Need help for a baby’s cough? In some cases the best treatment may be a placebo.
Researchers studied 119 children 2 months to 4 years old with coughs lasting seven days or less. They included children with nonspecific acute coughs, eliminating any child with signs or symptoms of more treatable diseases like asthma or pneumonia, or a history of lung disease or other chronic illness.
They divided the children into three groups. The first was given a dose of agave nectar, the second grape-flavored water, and the third no treatment at all.
Agave nectar is similar to honey in sweetness, viscosity and taste. Honey has been shown to be an effective cough suppressant in children younger than 6, but is not recommended for those under 1 because it can, in rare cases, cause infant botulism. So the authors hypothesized that agave nectar might work for all children, and be safer than honey for the youngest.
The parents, who did not know whether they were giving the nectar or the placebo, recorded the severity and frequency of their children’s coughs, and whether the coughing interfered with their own or their child’s sleep.
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that the agave nectar and the placebo were significantly more effective than no treatment. But parents reported that the nectar and placebo worked equally well.
The lead author, Dr. Ian M. Paul, a professor of pediatrics at Penn State, acknowledged that the placebo was probably working on the parents, not the child, but that recommending one might be a good strategy for pediatricians.
Coughs not attributable to treatable or chronic illness, he said, are “something you always get better from anyway, so which is more important — that the child actually cough less or that parents feel they’re coughing less and then don’t call the doctor, don’t ask for unnecessary antibiotics? There are positive benefits to parents simply feeling better about their child’s condition.”
The study was paid for in part by Zarbee’s Inc., the producer of the agave syrup.