What causes hiccups in newborns? What to do if a newborn hiccups

Newborns usually need careful care from their mothers because they are just born. Some first-time mothers will be very nervous when they encounter some problems with their babies. So let’s first understand why newborns hiccup. What should we do if newborns hiccup?

Newborns or infants hiccup due to three reasons: First, due to improper care, exogenous wind and cold, the cold and hot qi are reversed and not smooth, as the saying goes, "drinking cold wind" induces hiccups; second, due to improper feeding, if the feeding is not moderate, or excessive consumption of raw and cold milk or excessive use of cold medicines, the qi will be stagnant, the spleen and stomach function will be weakened, and the qi movement will be abnormal, causing the stomach qi to move up and move the diaphragm, inducing hiccups; third, due to eating too quickly or eating after crying, choking for a while can also induce hiccups. If the baby eats too much milk, the mother's nipple is inverted or the bottle is empty, the nipple is not full of milk, etc., the baby will swallow a lot of air, so after feeding, the baby should be gently picked up, the head resting on the mother's shoulder, and the baby's back should be patted to expel the air in the stomach. If the baby is not helped to exhaust in time after feeding, the baby will hiccup. As we all know, babies love to cry, and babies will swallow a lot of air when they cry, causing hiccups, so don't feed the baby immediately after crying.

1. A quick way to treat baby hiccups is to pick up the baby, pat his back, feed him some warm water, and then use your hands to stimulate the soles of his feet (you can pinch them slightly, not too hard) to make him cry and stop the sudden contraction of the diaphragm. After the baby cries a few times, the hiccups will disappear naturally.

2. If the baby just has a mild hiccup, you can use your fingertips to gently tickle his lips or ears. The nerves near the lips are more sensitive, tickling can relax the nerves and the hiccups will disappear. Be careful not to use too long nails when tickling to avoid scratching the baby's delicate skin.

3. If you smell an undigested sour odor when your baby hiccups, it means that your baby has poor digestion, which is why hiccups are easy to occur. You can gently massage his abdomen or drink hawthorn water to help digestion and invigorate the stomach. Once your baby's digestion is normal and the body is ventilated, the hiccups will stop naturally.

4. If the baby has no other diseases but suddenly hiccups, and the hiccups are loud, powerful and continuous, it is likely that the baby has caught a cold. You should apply hot compresses to the baby's chest and abdomen in time, cover the baby with a quilt when sleeping at night, and put a hot water bottle outside the quilt to keep warm in winter, and the hiccups will slowly disappear.

5. When a newborn baby has hiccups, in order to prevent the baby from becoming impatient, you can use some fun toys to coax him (her) or play some soft music to divert his (her) attention. This will gradually reduce the frequency of hiccups and the hiccups will slowly disappear.

In most cases, parents do not need to stop their babies from hiccuping, because the reason why babies hiccup is mostly due to inhaling cold air and swallowing more gas in the stomach when feeding. Babies are often not particularly painful when they hiccup. Parents can observe carefully. Although babies hiccup very frequently, their eyes are very flexible, their mental state is mostly normal, and they do not have obvious symptoms such as crying and restlessness. This shows that baby hiccups do not cause chest and abdominal discomfort like adults, so parents do not need to intervene when babies hiccup. If the baby's hiccups are severe and do not stop on their own for a long time, parents can use some methods to improve them, such as patting the child's back with a hollow palm or applying Dinggui umbilical cord stickers to the baby.

Newborn hiccups may be caused by excessive or fast eating, which results in too much air in the stomach. Therefore, newborn hiccups do not necessarily mean that they are full. After feeding, newborns need to be patted on the back to expel excess gas from the stomach. If you hear hiccups while patting, it means that the air in the stomach has been expelled. Newborns, infants, and children have different eating habits, and the amount of food they eat is different. Newborn hiccups do not necessarily mean that they are full. It may also be because they feed too quickly, or the hole of the nipple is too large, causing the child to inhale a lot of air in the stomach, so hiccups occur. Newborns will have certain symptoms when they are full, such as no longer wanting to eat.