Recipes · Sick-Day Food
Warm Honey and Lemon Drink
Reader ratingsHoney and a squeeze of lemon stirred into a mug of warm water: the old bedtime drink for a tickly cough, for anyone over the age of one. The honey is the part with trial evidence.
Honey in warm water with lemon is a household remedy for coughs and sore throats across Europe, North America and many other regions.
Safety
- Never give honey, raw or processed, to a baby under 12 months. It can carry Clostridium botulinum spores, which can grow in an infant’s gut and cause infant botulism, and stirring honey into a warm drink does not make it safe. For a baby with a cough, skip the honey and call the pediatrician.
- Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines have not been shown to work in young children and can cause serious harm: the FDA advises against them under age 2, and most labels say not under age 4.
- See a clinician promptly for a cough with wheezing, fast or labored breathing, a bluish tinge to the lips, blood, a fever that lasts more than 3 days, or a sudden cough in a toddler who may have inhaled something small. Honey will not treat strep throat or pneumonia, and a cough that is getting worse after the first few days, or that lasts longer than 3 weeks, needs review.
- Honey is sugar: count it if you have diabetes. Lemon juice is acidic and can sting a raw throat or mouth sores, so use less if it hurts.
Why it’s good for you
Honey is one of the few home remedies for cough with trials behind it, and a warm drink is soothing for a scratchy throat in its own right.
Evidence
Moderate evidence
Some human trials or consistent observational data; not yet settled.
A Cochrane review of 6 trials (899 children aged 1 to 18) found that honey probably relieves cough better than no treatment or placebo and may work about as well as dextromethorphan, but most children were treated for just one night and the authors saw no strong evidence for or against it. Parents rated honey above no treatment in a trial of 105 children and above a date-syrup placebo in a trial of 300 children aged 1 to 5, yet a 2022 Japanese trial of 161 children aged 1 to 5 found honey no better than a honey-flavored syrup. All of these trials gave honey by the spoon; nobody has tested the warm lemon drink.
General information from research and traditional use — not medical advice, and not a treatment for any condition. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or managing a health condition, check with your clinician first, and seek care for symptoms that are severe or do not improve.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat the water until steaming, then let it stand for a minute or two until it is comfortably warm to sip. For a child, test a drop on the inside of your wrist: it should feel warm, not hot.
- Stir in the honey until it dissolves, then add the lemon juice a little at a time, tasting as you go.
- Sip slowly, ideally about 30 minutes before bed, since night-time cough is what the trials measured. Rinse your mouth with water or brush your teeth afterward, because honey and lemon cling to teeth.
Tips
- In the trials, honey was given straight from the spoon as one small dose before bed: 10 g (about 1 1/2 teaspoons) in a trial of children aged 1 to 5. A teaspoon or two stirred into a mug is a reasonable match, and more simply adds sugar.
- Most trials followed children for only one or two nights, and in the Cochrane review honey had no advantage over placebo beyond three days. Treat it as a short-term comfort, not a long-term fix.
- For a ginger version see the Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea, for a make-ahead jar the Thyme Honey Cough Syrup, and for a caffeine-free bedtime alternative the Chamomile Sleep Tea.
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