How to get rid of the hiccups?

butterfly1722 · May 21, 2004

I have a great trick that my aunt taught me. She was pregnant,
married to an Army man stationed in Japan. She learned this one from a nurse :) Get a glass of water. Hold it firmly. Put your mouth to the opposite side of the glass that you would normally drink from. Then bend over slightly, while taking a sip. This is the only thing that works for me. It works best witha small ( 4 0z.) glass. The first time will be messy :) I think it works, b/c you are concentrating so hard on not dumping the water down the front of your shirt.
BTW hiccups are caused bya stimulation of the phrenic nerve that runs through the diaphragm. Ex: drinking too quickly & swallowing too much air can be just enough to stimulate the phrenic nerve.
Hope this helps :)

thank you so much! i had hiccups this morning really bad and could not get rid of them, so i went on the wb on found this site and try what you said and it really did work. thank you again. :)

butterfly1722 · May 21, 2004

the one with drinking the water from the other side of the glass really does work. i had the hiccups really bad this morning and could not get rid of them on my own so i try this and it really did work.

thanks for the help!!!:)

BabyRN2Be · May 22, 2004

I'm staying with my tried and true method of pouring a teaspoon of sugar directly on the back of my throat. Never fails me, works 100% of the time for me.

Seeing as you originally posted this in Oct. 2001, I hope that your hiccups are long gone, Brian.

berry · May 22, 2004

thorzine IM

pokey sn · May 23, 2004

A TR director tells patients to do this:

Get a glass of water, while doing the sign of the cross, take a sip of water after each phrase (In the name of the Father, sip, in the Name of the Son, sip, and in the Name of the Holy Spirit, sip, Amen). It WORKS every time!!!! Prayer really does heal all things!!

kwagner_51 · May 23, 2004

Ok At the risk of sounding crazy; this is what I do:

Watch yourself as you hiccup. I watch my belly. I get tickled because of the way it moves. Staring at it stops them. It works on my kids as well.

Hope this helps!!

ChrisA · May 23, 2004

I'd just go straight to the Merck and go for a bilateral phrenicotomy right off the bat. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

jam0601 · May 23, 2004

Take something of value away from the person with the hiccups and tell them that they can't have it back until they hiccup again.

Seems to always work. Make sure it is of value though.

Jill

hock1 · May 23, 2004

I force myself to cough really hard which brings on a hiccup. After four of theses coughs, they usually go away. I discovered this because I couldn't smoke while I had the hiccups. Oh what we smokers will do (quit three years now).

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · May 23, 2004

... Get a glass of water. Hold it firmly. Put your mouth to the opposite side of the glass that you would normally drink from. Then bend over slightly, while taking a sip...

Sure sounds like a game of Twister will do it too! :)

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · May 23, 2004

... The most popular anti-hiccup methods, as collected by The Washington Post's News Research Center...

Thanks for the treatise on this malady. :)

tylerlvn · May 23, 2004

The teaspooon of sugars always works for me. I really do not know why... but, it works.