According to the new study, ordinary sweet agave nectar or colored water with sugar can help with night cough in children without any medication.

"Many of our pediatricians believe that with the symptoms of colds and coughing, you do not have to do anything other than to maintain the water-electrolyte balance and give your child acetaminophen or ibuprofen with increasing temperature. It may be better to give the children a sweeter placebo syrup than to do nothing, or worse, to take on unnecessary antibiotics, "explains lead researcher Dr. Ian Paul, head of the Department of General Pediatrics of the Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Hershey.

Dr. Paul notes that the decision to use a placebo must necessarily be discussed with the child's parents.

Dr. Paul's study included 120 children under 4 years of age who were given three different regimens for night cough lasting more than a week and not associated with any particular disease.

Children were randomly assigned to three groups of 40 participants: the first group received no treatment, the second group received a sweet syrup-placebo, and the third group - pasteurized agave nectar produced by Zarbees Inc. Zarbees undertook part of the costs of the study.

Agave nectar, a natural sweetener, was selected for testing because previous studies have shown that agave slightly alleviates coughing in children. As a placebo, water was used with grape aroma and caramel dye.

Dr. Paul says that agave nectar is unsafe to use in children under 1 year of age because of the risk of botulism - nectar may contain botulism spores, with which the stomach of a young child can not cope.

Parents reported coughing in children the night before and after the medication. Children who took nectar agave and placebo coughed less compared to the untreated group. The best result was in the group that received agave nectar.

The results of the study were published in a new issue of the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

"The placebo effect demonstrated in our study is very important because of the lack of therapeutic alternatives, especially when it comes to children under 1 year old," summarized Dr. Paul.

And this is true, because the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAR) does not recommend cough treatment in children under 6 years of age. Over-the-counter medications for cough and cold symptoms in the US are available only for children 4 years and older. At the same time, experts note that the amount of data on their effectiveness, even in this category of children, is "insignificant".

Producers who previously offered syrups and drops of cough and cold symptoms for young children were forced under the pressure of regulators from 2008 to withdraw them from the sale. The US Food and Drug Administration collected data on serious adverse events, and even the deaths associated with such drugs.

Honey is the preferred remedy for cough and cold in children over 1 year old. By the way, the age limit is also dictated by the presence of a dispute of botulism in this natural product. Paul says that in his latest study it was found that ointments with camphor, menthol and eucalyptus oil can be successfully used in children over 2 years old.

"We have known for a long time that a placebo can be of significant benefit in a wide range of diseases. But this study raises the question of how a placebo affects a child and how doctors can use it. Because of the outcome of treatment, the researchers were judged on the subjective feedback of parents, the effect of placebo was directly observed only by the parents themselves. But how? Placebo works through the faith of parents in the advice of a doctor or does it somehow affect the symptoms in a child? "- asks Dr. Douglas Opel, co-author of the study, who wrote an article in the journal.

Opel says that there is likely to be both. He asks in what cases a pediatrician or family doctor should recommend a placebo for parents to treat a child's cough:

"If a placebo is cheap and has no side effects, and its use is better than the expectation or unjustified prescription of another drug (antibiotics), then time discuss placebo ».

"Regardless of which way the parents of the child agree, they should be warned that they should tell the doctor about the symptoms that do not go away. If the child does not respond to treatment, it becomes worse or other signs appear, always contact your doctor! ", Says Dr. Paul.

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