however, be given to children under the age of 1 because it sometimes contains a bacteria that causes botulism, a rare paralytic illness that can result in death. Unlike older children, infants can't fight the bacteria.

Paul's group tested buckwheat honey instead of the lighter, more popular varieties because it's known to have more antioxidant and antimicrobial effects, which have been shown in other studies to help wounds heal. Honey may suppress cough because its sweetness causes salivation that coats the throat, authors of the study suggested.

"It's kind of amazing that something so simple could be an answer," Paul said.
The study was paid for by the National Honey Board, an industry-funded agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under the provisions of the grant, the group was not involved in the study or the published results, Paul said.