Burping, farting, smelling the fumes of a candle or immersing your face in ice water are effective cures for hiccups. If that doesn’t work, ask someone to strangle you or jump out of a plane.
That is what I learnt when my 9-year old daughter had a bad case of hiccups, and she wouldn’t drink the sugared water I suggested.
“I would rather you scared the hiccups away,” she said.
Ever tried to scare a little girl who watches too much Cartoon Network, where characters regularly fall from great heights, get shot, squashed and bombed without dying? It’s very hard work, especially when the subject keeps saying of your most innovative efforts, “That’s so lame! Try something else.”
I was just about to give up on that useless exercise when she suggested that I strangle her, as one of her school friend says being strangled is an effective cure for hiccups.
I’m sure that’s true. Dead girls don’t have to worry about the hiccups. However, I did not want to spend the rest of my life in jail for culpable homicide, whining that the victim begged me to do it. An Internet search for a cure was a much better option. Surely someone out there knew of an effective and safe cure?
There were a number of medical information sites that had useful information, but a collection of hiccup cures on music animation site caught my imagination (http://www.musanim.com/mam/hiccup.htm)
The collection is huge, and to my mind, very interesting. I wonder if the site owner is systematically testing the cures?
Here are some of the suggested cures:
1. Make yourself vomit.
2. Talk non-stop for ten seconds.
3. Scream for as long as you can.
4. Think of all the bald men you can.
5. Tell yourself "I'm not going to hiccup again."
6. Don't do anything; just wait for the next hiccup.
7. Put a spoon in a glass of water; drink the water with the handle of the spoon resting on your forehead.
8. Put a knife in a glass half full of water; drink all the water leaving the knife in place.
9. Hold your left ear with your right hand and your right ear with your left hand and pinch the lobes slightly, while you do that, have a friend hold a glass of water to your mouth and drink it. (At this stage, getting strangled sounds like an easier option!) 10. Jump out of a plane.
The site also has a list of children’s books about hiccups.
Damaria Senne is a journalist and author based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She writes about the telecommunications industry in South Africa and Africa, including cellular, mobile and wireless technologies and messaging news and trends.
Damaria is also an author and would like to write books that inform, educate, empower and entertain for parents and children.
Source: www.articledashboard.com
