Honey: A Sweet Alternative for Treating Cough in Children

 

August 6, 2012 — Honey is more effective than a placebo in controlling nighttime cough in children with upper respiratory infections (URI), according to the results from a new randomized placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The results were published online August 6 in Pediatrics.

The World Health Organization recommends honey as a nighttime treatment for coughing in young children with URIs. However, prior studies either tested only a single type of honey or were not blinded.

In the current study, children with URIs and nocturnal cough were given either 1 of 3 different honey products or a placebo 30 minutes before bedtime, based on a double-blind randomization plan. The primary outcome evaluated was a subjective change in cough frequency, based on parent surveys. Secondary outcomes measured included a change in cough severity, the effect of the cough on sleep for both the child and the parent, and the combined score on the pre- and postintervention surveys.

Herman Avner Cohen, MD, from the Pediatric Ambulatory Community Clinic, Petach Tikva, Israel, and colleagues compared symptom scores for each treatment group before and after the intervention and found that patients in all 3 honey groups demonstrated significant improvement compared with patients treated with placebo. There were no significant differences among the different types of honey.

"The results of this study demonstrate that each of the 3 types of honey (eucalyptus, citrus, and labiatae) was more effective than the placebo for the treatment of all of the outcomes related to nocturnal cough, child sleep, and parental sleep," the authors write.

The researchers enrolled 300 children with URIs, aged 1 to 5 years, who were seen at 1 of 6 general pediatric community clinics between January 2009 and December 2009. Patients were eligible if they had a nocturnal cough attributed to the URI. Children were excluded if they had symptoms of asthma, pneumonia, laryngotracheobronchitis, sinusitis, and/or allergic rhinitis. Patients who used any cough or cold medication or honey in the previous 24 hours were also excluded.

Parents were asked to evaluate the children the day of presentation, when no medication had been given, and then again the day after a single dose of 10 g of eucalyptus honey, citrus honey, labiatae honey, or placebo (silan date extract) had been administered before bedtime. Pre- and postintervention subjective assessments were obtained using a 5-item Likert-scale questionnaire regarding the child's cough and sleep difficulty. Only those children whose parents rated severity as at least a 3 (on a 7-point scale) for at least 2 of the 3 questions related to nocturnal cough and sleep quality on the preintervention questionnaire were included.

Of the 300 patients enrolled, 270 (89.7%) completed the single-night study. The median age of these children was 29 months (range, 12 - 71 months). There was no significant age difference among the treatment groups. Symptom severity was also similar among all 4 treatment groups.

Adverse events were reported for 5 patients and included stomachache, nausea, and vomiting and were not significantly different between the groups.

The authors acknowledge the limitations of the study, including the subjective nature of the survey and the fact that the intervention period was limited to a single dose. In addition, they note that some of the improvement measured may be attributed to the natural progression of URIs, which may improve with supportive care and time.

"On the basis of our findings, honey can be offered as an alternate treatment to children >1 year of age," note Dr. Cohen and colleagues.

"Honey may be a preferable treatment of cough and sleep difficulties associated with childhood URI," they conclude.

Funding for this study was provided by a research grant from the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association, Materna Infant Nutrition Research Institute, and the Honey Board of Israel. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Pediatrics. Published online August 6, 2012.

Kids' coughs and colds...

Many parents often rush to the doctor or hospital whenever their child from feels under the weather or gets a cold. Our society tends to make parents feel like they are doing a terrible job if they just let a cold, cough or little fever run its course.

We need to get a cold or fever occasionally and all of this builds up our immune system, making it stronger.

The following information may alleviate our concerns regarding letting the immune system do its job...

Kids' Coughs, Colds May Last Weeks but Don't Need Drugs

December 17, 2013

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 17 - Children's coughs and colds can last up to two or three weeks and earaches may take a week to get better, according to a new review of past studies.

Researchers said they hope the findings help reassure both doctors and parents that respiratory symptoms can last "longer than previously appreciated" but typically don't require treatment.

"A lot of times, we just have to give it a bit more time," Dr. Sharon B. Meropol said.

Meropol, from Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, was not involved in the new research.

She said the findings are consistent with what she sees as a pediatrician.

For their review, Dr. Matthew Thompson from the University of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues analyzed the results of 48 studies of children with a respiratory tract infection.

Kids in those studies were treated with over-the-counter medicines, drug-free placebo pills or nothing. Researchers followed them to see when their symptoms went away.

Among children with earaches, 90% were better within seven to eight days of visiting a primary care doctor or the emergency room. Most kids with the common cold were better after 15 days, while it took 25 days for almost all children with a cough to be fully recovered.

Sore throats typically lasted anywhere from two to seven days, depending on the study.

The duration of earaches and common colds in particular was "considerably longer" than parents in the U.S. and UK are generally told, the researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal, online December 11.

Meropol said most children with coughs, colds and other respiratory tract infections don't need to see a doctor. With the exception of strep throat, those infections are typically caused by viruses.

"Some people . . . think that if symptoms go on past a couple of days, the child needs antibiotics," Meropol said. But viruses don't respond to antibiotics, and the drugs may cause diarrhea or other side effects among children.

What's more, using antibiotics could have long-term implications by increasing the chance that bugs become resistant to the drugs, making future infections harder to treat.

"The take home message is that symptoms of many of these common respiratory tract infections may last a while and that prolonged symptoms do not necessarily mean that the child needs antibiotics or other medications," Dr. Theoklis Zaoutis told Reuters Health in an email.

Zaoutis is an infectious diseases specialist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and wasn't involved in the new review.

There are still some situations when children with respiratory symptoms do need to see a doctor, Meropol said.

That's when their symptoms keep getting worse, or don't start slowly getting better over time as expected. Kids who are having trouble breathing or have other serious symptoms also need to go to the doctor, she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/J2NQ4A

Miracles

Webster defines miracles as "an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things. - a deviation from the known laws of nature: a supernatural event or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed."

This is interesting to me because it then means that miracles occur around us on a daily basis and many of us miss it. Life in and of itself is miraculous. This definition covers a whole host of occurrences.

I had a magical moment when listening to Gabby Bernstein on Ted talks, when I heard that a miracle is a shift in perception, I repeat, a miracle is a shift in perception.

I so often wish for miracles and wonder around in hopes of being smacked in the face by one because I had some strange and untrue idea that miracles are big, grand things that are accompanied by fireworks and fanfare and not the miraculous, everyday things filling my life. Maybe I should have looked up the definition a long time ago and by doing so have experienced a miracle...(shift in perception, Ha)

 I am honored to have shifts in perception on a regular basis. Those light bulb moments when we look at things from a different light/angle and see them as amazing as they are. I vow to appreciate them as miracles from now on.

Here's a shift in perception....we are all connected and stem from the same energy. The table, the trees etc., are all manifestations of source energy. There is nothing below or above us. We are all the same. We are the source. Our energy is an expression of what we witness, feel and think.

What we fear the most we constantly give very powerful energy to, as fear is a strong emotion and the stronger the emotion the stronger the force of energy and the faster we draw like energy towards ourselves.

Take a car accident, we may not have attracted the car accident per se, but we did attract the emotions that we feel resulting from the accident. In other words, if the accident causes us to feel like a victim or angry or frustrated, we need to look at how often and strongly we have felt those same feelings in the days and weeks before...so, we attracted that same feeling... the car accident was merely the vehicle (excuse the pun) that brought that emotion to the surface once again. Thus giving us the opportunity to choose differently, to feel differently, before we attract something even more dismal to amplify our feelings.

I choose to feel happy, whole and healed and keep reminding myself of this so that I may attract more of the same and experience more miracles in my life.