用蜂蜜代替非處方糖漿可以治療兒童咳嗽

用蜂蜜代替非處方糖漿可以治療兒童咳嗽

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.

如果你沒有小孩，或者已經(jīng)有一段時間沒有小孩了，讓我來為你解釋一下為什么小孩咳嗽會是一個讓人痛苦的問題，會讓你發(fā)瘋。

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，晚上咳嗽更嚴(yán)重，然后他們開始哭，因為他們累了，咳嗽得無法入睡。

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.

咳嗽和哭泣不僅意味著他們睡不著，而且你也睡不著，家里沒有人睡得著覺，這種情況會持續(xù)數(shù)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.

那你怎么辦?按理說，你可以去藥店。當(dāng)你到達那里時，可能會有幾十瓶止咳糖漿承諾幫助你孩子的咳嗽。你會看到嬰兒和月牙形的標(biāo)簽，承諾緩解“胸悶”和幫助你的孩子睡眠。

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.

兒科醫(yī)生詹妮弗·舒說，不要買。美國兒科學(xué)會發(fā)言人舒說，藥店里的兒童咳嗽藥貨架實際上并不是真正的好藥-這是營銷。

"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(營銷)成功了，有些人就會去買，”她說。“這就是為什么你會看到貨架上有很多對孩子來說可能是不必要甚至是不安全的產(chǎn)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).

大多數(shù)情況下，這些孩子的止咳糖漿要么含有右美沙芬之類的止咳藥(例如，在羅比特松和德爾賽姆中)，要么含有苯海拉明之類的抗組胺藥(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.

她解釋說:“研究表明，由于某些原因，對孩子們來說，它們并沒有那么有效。”

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，這些藥物會產(chǎn)生副作用，她說，“比如增加你的血壓，使你的心率上升或抑制呼吸的沖動——這絕對不是我們想要的。”

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

那么，絕望的、睡眠不足的父母能給他們的孩子什么呢?答案可能已經(jīng)在廚房的櫥柜里了。

"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.)

華盛頓特區(qū)國立兒童醫(yī)院的傳染病專家巴德·維德曼博士說：“蜂蜜至少和你在藥店里看到的許許多多的產(chǎn)品一樣有效。”這只適用于1歲以上的兒童。(嬰兒有肉毒桿菌中毒的風(fēng)險。)

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

有一些研究支持蜂蜜可以治療咳嗽。

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).

以色列的一項隨機對照試驗要求咳嗽兒童的父母給他們的孩子喂蜂蜜或看起來和嘗起來像蜂蜜的棗糖漿(一種安慰劑)，發(fā)現(xiàn)蜂蜜組說孩子喝了一晚蜂蜜后咳嗽和睡眠都有所改善，但給孩子喂棗糖漿的父母沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)改善(請注意，這項研究的部分資金是由以色列蜂蜜委員會資助的)。

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

另一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，蜂蜜和右美沙芬效果差不多，而且沒有副作用。

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

蜂蜜怎么能止咳?舒說，還不清楚。

"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，”她說。“它含有過氧化氫，所以有一種理論認(rèn)為，這就是為什么它可能有助于對抗感冒。但它的厚度也有助于覆蓋喉嚨，讓它感覺更舒服，所以你不會有導(dǎo)致咳嗽的干燥、癢的感覺。”