6 Natural Cough Remedies for Children
Do you want to learn more about natural cough remedies?
Coughing is a natural response of the body that keeps your throat and nasal airways clear, and it’s a common symptom of the following:
- Colds
- The flu
- Viral or bacterial infections
- Allergies
- Bronchitis
- Pneumonia
- Asthma
In the case of children, a cough can last from seven days to up to three weeks. If it’s not managed correctly, however, it can become aggravated over time and cause additional complications:
- Chest pain
- Burning and dryness in the throat
- Headache
- General malaise
Alleviating your child’s cough can be very easy if you use treatments that have flavors they like. If you want to know how to naturally relieve a cough for good, keep reading.
1. Honey is a great remedy for coughs
Everyone knows that honey has a lot of antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, and it’s also cleansing and filled with vitamins and minerals.All of these features make honey an excellent medicinal alternative for your health. It’s even better when you use it to cure a cough.
To make sure your child absorbs all its benefits, we recommend the following remedy:
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons of pure honey (20 ml)
- 1 cup of milk (200 ml)
Preparation
- Heat the milk in a saucepan for five minutes.
- Add the two tablespoons of honey.
- Let it stand for 10 minutes.
Mode of consumption
- To get the best results, try drinking this mixture every night before bedtime for five days.
2. Chicken broth
Aside from being a nice meal on a cold night, chicken broth is also able to speed up your body’s recovery processes thanks to its high content of iron and zinc.
To make the perfect chicken broth remedy for your child, you’ll need the following:
Ingredients
- 2 chicken legs (400 grams)
- 1 onion (30 grams)
- 1 liter of water
- 2 tablespoons of salt (5 grams)
- 2 celery stalks (200 grams)
Preparation
- Chop the onion and celery into small pieces and add them to a large saucepan.
- Pour the water in and heat it to a boil.
- Add the two chicken legs to the boiling water.
- Cook for at least 45 minutes.
- Add the two tablespoons of salt.
Mode of consumption
- We recommend serving this broth for three days to avoid worsening the cough and ensuring that your child heals quickly.
3. Hot chocolate
Typically when you get sick you look for an answer in medications, but for children it can be a bit more complicated.Medications might not always have the desired effect and can even complicate the situation even more.
This won’t happen with hot chocolate, however. Believe it or not, chocolate has the ability to quickly alleviate flu symptoms and persistent cough.
Ingredients
- 200 grams of chocolate powder
- 2 cups of milk (400 ml)
- 3 tablespoons of sugar (50 grams)
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (10 grams)
Preparation
- Add the two cups of milk, powdered chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon to a saucepan.
- Heat the ingredients until they’re well mixed, for at least 10 minutes.
Mode of consumption
- We recommend drinking hot chocolate two to three times a day for four days.
4. A hot bath
Hot water baths generate a lot of steam and will help open the respiratory tract and loosen any phlegm in the lungs of your child.
- This is why we recommend taking hot water baths at least twice a day while they’re sick.
5. Ginger tea
Ginger root comes from Asian countries and has been used for centuries for its medicinal, anti-histamine, and decongestant properties.To ensure your child gets the most benefit from ginger, you’ll need to prepare the following tea:
Ingredients
- 3 pieces of ginger root (300 grams)
- 2 cups of water (400 ml)
- 1 tablespoon of honey (10 ml)
- 1 lemon (30 grams)
Preparation
- Slice the ginger and add it to a saucepan.
- Pour in the water and bring it to a boil over low heat for 30 minutes.
- Allow it to steep for 20 minutes.
- Store in an airtight container.
- Add the lemon juice and honey.
Mode of consumption
- We recommend drinking this tea four to five times a day, for at least four days.
6. Water
Water can be everyone’s best friend when you suffer from a cough because it keeps your throat moisturized. We recommend drinking between eight and nine cups of water a day.
When you try these remedies you will not only alleviate the symptoms of a cough, it will completely be eliminated.
If you’ve tried all of the above and none have worked, however, we suggest you see a doctor who can prescribe the correct medication for your child’s condition.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Hine, C., Gilchrist, F., & Carroll, W. (2017). Chronic cough in children. Paediatrics and Child Health (United Kingdom). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paed.2017.02.001
- Oduwole, O., Meremikwu, M. M., Oyo-Ita, A., & Udoh, E. E. (2014). Honey for acute cough in children. Evidence-Based Child Health. https://doi.org/10.1002/ebch.1970
- Chang, A. B., & Berkowitz, R. G. (2010). Cough in the Pediatric Population. Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.otc.2009.11.010
- Wang, K., Bettiol, S., Thompson, M. J., Roberts, N. W., Perera, R., Heneghan, C. J., & Harnden, A. (2014). Symptomatic treatment of the cough in whooping cough. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003257.pub5