GradedHealth

Does honey help a cough? What the trials found

In children, honey slightly eases a cold cough in small trials; a good adult trial found no benefit. Never give honey to babies under 12 months.

Published October 2026

Short answer

Limited evidence: in children honey modestly eases cough versus no treatment or placebo; in adults it showed no benefit. It must not be given to babies under 12 months. Evidence grade C (Limited). Systematic reviews of small, mostly unblinded trials with different comparators; benefits are modest and the newest review's main analysis found no difference from medicines.

Key takeaways

  • In six trials with 899 children, honey reduced cough frequency a little more than no treatment or a placebo syrup [1].
  • Honey worked about as well as dextromethorphan and better than diphenhydramine in that review [1].
  • One 300-child trial found honey beat a placebo syrup, but a later 161-child trial found no difference from its placebo, so results conflict [2][3].
  • In 194 adults with acute bronchitis, honey taken three times a day worked no better than usual care [4].
  • Honey must never be given to babies under 12 months: it is the one food consistently linked to infant botulism [5].

The short version

In children aged one year and up, honey probably eases an acute cough a little more than no treatment or a placebo syrup, a Cochrane review of six small trials found [1]. It looks about as good as the cough medicine dextromethorphan and better than the antihistamine diphenhydramine [1], but a 194-person trial in adults with acute bronchitis found no benefit over usual care [4]. Honey must not be given to babies under 12 months, because it can carry the spores that cause infant botulism [5].

What the studies show

The strongest children's evidence is a 2018 Cochrane review of six randomised trials with 899 children aged 12 months to 18 years [1]. On 7-point scales where lower scores mean less coughing, honey cut cough frequency by 1.05 points more than no treatment (95% confidence interval, or CI, -1.48 to -0.62; two studies, 154 children) and by 1.62 points more than placebo (95% CI -3.02 to -0.22; two studies, 402 children); both results were rated moderate-certainty evidence [1]. Honey matched dextromethorphan (mean difference -0.07 points; 95% CI -1.07 to 0.94; two studies, 149 children; low certainty) and beat diphenhydramine (mean difference -0.57 points; 95% CI -0.90 to -0.24; one study, 80 children) [1]. The advantage appeared in the first three days; beyond that honey had no edge over placebo or the asthma medicine salbutamol [1].

Individual trials point the same way: in a double-blind trial of 300 children aged 1 to 5, a single bedtime dose of 10 g of honey (eucalyptus, citrus or labiatae) eased cough and sleep better than a date-extract placebo [2]. Among 105 children, buckwheat honey beat no treatment for cough frequency, while honey-flavoured dextromethorphan did not beat no treatment at all [6]. A Nigerian trial of 84 children found honey dropped median cough frequency scores from 5 to 0 over three nights, versus 5 to 3 with diphenhydramine [7].

Not every trial agrees: a 2022 double-blind multicentre trial in 161 Japanese children aged 1 to 5 found acacia honey worked no better than a honey-flavoured syrup placebo, though both groups improved [3]. A 2026 review of seven trials with 576 children found no significant differences from cough medicines on most outcomes in its main analysis; only the effect on children's sleep was significant (mean difference -0.73 points; 95% CI -1.45 to -0.01) [8]. The authors said post-hoc sensitivity analyses hint honey might be better across all outcomes, but they called that result hypothesis-generating rather than definitive [8].

In adults the evidence is weaker: a 2021 review of 14 studies in upper respiratory infections found honey beat usual care on combined symptom scores, cough frequency and cough severity [9]. Against placebo, though, the symptom-score improvement was not statistically significant (standardised mean difference -0.63; 95% CI -1.44 to 0.18; two studies) [9]. A 2023 trial of 194 adults with acute bronchitis compared honey three times a day with usual care, dextromethorphan and an ipratropium inhaler: median days of moderate-to-severe cough were 5 with usual care and 6 with honey, and none of the treatments beat usual care [4].

For context, a Cochrane review of over-the-counter cough medicines found them no more effective than placebo in children [10], and it warned that antihistamines and centrally acting antitussives can cause serious harm [10].

