Honey And Lozenges For Children With Non-specific Cough

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Ear, Nose and Throat;  Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 16 Apr 2009 - 2:00 PST

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Chronic non-specific cough is a chronic, dry cough of in the absence of identifiable respiratory disease or known aetiology; although it is usually not reflective of an underlying severe illness, it does cause significant morbidity, and as such relief from it is often sought. The use of honey and lozenges to soothe upper respiratory tract irritation is common, inexpensive, and potentially more effective in treating the symptoms than pharmacological interventions.

Extract from Implications for Practice

Clinically, this review was unable to provide any justifiable recommendation for or against honey and/or lozenges due to the lack of evidence. These treatments are not recommended when managing very young children (as lozenges are a potential choking hazard, and honey can cause infant botulism in children under 1 year of age).

(CD007523) by Mulholland and Chang

The Cochrane Library contains high quality health care information, including Systematic Reviews from The Cochrane Collaboration. These Reviews bring together research on the effects of health care and are considered the gold standard for determining the relative effectiveness of different interventions. The Cochrane Collaboration is a UK registered international charity and the world's leading producer of systematic Reviews. It has been demonstrated that Cochrane Systematic Reviews are of comparable or better quality and are updated more often than the Reviews published in print journals.

The Cochrane Library can be accessed at http://www.thecochranelibrary.com. Guest users may access abstracts for all Reviews in the database, and members of the media may request full access to the contents of the Library.

Source
The Cochrane Library