For the past week, I've had a miserable cold and a miserable cough. I was coughing so much that my boyfriend and co-workers were ready to kill me and my ribs were sore from coughing so much. I had to find something to help relieve my cough. I remembered that several years ago a co-worker had told me about Delsym and how good it was. Her family had been taking it and got a lot of cough relief from it. I was sick at the same time but ended up not buying it. This time I bought it. I marched into Rite Aid and didn't even balk at the $12.99 price.


Product Details:

Delsym 12-Hour Cough Relief Liquid comes in either a 3 oz. or a 5 oz. bottle. I'm reviewing the 5 oz. bottle. It comes in a dark brown plastic bottle with a white plastic childproof cap. The bottle comes in a sealed box with an expiration date. In the case of my bottle of Delsym, I had plenty of time to use it, as the expiration date was April of 2009. The bottle also has a tamper-evident neckband seal.

The dosage for adults and kids 12 years and older is two teaspoonfuls every 12 hours. For kids ages 6 to 12, the dosage is one teaspoonful every 12 hours. For kids ages 2 to under 6, the dosage is 1/2 teaspoonful every 12 hours.

The packaging states that you should see a physician before using Delsym if you have a chronic cough that lasts as occurs with smoking, asthma or emphysema or a cough that occurs with too much phlegm (mucus). If your cough lasts more than seven days, if a cough comes back or occurs with fever, rash or headache that lasts, these could be signs of a serious condition. Additional warnings on the packaging include that if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should ask your physician before using Delsym.


Active Ingredient (taken from packaging): Each teaspoonful (5 ml) contains dextromethorphan polistirex equivalent to 30 mg dextromethorphan hydrobromide.


My Experience:

The dosage for adults is two teaspoonfuls every 12 hours. During the course of my entire life, I never liked taking liquid medications. I have always hated them and pretty recently could not take a liquid medication that my doctor prescribed for me for a sore throat - I had to have him prescribe a tablet instead. But last week I was so desperate to get rid of my cough that I didn't care WHAT I had to swallow to get some relief! I knew that Delsym was orange-flavored, so I figured it would taste like nasty cough medication mixed with a fake orange flavoring.

So I knew I had to get two teaspoonfuls down the hatch. Ugh. I sat at the kitchen table with both my boyfriend and our dog eyeing me. The dog wanted a taste. My boyfriend just wanted the drama to be over. Down the hatch it went. And, surprise, surprise - it tasted good! Orange-ish and good - and just like baby aspirin! Yum! It actually tasted great. I was pleasantly surprised and licked the spoon clean after my second teaspoonful. The dog was disappointed that there was none left for him. My boyfriend said "All that drama, and it tasted GOOD?"

So taking Delsym 12-Hour Cough Relief was easy. Now I had to see how it would perform. And I have to say, I'm pretty pleasantly surprised with how well it performs. Within about 20 or 30 minutes or so, I wasn't coughing at all. However, I was coughing if someone made me laugh or if I ate a little too much. As long as I was fairly calm and not getting myself worked up in any way, I was not coughing. Before taking the Delsym, I was coughing constantly. I couldn't get through an entire night's sleep without waking up every hour or two hours to have a coughing fit. When taking the Delsym, my cough wasn't as severe or as deep and didn't turn into a coughing fit. I couldn't talk on the phone without the coughing taking over completely. So to have the coughing go from taking over my life to just being occasional, I was as happy as a clam.

I know that Delsym is supposed to provide 12-hour cough relief, but I don't think that it really does. I really found myself needing to take my next dose after about eight or nine hours or so. I didn't though, because I didn't want to get too crazy with taking this stuff more often than I should. The coughing didn't come back full force after eight or nine hours, but it came back a little more than I wanted it to.

I am very pleased with Delsym. I finished that entire 5 oz. bottle in about six days. And at times I would take a tiny bit more just for good measure. So I probably finished the bottle a bit faster than the average person. I don't recommend taking a tiny bit more for good measure - that's just something I did because I really, really wanted relief from the coughing. I know that the directions on the package say that you shouldn't take this product for more than seven days - but when I get sick, it's never for just a few days and I ALWAYS end up with it for at least nine days. So I'll take it as long as I want to, thank you very much.

I haven't had any negative side effects since I've been taking Delsym. It doesn't make me drowsy or anything like that.

I am now using a 3 oz. bottle of Delsym in the Grape flavor. I love the taste of this too. It tastes like super-sweet, syrupy grape Kool-Aid. I didn't buy the larger 5 oz. bottle because I don't think I need an entire larger bottle to get me through the rest of this cold.


Price and Purchasing Information:

I paid $12.99 for my 5 oz. bottle of Delsym at my local Rite Aid drugstore. It is available in both the 3 oz. and 5 oz. bottle at most mass merchants including Wal-Mart, K-Mart and drugstores such as Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreen's.


Recommended: Yes