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Hiccups in Children

Children seem to fall victim to the hiccups more often than adults. Hiccups can be annoying or even painful depending on the force of indrawn air. Home remedies and other supposed remedies have been passed around for many years, some of them interesting and others just plain odd.

  1. Medical Definition

    • The hiccup is caused by a diaphragm having spasms. Air is drawn in with jerks at uncontrolled intervals.

    Laughing

    • Children often will have a bout of hiccups after laughing hard. The spasms of laughing can irritate the diaphragm, which is still growing in children.

    Excitement

    • Like laughing, over-excitement may cause hiccups. Children are easily excitable, with kids younger than 5 being particularly susceptible.

    Air Swallowing

    • Kids swallow air more often than adults, especially children who drink with straws much of the time. Swallowed air will cause the diaphragm to spasm.

    Home Remedies

    • The idea behind home remedies is to shock the diaphragm back into normalcy. Very sour and very sweet flavors in swallowed remedies work far more often than any other, including popular scare tactics.

    Long Term

    • Hiccups are not considered dangerous, even if they last a very long time. The longest case of hiccups on record was suffered by a man in Iowa for 68 years. He suffered no noticeable damage.

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