cough medicine for little ones

I don’t know if it’s made major news in your area, but here in middle of nowhere Nebraska there has been a story running for days about the FDA and cough and cold meds for kids.

http://www.winknews.com/news/consumer/10476382.html

Seems there’s been a medical panel investigating the effectiveness and safety of standard cold meds in children under the age of 6. This FDA related panel has recommend the FDA no longer allow cough and cold medications to be sold or marketed to kids under 6. And all those medication who claim “Recommended by Pediatricians” must remove that endorsement. This panel is saying the under no circumstances should children’s cough and cold remedies be given to kids under 6. They claim the medication is not safe. There have been several deaths.

I’ve never been on to give my kids cold meds at the first sniffle. I know many parents who do. Heck, I’ve even been accused (by a relative) of child neglect because I refuse to stuffy noses and coughs with otc meds. The only time I ever treat is if one of my kids is miserable and stuffy or coughing a LOT in the middle of the night. I will give meds so they can sleep.

So, the other night, one of our kids had a major coughing fit in the middle of the night. She’s 5 and very small for her age – I don’t like to give her anything at all. Out of habit, I reached for the same children’s cough med I’ve used since my 13 yr old was little.

And then I stopped. Remembering the news story, I reached for my herbal recipes book instead. And I made a cough remedy that’s been used safely and effectively for thousands of years.

15 minutes later the coughing stopped and my daughter was able to sleep quietly for three or four hours.

This was a solid reminder to me how far we’ve come from using the natural safe herbs this planet gives us on a daily basis. The medical community has forgotten where it came from, and what their purpose is.

First do no harm, is supposed to be the goal of modern medicine. I think sometimes, in their desire to heal and help medical researchers make decisions for us about acceptable side effects and what constitutes harm.

But… that’s a topic for another blog, another day.
For now, here is the recipe I used for my daughter’s cough:

2 tablespoons dried Thyme
2 cups water
1 cup honey
5 cloves garlic

Place thyme, garlic and water in small saucepan.
Bring to a boil
Simmer until liquid is reduced by half.
Let cool until cool enough to work with, but still warm enough to dissolve honey
While mixture is cooling, pour honey into a glass jar (you’ll need a lid).
With a small strainer, strain thyme mixture into the glass jar.
Put the lid on jar and shake well.
When the honey is dissolved and mixed through, remove the lid and add 2 or 3 cloves of the garlic you boiled it with.Garlic is a natural anti viral and anti biotic. leaving some garlic in the cough syrup to sit, will help boost the anti viral properties of the syrup.

Give 1 – 2 tablespoons every few hours as needed for cough.