Ginger eases kids’ upset tummies

AS Enid Blyton knew when she created the Famous Five, children love ginger beer.

Now it seems lashings of ginger beer with ginger biscuits might help children who are struggling with sickness.

A study has found children with stomach bugs given droplets of ginger suffer fewer and less severe bouts of vomiting, and are less likely to need time off school.

While ginger has been found to work for morning sickness in pregnant women, with the Duchess of Cambridge trying ginger biscuits for hers, there had been no previous research into children.

But a study of 141 children aged one to 10 found it really does work for acute gastroenteritis.

The research, by Dr Roberto Canani at Naples University, found children given ginger diluted in water suffered a fifth fewer episodes of being sick.

Ginger biscuits and beer probably do not contain as much ginger as the amount which had this effect in the study.