Natural Mom, Healthy Child » natural cough suppressant http://naturalmomhealthychild.com Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Chocolate Cough Syrup? http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/chocolate-cough-syrup/ http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/chocolate-cough-syrup/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:54:22 +0000 admin http://naturalmomhealthychild.com/?p=943 So Claire has had a persistent cough for over a week now. It started dry and shallow and now is wet and deep. She also still has a low grade fever. I took her to the doctor yesterday and he said there is no infection and her lungs are clear so keep doing what your [...]]]> So Claire has had a persistent cough for over a week now. It started dry and shallow and now is wet and deep. She also still has a low grade fever. I took her to the doctor yesterday and he said there is no infection and her lungs are clear so keep doing what your doing. What we have been doing is homemade elderberry syrup and vapor rub. I like elderberry syrup for it’s immune building properties, but it doesn’t help suppress a cough very well. So I began looking for alternatives and found a study that was referenced several times suggesting that theobromine found in pure chocolate is as affective as codine for suppressing coughs. (The FASEB Journal, Daily News Central, associated content, New Scientist, Wikipedia) I thought what could it hurt? So I made up the first ever batch (to my knowledge) of Chocolate Elderberry Cough Syrup, and it is working great! She takes a spoonful every 2 hours and two spoonfuls before bed. She usually waked up once in the night and we give her another spoonful and more vapor rub and she falls back to sleep again. She has been sleeping 12-13 hours a night with only waking the one time. It does not completely get rid of the cough, but significantly reduces the amount of coughing and she doesn’t have those long fits of coughing if taken regularly. If you have any elderberry syrup laying around, You can heat it and add 1/2 cup cocoa powder to one cup syrup or if you want to make it from scratch, here is my recipe:

Chocolate Elderberry Cough Syrup

CHICK HERE for directions to juicing elderberries and making a juice concentrate from my previous post on Elderberry Syrup.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (preferably organic, non-alkaline)
  • 1 cup elderberry juice
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1 pinch of large salt
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix the cocoa and the elderberry juice in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Add the honey, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool. Pour into a sterile glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several months. Yields two cups. (note: if you substitute water for the juice, you have chocolate syrup!).

P.S. It’s great over fruit or ice cream too!

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