Home remedies · Stomach, gut & nausea
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Breathe in deeply and hold for 20 to 30 seconds, then breathe out slowly; or drink cold water in small sips.
Almost all hiccup remedies work by the same route: more carbon dioxide in the blood or a stimulus in the throat interrupts the diaphragm’s reflex arc.
What works is a matter of which you try first — which is why everyone swears by something different and all are right.
Do not have small children hold their breath. Hiccups lasting more than 48 hours need assessment — something else usually lies behind them.
Do not treat yourself: strong, increasing or suddenly starting abdominal pain, a hard belly, blood in the stool or black stool, vomiting blood. With diarrhoea it is fluid loss that counts — dry tongue, little urine, drowsiness. In children and older people this happens faster.