The nuances

Blinding is the fundamental problem: honey tastes like honey, so families usually know which treatment a child received [1]. The Cochrane reviewers rated two of the six trials at high risk of performance and detection bias and relied on parent-reported scores [1]. The two most carefully blinded trials disagree - one beat a date-extract placebo [2], the other matched a honey-flavoured syrup placebo [3] - and the newest review found benefits only in post-hoc analyses [8].

Reported side effects were mostly mild: gut symptoms were reported by 34 children on honey (12%) and 13 on placebo (11%) [1]. Nervousness, insomnia or hyperactivity affected 7 children on honey (9.3%) versus 2 on dextromethorphan (2.7%) [1]. Honey allergy is uncommon; when 46 people with pollen allergy were given 30 g of honey, 26% reported minor, mostly subjective symptoms versus 41% after a placebo syrup, and no serious reactions occurred [11]. No medicine interactions were reported in the cough trials, and they include no data on pregnancy or breastfeeding [1][4].

The safety rule that matters most: no honey for babies under 12 months [5]. Honey is the one food consistently linked to infant botulism, in which Clostridium botulinum spores grow in a baby's gut and can cause weakness and paralysis [5]. The risk is small - California recorded about 6.5 cases per 100,000 live births a year over four decades [12] - but the illness is serious: more than 99% of those California cases were hospitalised [12], and worldwide 2,943 cases were recorded between 2007 and 2021, with honey consumed in 19.7% of cases outside the US versus 3.8% in the US [13].

An acute cough usually follows a respiratory infection and settles within a few weeks [14]. A cough that comes with breathing trouble, or one that lasts for weeks, is worth a doctor's visit [14].

The trials measured cough and sleep, not dental health or blood sugar [1][4]. Chemically, honey is a mix of sugars with small amounts of proteins, enzymes, organic acids, vitamins, minerals and plant compounds [15].

What this means for you

For a child over one with an ordinary cold cough, the trials offer modest support for a spoonful of honey: it beat no treatment and placebo by about a point on a 7-point scale, mostly in single-night parent ratings, and performed like dextromethorphan [1]. That looks reasonable next to over-the-counter cough medicines, which were no better than placebo in children and can cause harm [10]. For adults, honey is not a reliable way to shorten a cough [4]. The infant rule still applies: no honey before the first birthday [5]. More detail is on the Honey topic page.

Go deeper

  • Honey — Small trials suggest honey eases acute cough in children a little better than no treatment or placebo, with most of the benefit in the first three days.

References

  1. Honey for acute cough in children.. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2018.
  2. Effect of honey on nocturnal cough and sleep quality: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study.. Pediatrics, 2012.
  3. Multicentre, randomised study found that honey had no pharmacological effect on nocturnal coughs and sleep quality at 1-5 years of age.. Acta Paediatr, 2022.
  4. Effectiveness of antitussives, anticholinergics, and honey versus usual care in adults with uncomplicated acute bronchitis: a multiarm randomized clinical trial.. Fam Pract, 2023.
  5. Infant Botulism and Honey Exposure: Global Epidemiology, Prevention Policies, and Communication Strategies.. Acta Paediatr, 2026.
  6. Effect of honey, dextromethorphan, and no treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep quality for coughing children and their parents.. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, 2007.
  7. Effect of Honey on Cough Symptoms in Children with Upper Respiratory Tract Infection: A Randomised Controlled Trial.. West Afr J Med, 2022.
  8. Honey vs. pharmacological treatment for acute cough in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.. Eur J Pediatr, 2026.
  9. Effectiveness of honey for symptomatic relief in upper respiratory tract infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. BMJ Evid Based Med, 2021.
  10. Over-the-counter (OTC) medications for acute cough in children and adults in community settings.. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2014.
  11. Honey allergy is rare in patients sensitive to pollens.. Allergy, 1995.
  12. Descriptive Epidemiology of Infant Botulism in California: The First 40 Years.. J Pediatr, 2020.
  13. Global Occurrence of Infant Botulism: 2007-2021.. Pediatrics, 2025.
  14. Acute cough in children and adolescents: A systematic review and a practical algorithm by the Italian Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.. Allergol Immunopathol (Madr), 2021.
  15. Honey: Chemical composition, stability and authenticity.. Food Chem, 2016.