Efficacy of ginger as antiemetic in children with acute gastroenteritis: a randomised controlled trial

Summary Background Ginger is a spice with a long history of use as a traditional remedy for nausea and vomiting. No data on the efficacy of ginger are presently available for children with vomiting associated with acute gastroenteritis (AGE). Aim To test whether ginger can reduce vomiting in children with AGE. Methods Double‐blind, randomised placebo‐controlled trial in outpatients aged 1 to 10 years with AGE‐associated vomiting randomised to ginger or placebo. The primary outcome was the occurrence of ≥1 episode of vomiting after the first dose of treatment. Severity of vomiting and safety were also assessed. Results Seventy‐five children were randomised to the ginger arm and 75 to the placebo arm. Five children in the ginger arm and 4 in the placebo arm refused to participate in the study shortly after randomisation, leaving 70 children in the ginger arm and 71 in the placebo arm (N = 141). At intention‐to‐treat analysis (N = 150), assuming that all children lost to follow‐up had reached the primary outcome, the incidence of the main outcome was 67% (95% CI 56 to 77) in the ginger group and 87% (95% CI 79 to 94) in the placebo group, corresponding to the absolute risk reduction for the ginger versus the placebo group of −20% (95% CI −33% to −7%, P = 0.003), with a number needed to treat of 5 (95% CI 3 to 15). Conclusion Oral administration of ginger is effective and safe at improving vomiting in children with AGE. Trial registration: The trial was registered on https://clinicaltrials.gov/ with the identifier NCT02701491. In a double‐blind, randomised placebo‐controlled trial in pediatric outpatients with acute gastroenteritis (AGE)‐associated vomiting the oral administration of ginger resulted effective and safe at improving vomiting.