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Does Cough Syrup Really Work?

Another sleepless night. Your child’s incessant cough is disturbing your slumber. You stumble to the medicine cabinet and fumble through the bottles. Where is that cough medicine? Finally, you find it, grab a spoon and run in to wake your sleeping child. A teaspoon, maybe two later, you return to bed and again to sleep.

Parents everywhere carry out this cough remedy ritual, but who, if anyone, is this really helping?

Potential Harm

Most coughs are related to colds or to respiratory infections and they have a distinct function: to clear secretions from air passageways to allow the respiratory system to function as it should. Any action to suppress the cough is therefore potentially harmful.

More often than not, cough suppressants are administered for the comfort of the parent who is being kept awake; most children sleep right through the coughing episodes. The World Health Organization states, “Since non-productive cough is unusual in infants and young children, few of them require cough suppression. Parents and health workers should be discouraged from trying to eliminate this symptom.”

Placebo Works Better

Several studies indicate that cough suppressants have no effect on cough symptoms. In fact, in a study conducted at Pennsylvania State University, the children who received a placebo cough syrup actually coughed less than those given syrups containing the cough suppressant ingredients dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine!

So the next time your child’s cough keeps you awake, and you find yourself running for the cough syrup, ask yourself, “Just who will this help anyway?” And then in the morning, give our office a call.