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DIY Cough Syrup

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Homemade Cough Syrup-- Did you know you can make your own cough syrup? How cool is that?!? No more dyes, synthetic ingredients, just simple, real ingredients!

Welcome back to another “Outside the Box Monday!” Today I’m sharing a recipe to make your own cough syrup!

I bet most of you didn’t even know it was possible to make your own cough syrup, but it is– and best of all, it’s easy!

Making your own cough syrup will save you money. But even better is the fact that these recipes are natural, and you don’t have to worry about giving your family chemicals, dyes, and other questionable ingredients.

My mom actually shared this first recipe with me a while back, and we used it and loved it, but when I started looking online to see if there were other homemade cough syrup recipes, I found another that seems great too, so I’m sharing them both today!

Grandma Debbie’s Cough Syrup

  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (make sure to use a good apple cider vinegar, such as Bragg’s, since some are just white vinegar with caramel coloring)
  • optional, dash of cinnamon
  1. Mix together honey and vinegar, and if desired cinnamon.
  2. Take 1 Tablespoon of cough syrup as needed.

The Coconut Mama’s Cough Syrup

  • 3 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
  1. In a small saucepan, heat ingredients over low until coconut oil melts.
  2. Take a spoonful warm, at a time, as needed.
  3. Keep refrigerated, and warm enough to make liquid before taking each dose.

I heated Coconut Mama’s Cough Syrup in a mason jar in a saucepan full of water, just to save washing a dish!

coconut cough syrup

*Either cough syrup recipe can be mixed into a cup of tea or hot water to take, if desired.

DIY Cough Syrup-- Did you know you can make your own cough syrup? How cool is that?!? No more dyes, synthetic ingredients, just simple, real ingredients!

So here’s what I think about these two recipes. They are both pretty tart, so if you’re giving them to a child, you may want to put them in warm water so they’re not so strong.  Obviously the one is a vinegar tart, and the other is lemon tart, so that might make a difference on which you like. The coconut cough syrup does separate, and needs to be warmed up, so keep that in mind as well.  If you try these cough syrup recipes out, I would love to know what you think of them!


Has your family had any colds so far this year?  How do you usually treat colds and coughs?

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  • Marion@Life Tastes Good

    Wow! I never thought to do this! Pinning and will try this next time we need it! Thanks!!

    • Jamie H

      Thanks for pinning, Marion!

  • Jenn, Endlessly Inspired

    These sound great! My kids seem to have a cough straight through from October through March, so I am definitely going to try this!

    • Jamie H

      Oh that must be hard having sick kiddos for so long! My little guy seems to catch every cold that goes around, and it always turns into a sinus infection for him, so I love being able to give him something that I don’t need to worry about.

  • sheenahoteatsandcoolreads

    These look so easy to make!! I love it! Pinning!!

    • Jamie H

      They are SO easy! The vinegar one takes about 1 minute to make, and the coconut oil is maybe 5, just long enough to melt. Super easy!

  • mrspriceisright

    Visiting from Modest Mom.
    Glad to see this. I was trying only honey and it just didn’t seem to be enough when my little one recently had a cough.
    I actually drink apple cider vinegar, lemon, and honey daily and sometimes just apple cider vinegar and honey. I always mix it with warm/hot water, however.
    Thanks for the details when dealing with a cough.

    • Jamie H

      I’m so glad you stopped by from Modest Mom!
      Honey and apple cider vinegar are so awesome for so many things- taking them every day is really a great idea!

  • DeDe Bailey

    I am one of those who had never thought about making your own! Pinning!

    • Jamie H

      I don’t think most people have, DeDe! It’s interesting how in just maybe 100 years, we’ve gotten so reliant on pharmaceuticals (which totally have their place, don’t get me wrong), and so far away from natural remedies!

  • Emily

    What a great idea! I’ve had something similar and the taste is not the best but what cough medicine ever tastes good right?

    • Jamie H

      So true! As a kid, my mom made us a tea with onion, lemon, honey, and who knows what else in it, if we were too sick to go to school. We used to joke that you had to be pretty darn sick to stay home, since it was so terrible! lol. I’m sure the onion is great for you, but I skip that!

