In less than 5 minutes, you can have your own DIY Cough Syrup, free from chemicals, preservatives, and dyes! Two awesome recipes!
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.
The last time one of my kids was sick, our doctor actually told me that we should skip cough syrup, because honey has been shown to be just as effective! While we weren’t using cough syrup, it was nice to hear that using honey for coughs and sore throats wasn’t just a crazy hippy idea, but that it actually works! Both of these recipes have honey in them.
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! We’ll start with the recipe from my mom (the kids call her Grandma Debbie).
Natural, easy to make DIY Cough Syrup. Just 2 ingredients, and no dyes or preservatives!
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar **
- dash cinnamon optional
Mix together honey and vinegar, and if desired cinnamon. You can do this with a whisk, or just put the ingredients in a mason jar and shake it.
Take 1 Tablespoon of cough syrup as needed.
**Make sure to use a good apple cider vinegar, such as Bragg's, since some that claim to be apple cider vinegar are just white vinegar with caramel coloring.
This next recipe from Coconut Mama is delicious. The last time I was sick, I made both of these DIY cough syrup recipes, and alternated between them. If you like the flavor of coconut, just use regular coconut oil. If coconut isn’t your thing, make sure you buy refined coconut oil.
No preservatives, dyes, or chemicals makes for a great DIY cough syrup recipe! This is a recipe you don't have to worry about giving to your family!
- 3 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup honey **
- 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
Place ingredients in a mason jar inside a small saucepan with several inches of water in it.
Heat ingredients over low until coconut oil melts.
Take a spoonful warm, at a time, as needed.
Keep refrigerated, and warm enough to make liquid before taking each dose.
**Using local, raw honey makes for an even more effective remedy!
***By making this recipe in a mason jar, you don't have to wash the sauce pan. When you need to use more, just reheat in the mason jar in a saucepan of water.
Either of these cough syrup recipes can be mixed into a cup of tea or hot water to take, if desired.
Both of these recipes 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. Coconut Mama’s cough syrup does separate, and needs to be warmed up, so keep that in mind as well. Grandma Debbie’s cough syrup can be shook up in the jar to mix before taking each time.
Important!!! Both of these recipes contain honey. Please don’t use these for an infant, as honey can cause botulism in babies under a year old.
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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Wow! I never thought to do this! Pinning and will try this next time we need it! Thanks!!
Thanks for pinning, Marion!
These sound great! My kids seem to have a cough straight through from October through March, so I am definitely going to try this!
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.
These look so easy to make!! I love it! Pinning!!
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!
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.
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!
I am one of those who had never thought about making your own! Pinning!
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!
What a great idea! I’ve had something similar and the taste is not the best but what cough medicine ever tastes good right?
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!
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!
This sounds great! Hopefully we won’t be needing it for a very long time but I’ll pin it, just in case. 🙂
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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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
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!
This is such a great idea. I have never thought to make my own.
I hadn’t thought of it, either, until my mom shared it with me!
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!
That’s pretty cool! I know that there are very effective home remedies for most everything, it’s just finding them that’s hard!
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
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!
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!
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!
I SWEAR by apple cider vinegar. I’m like the dad off of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and ACV is my Windex.
LOL- Oh my, I LOVE that show! My mom’s pretty big on vinegar, too, which is definitely better than Windex! 😉
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. 🙂
Sara Elizabeth, thanks so much for the feature! I’m so glad to be able to share these awesome recipes with your readers!
Visiting from A Mama’s Story – we use honey a lot, but I’m glad to have a recipe to try!
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!
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 🙂
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!
Thanks, Allie! One of my favorite things about these recipes is that I always have the ingredients on hand!
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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! https://www.coffeewithus3.com/elderberry-syrup/
Thanks for linking up at the Healthy Living Link Party! You’ll be featured at A Chat Over Coffee at the party that opens at 7 pm this evening.
Blessings, Leigh
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My husband has a head cold that moved to his chest. He has been coughing nonstop. We bought some otc name brand cough syrup that did nothing for his cough. I made the vinegar one and it stopped his cough. This is our new go to. Thank you
It’s amazing how well it works! We’re so glad to hear that it worked well for you, too! I hope your husband is feeling better!