Hiccups are called persistent, involuntarily repeated short breaths with a sharply narrowed diaphragm. In most cases, hiccups are a normal physiological phenomenon common to both children and adults. If it is uncomfortable, you can try to stop it, but before that, first try to find out the cause.
There are two types of hiccups - continuous and episodic. The main causes of episodic hiccups in children are hypothermia, dry food, overeating, prolonged thirst or increased nervous irritability of the child. Such hiccups do not require medical attention. Offer your baby a drink of water, distract him with something. If your baby is too cold, give him warm tea, milk and honey, and wear warm clothes. A good way to stop hiccups is to apply deep breathing. Let the baby take a few deep breaths and hold his breath for 10-20 seconds. This will calm the phrenic nerve and distract the baby. Often, episodic hiccups occur in infants during the first months of life. Feeding air enters the stomach and causes colic and hiccups. Take your baby in your arms after eating and hold him upright. After a few minutes the air will come out and the hiccups will disappear. The baby may hiccup from overeating, signs of overfeeding will be profuse regurgitation. You can try feeding your baby more often, but in smaller portions. Also, the cause of hiccups in infants can be copious flow of milk from the bottle or mother's breast. In this case, the baby gags, the diaphragm contracts and hiccups begin. In this case, you need to change the nipple or feed intermittently, periodically removing the breast nipple from the baby's mouth. Do not try to rid your child of the hiccups by scaring them. You will not achieve the expected result, and the baby will shatter the nervous system. With age, the child will have fewer and fewer hiccups. Even if all of the above methods do not help, just wait, the hiccups will soon go away on their own. Prolonged, debilitating hiccups can be organic. It is observed with lesions of the brain or spinal cord, with neuritis or compression of the phrenic nerve, with diabetes and some infections. But these diseases are extremely rare in children. Most often, prolonged children's hiccups are a symptom of any parasitic diseases - helminthic invasion, giardiasis. In case of prolonged hiccups, it makes sense to see a doctor. It is necessary to examine the child, primarily for helminthiasis.
