蜂蜜比感冒糖漿更能舒緩兒童咳嗽症狀

嚴重的乾咳不只痛苦又煩人，也會導致好幾天得不到一夜好眠。不過一匙蜂蜜或許就能幫你把這些惡夢變成香甜的美夢。

一項針對300位有喉嚨發炎症狀的以色列兒童所做的研究發現，1歲至5歲的孩童若是在睡前食用10克的蜂蜜，就會減少他們的咳嗽次數，睡眠品質也變好了。研究中四分之三的兒童，在睡前吃下一茶匙的桉樹蜂蜜、柑橘蜂蜜或丹參蜂蜜，其餘的兒童則是吃下安慰劑。根據家長針對兒童咳嗽的嚴重程度與次數評分紀錄，吃蜂蜜的孩子症狀比吃安慰劑的孩子改善了更多。

研究人員表示，蜂蜜所含的高單位抗氧化劑，讓它成為比感冒糖漿更好的選擇，而許多感冒糖漿並沒有證據顯示有療效，若家長不小心餵食過量的藥物，後果會相當危險。但研究人員也強調，給年幼的嬰兒吃蜂蜜並不安全，因為有可能會導致一種罕見卻致命的發炎症狀。

(Health)Honey Soothes Kids Cough Better than Cough Medicine

A bad, dry cough is not only painful and irritating, but can also lead to many sleepless nights. Though, a spoon of honey may be all it takes to help you turn those dreadful nights into sweet dreams.

A study involving nearly 300 Israeli children with throat infections found that kids aged one to five coughed less often and slept better after taking 10g of honey before bedtime. In the study, three quarters of the children were given a teaspoon of either eucalyptus honey, citrus honey or labiatae honey before bed, while the rest took a placebo. According to the scoring of parents on the severity and frequency of their childs cough, the children that had honey showed a much better improvement compared to those on the placebo.

The researchers say that honeys high levels of antioxidants could make it a better alternative to cough syrups, many of which are not proven to work and which can be dangerous if parents administer accidental overdoses. However, they emphasize that honey is unsafe for young infants due to the risk of a rare but fatal infection.