用蜂蜜代替非处方糖浆可以治疗儿童咳嗽

用蜂蜜代替非处方糖浆可以治疗儿童咳嗽

If you don't have little kids, or it's been a while, let me just break down for you why kids' coughs can be a truly miserable problem that can drive you to madness.

如果你没有小孩，或者已经有一段时间没有小孩了，让我来为你解释一下为什么小孩咳嗽会是一个让人痛苦的问题，会让你发疯。

Imagine this: Your kid's coughing — it's almost always worse at night — then they start crying because they're tired and can't sleep with all the coughing.

想象一下:你的孩子在咳嗽，晚上咳嗽更严重，然后他们开始哭，因为他们累了，咳嗽得无法入睡。

The coughing and crying means that not only do they not sleep, but you also don't sleep — no one in the house sleeps — and this can go on for weeks.

咳嗽和哭泣不仅意味着他们睡不着，而且你也睡不着，家里没有人睡得着觉，这种情况会持续数周。

So what do you do? You might, logically, go to the drug store. When you get there, there might be dozens of bottles of cough syrup promising to help your kid's cough. You'll see labels with babies and crescent moons that promise to relieve "chest congestion" and help your kid sleep.

那你怎么办?按理说，你可以去药店。当你到达那里时，可能会有几十瓶止咳糖浆承诺帮助你孩子的咳嗽。你会看到婴儿和月牙形的标签，承诺缓解“胸闷”和帮助你的孩子睡眠。

Pediatrician Jennifer Shu says don't buy it. Shu, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, says the shelves of kids' cough medicine at the pharmacy are not really about good medicine — it's marketing.

儿科医生詹妮弗·舒说，不要买。美国儿科学会发言人舒说，药店里的儿童咳嗽药货架实际上并不是真正的好药-这是营销。

"If you make it, some people are going to buy it," she says. "That's why you see lots of products on shelves that may not be necessary or even safe for kids."

“如果你(营销)成功了，有些人就会去买，”她说。“这就是为什么你会看到货架上有很多对孩子来说可能是不必要甚至是不安全的产品。”

Mostly, these kids cough syrups have either a cough suppressant like dextromethorphan (in Robitussin and Delsym, for example) or an antihistamine like diphenhydramine (in Benadryl and Dimetapp).

大多数情况下，这些孩子的止咳糖浆要么含有右美沙芬之类的止咳药(例如，在罗比特松和德尔赛姆中)，要么含有苯海拉明之类的抗组胺药(在苯海拉明和地美泰普中)。

"What the studies have shown is that — for some reason — in kids they aren't that effective," she explains.

她解释说:“研究表明，由于某些原因，对孩子们来说，它们并没有那么有效。”

Plus, these drugs can cause side effects, she says, "such as increasing your blood pressure, making your heart rate go up or suppressing the drive to breathe — and that's definitely something we don't want for kids."

此外，这些药物会产生副作用，她说，“比如增加你的血压，使你的心率上升或抑制呼吸的冲动——这绝对不是我们想要的。”

So what can desperate, sleep-starved parents give their kids? The answer might be already in the kitchen cupboard.

那么，绝望的、睡眠不足的父母能给他们的孩子什么呢?答案可能已经在厨房的橱柜里了。

"Honey is at least as effective as those many, many products that you see in the drugstore," says Dr. Bud Wiedermann, an infectious disease specialist at Children's National Hospital in Washington D.C. This is only for kids older than 1 year old. (There's a risk of botulism for infants.)

华盛顿特区国立儿童医院的传染病专家巴德·维德曼博士说：“蜂蜜至少和你在药店里看到的许许多多的产品一样有效。”这只适用于1岁以上的儿童。(婴儿有肉毒杆菌中毒的风险。)

There is some research to back up honey as a cough treatment.

有一些研究支持蜂蜜可以治疗咳嗽。

One randomized controlled trial in Israel asked parents of coughing kids to give their child either honey or a date syrup that looked and tasted like honey (a placebo), and found that the honey group said that the child's cough and sleep as improved after one night of honey, but parents who gave the date syrup found no improvement (note this study was partially funded by the Honey Board of Israel).

以色列的一项随机对照试验要求咳嗽儿童的父母给他们的孩子喂蜂蜜或看起来和尝起来像蜂蜜的枣糖浆(一种安慰剂)，发现蜂蜜组说孩子喝了一晚蜂蜜后咳嗽和睡眠都有所改善，但给孩子喂枣糖浆的父母没有发现改善(请注意，这项研究的部分资金是由以色列蜂蜜委员会资助的)。

Another study found honey worked about as well as dextromethorphan without the risks of side effects.

另一项研究发现，蜂蜜和右美沙芬效果差不多，而且没有副作用。

How does honey work to quiet a cough? Shu says, it's not clear.

蜂蜜怎么能止咳?舒说，还不清楚。

"Honey has some natural antibacterial and antiviral properties," she says. "It contains hydrogen peroxide, so there is a theory that that's why it might help fight a cold. But also the thickness of it helps coat the throat and makes it feel more comfortable so you don't have that dry, ticklish feeling that's causing your cough."

“蜂蜜有一些天然的抗菌和抗病毒特性，”她说。“它含有过氧化氢，所以有一种理论认为，这就是为什么它可能有助于对抗感冒。但它的厚度也有助于覆盖喉咙，让它感觉更舒服，所以你不会有导致咳嗽的干燥、痒的感觉。”