Hiccups in Babies

You are enjoying your food and suddenly you hear a ‘hic’ sound and it continues till you have some water. These are called hiccups and often come without any prior trigger. Hiccups happen when we do two things together, like laughing or talking while eating or drinking. Hiccups in babies happen while feeding. Like sneezing and snuffling, hiccups are also normal and very common in babies. Very rarely hiccups happen due to any health problems. Hiccups are definitely not a health emergency, but for some people it may continue for months together. In such cases medical assistant is necessary. Hiccups are caused by a sudden, unpredictable tightening of the diaphragm i.e. the muscle at the bottom of the lungs that you use while breathing, sucking air into the lungs. Just after the muscle start moving, the epiglottis (a flap in the wind pipe which stops food and drinks going down the lungs) closes over the airway, causing the ‘hic’ sound. This is the scientific explanation for the cause of hiccups. In simple words, hiccups occur when we swallow in excess of air. Hiccups are very common with babies. They often get hiccups while being fed and also after meals. This so happens because the babies tend to swallow air when they are been fed, creating gas in their stomach leading to hiccups. This is not at all an alarming situation and does not call in for not feeding the baby. You can just follow simple steps and cure the hiccups of your babies even while feeding them. Here are tips as to how you can cure your baby’s hiccups.
How to Stop Baby Hiccups

• Hold the baby against your shoulder and pat his/ her back. Some babies tend to swallow a lot of air during the feeding process and this distends the stomach which leads to hiccups. So some gentle pats on their back can stop these hiccups.
• A baby can take in a lot of air through the feeding bottle also if the hole in the nipple is too big. The hole should be such that there is drop by drop flow and not a continuous flow. This will not allow extra air to flow in for the babies to swallow, thus preventing hiccups.
• There is a myth stating that you should not feed your baby at the time of hiccups. This is not true and thus, you should do not delay your baby’s eating process because of hiccups since hiccups will not create any problem while feeding your baby.
• Anise seeds for infants is also said to work. Add a teaspoon of anise seeds into a cup of boiling water and feed the baby two or three teaspoons. It often cures the hiccups immediately.
• If for the first few months your baby is continuously getting hiccups, then overfeeding can be one of the causes. Feed your baby in portions and with time intervals. If you have realized that you have been overfeeding your baby, then start feeding them only on demand rather than the schedule created by you. Also don’t force them to eat more than what they want.
• This is a traditional European remedy. Gripe water contains safe, fast, effective and natural ingredients for curing colic discomforts. Gripe water is being used since centuries by mothers to cure their babies from hiccups, stomach cramps, gas and colic discomforts.