4. HONEY
It’s natural, it’s sweet and goes down easy, and it’s usually conveniently located in the kitchen cabinet. And, as we’ve learned, it can be dangerous to give over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to our kids. Morever, studies show that a spoonful of good old bee’s honey can work better on a scratchy throat and sleep-disrupting cough than OTC medicines. In fact, the New York Times reported that in a double-blind study, “honey produced the greatest improvements when it came to better sleep and reduced cough frequency and severity.” Sounds like a sweet enough solution—but honey should never be given to children under the age of one year, as it can cause infantile botulism, a rare but serious illness. Botulism via honey might seem like a stretch, but as Kids Health (as well as numerous other health and news organizations) reports, “honey is a known source of the bacteria spores that cause botulism.”