      • NewMomNiesha

        My mother used to take an onion and slice it in a bowl and cover it with some sugar so that, after sitting covered for about an hour, it would make a syrup. If you wanted to incorporate the onion in one of these, maybe that’s one way you could. Or you could drink it by the tablespoon like we used to by itself – it was delicious, by the way. Just a suggestion…hope it helps…can’t wait to try these out!

  • Elizabeth Comiskey

    This sounds great! Hopefully we won’t be needing it for a very long time but I’ll pin it, just in case. 🙂

    • Jamie H

      I hope you won’t need it either! I actually started coughing on the day I was making this for the blog post.

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  • Diane Hill Roark

    Jamie, I have never thought about making homemade cough syrup either. What a great idea. My kids hate the taste of cough syrup. I bet this is much better than store bought. We all had the head allergy/cold YUCK for about 4 weeks until just a week ago. This would have really helped. I pinned it.
    Thanks so much!
    Diane Roark

    • Jamie H

      You’re right about the store bought ones tasting terrible. These are pretty decent, and if they’re too tart for you, mixing them in hot water or tea helps a lot! Glad to hear you all are finally on the mend! Thanks for pinning Diane!

  • Shannah at Just Us Four

    This is such a great idea. I have never thought to make my own.

    • Jamie H

      I hadn’t thought of it, either, until my mom shared it with me!

  • Emily M

    When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to make a recipe a lot like this. She said that’s what they used during the depression. I remember that it actually worked pretty well!

    • Jamie H

      That’s pretty cool! I know that there are very effective home remedies for most everything, it’s just finding them that’s hard!

  • Camila

    My mom always used to give me honey with lemon, never heard of these recipes before. Pinning to have them as reminder! Thanks!

    XOXO
    Cami

    • Jamie H

      Honey with lemon is great too. The addition of coconut oil or vinegar is just more good stuff, since they are both so great for you!

  • Gurvy Green

    Super Simple and I have all these ingredients which leaves me with no excuses to try it out next time I hear someone hacking in the house. Pinning to GurvyGreen thanks for sharing!

    • Jamie H

      Haha, I was actually glad I whipped these up, since I came down with some sort of sinus deal the next day and have been coughing since! I’m so glad they’re so cheap and easy to make!

  • SouthernFried

    I SWEAR by apple cider vinegar. I’m like the dad off of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and ACV is my Windex.

    • Jamie H

      LOL- Oh my, I LOVE that show! My mom’s pretty big on vinegar, too, which is definitely better than Windex! 😉

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  • A Mama’s Story

    Good morning! Your post is among this week’s featured, will be shared across social media, and pinned to pinterest. Thanks for linking up at A Mama’s Story, and help yourself to a featured button. 🙂

    • Jamie H

      Sara Elizabeth, thanks so much for the feature! I’m so glad to be able to share these awesome recipes with your readers!

  • Lindsey Whitney

    Visiting from A Mama’s Story – we use honey a lot, but I’m glad to have a recipe to try!

    • Jamie H

      Honey is so awesome, isn’t it? The more I learn about natural remedies, the more amazed I am that so many have stopped being used!

  • Erica O’Neal

    what is the shelf life on either of these. I know it says to store coconut one in fridge. Does re heating damage that over time. Sorry I am new at this and have a lot of questions 🙂

    • Jamie H

      The one with coconut oil is said to last about a week. I too wonder about the reheating of it, so I’ll be honest- I left it out on my counter, so that it wouldn’t have to be heated as much. It seemed to work fine for me, and really it’s just the lemon juice that you would be worried about, but I used it within about 2 days.
      As far as the vinegar recipe, I’ve seen some people say that it should be refrigerated as well, but my mom always kept it at room temp, and the ingredients are typically stored at room temp, so that’s what I do.
      Hope that helps!

  • Jamie H

    Thanks, Allie! One of my favorite things about these recipes is that I always have the ingredients on hand!

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  • Samantha Bentley

    I wanted to make this with the coconut oil but didn’t have lemon. So I made it with the apple cider vinager, dash of cinnamon, honey and some coconut oil. And I warmed it up just like you. I have an awful cough and this seems to help some. Thank you.

    • I’m so glad to hear that it helped! Seems like this time of year our weather jumps goes from hot to cold to hot every day, and we end up getting sick. If you haven’t already, check out our elderberry syrup recipe– it has helped our sicknesses either not happen, or be over quickly! http://www.coffeewithus3.com/elderberry-syrup/

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