Am I the only one that’s been coughing up a lung or two this winter? Seriously. I’ve had a bad cough for most of the past month. For a couple of weeks it was an annoying hack. Just a scratchy throat, but I couldn’t seem to get it cleared. I couldn’t sleep without cough syrup or cough drops. No other symptoms, thankfully.
No sneezing, few headaches.
Just the throat.
After a while, it began to ease. Well, that wasn’t so bad, I thought. I had a few days of near normal. Then, WHAM. For a day, I sounded like a 13-year-old boy. Then the voice disappeared completely for two days. During those days, the cough returned with a vengeance, deepening until I was on the verge of throwing up at the end of many bouts. And now, ten days after that, I still sound hoarse!
I know, I know. Cue the music. Everyone gets sick. But part way through this, desperate for relief, I remembered that a couple of winters ago, I was all about the homemade honey-lemon cough syrup. While this isn’t enough (for me) to still the nighttime cough, it makes a huge difference on the daytime cough. What do you need?
Homemade Honey-Lemon Cough Syrup
About 1.5 cups of honey (preferably local and unpasteurized)
1/2 organic lemon, sliced
2 inches or so of ginger root
2-3 cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces
Layer about 1/4 of the lemon and spices into a pint jar, top with honey, and repeat until the jar is full, honey last.
You may use more lemon. For a while I was using a whole lemon per pint jar, but found the result quite runny. It also doesn’t keep as well. However, even with a full lemon, the concoction lasts a few weeks on the counter and longer in the fridge.
Take it straight-up by the teaspoonful to soothe a cough, or add it to taste in green tea or chamomile, or any tea, really. Or even just in hot water. Your choice! While this is perfectly safe for children, do remember that honey isn’t recommended for babies under one year old.
I finally feel like I’m on the getting-well side of this nasty cough. Three nights in a row without cough syrup at bedtime! But the honey-lemon-ginger-cinnamon mix will be happy in my tea for a while, too. Try it!
Hope you feel better soon! Valerie Comer. According to my dental hygienist lots of sinus infections and post nasal drip which has people coughing. My 2 year old granddaughter has a stuffy noise and was hoarse on Monday – she is teething. Thanks for sharing. Rest and enjoy your weekend. Today it was 60 degrees and sunny in SW Michigan.
Honestly sounds more like an allergy if it’s been that long, but the cough syrup tastes good :).
Val, I had it for three months, and it didn’t go away until I started using a saline nasal spray every night, got a humidifier for my bedroom, and started using several drops of eucalyptus and tea tree oils in my diffuser. The cough went away and hasn’t come back.
Its a Loewen thing. When we get a cold it turns into a persistent cough.
Had that last year. Two things helped us. Nettles Tea whenever we started coughing and a product called Clear Lung (herbal).