Last evening after  work, I noticed that Mr. Aitch had the hiccups.  He told me that he had had them for about 20 hours and he had gotten about two hours sleep.  He was up most of the night unbeknownst to me.

As we were headed out to dinner, I told him I had a couple of hiccup remedies that work for me.

Now I don’t know how I stumbled upon these hiccup remedies as there are as many remedies for hiccups as there are drops of water in the streams, rivers, lakes, seas and oceans of the world.

The first remedy is to sit straight, shoulders back, and relax.  Now tense the stomach muscles as if doing a sit-up.  Continue to relax the shoulders and breathe normally but concentrate on keeping the stomach muscles tense.  Hold that tension for at least 2 minutes.  The diaphragm will relax and the hiccups will be gone.  No scare tactics, no drinking water upside-down, no spoonful of sugar, no peanut butter.  This can be done anywhere and alone or in a crowd.

Mr. Aitch tried it while we continued our conversation.  It worked.

The second remedy worked on my granddaughter.  Most four-year-olds don’t understand how to tense stomach muscles without holding their breath.  The is best done while lying down but can be done sitting.  The hiccupper lies down or sits relaxed.  Place your warm hand on the area approximately where the diaphragm is.  If sitting up, place your other hand on the back opposite where the hand is on the front.  This will help support and relax the hiccupper.  Apply gentle pressure but not too much.  Make sure the person continues to breathe normally.  The warmth of your hand and gentle pressure should calm the diaphragm.  This remedy takes a little longer but it does work.

Do you have any tried-and-true hiccup remedies?