How to stop hiccups in a newborn after feeding?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Hiccups in babies often worries young parents, although most often it is only a very harmless reaction of the child's body to external and internal stimuli.

Not everyone knows that children begin to hiccup even in the womb - this is how the baby's diaphragm prepares for new living conditions. After the birth, the digestive and nervous systems of the child are still imperfect, the baby hardly adapts, therefore, for a long time (up to one or even up to two months) he is tormented by colic, gases, hiccups and loose stools. Many mothers do not know how to deal with the problem, how to stop hiccups in babies.

Mechanism of hiccups in babies

During the first months of life, hiccups in babies occur as a result of the fact that they still have a rather weak diaphragmatic muscle, which begins to contract even due to the slightest irritants. In excitable babies, it can even appear due to a sudden movement, bright light or sound. Its mechanism is quite simple: the diaphragm begins to involuntarily contract reflexively, while the lungs take a sharp breath, which is accompanied by a well-known sound. In fact,hiccups for a child does not pose any serious danger. However, the very fact of involuntary shuddering can frighten the baby - he worries and cries, often cannot sleep and eat normally, which leads to additional whims. What causes this condition? How to stop hiccups in a newborn?

Main causes of hiccups in newborns

Before telling how to stop hiccups in a child, it is important to know its causes. The main ones are as follows:

• the baby is cold;
• baby is thirsty;
• baby swallowed air while feeding;
• baby experienced severe emotional stress - bright light, loud sharp sound, etc.;
• a small child overeats, as a result of which the still fragile children's stomach is stretched, the diaphragm is reduced in size, and the newborn begins to hiccup intensively.

An attack of hiccups in newborns lasts on average for about 10-15 minutes. However, if the baby has frequent and longer hiccups, then the cause may be serious disorders in his body. In some cases, prolonged hiccups in newborns indicate diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, pneumonia, and spinal cord injury. Therefore, if a child has prolonged frequent hiccups lasting more than 20 minutes, he should be seen by a doctor.

Air in the digestive system

As a rule, the reason for this is the peculiarities of the digestiveneonatal systems. The walls of their stomach and digestive tract are still thin, easily stretched, and often press on the vagus nerve when bloated or overeated.

But the most common cause of hiccups in small babies is the ingestion of air into the stomach due to improper breastfeeding. In this case, the contraction of the diaphragm is a purely physiological reaction of the body, helping to burp it. If this does not happen, then regurgitation or colic is possible if the gas enters the intestines.

How to stop hiccups in a newborn after feeding?

To avoid feeding mistakes, here are a few tips to consider:

• The baby should not overeat, because the walls of his intestines are still very thin to withstand heavy loads.
• Feed your newborn at a 45 degree angle.
• If, with the rapid flow of milk, the child does not have time to swallow it, in a hurry, along with food, he also swallows air, which then comes out with hiccups. To eliminate this problem, before feeding again, the baby must be allowed to catch her breath.
• If the baby is formula-fed, it is important to monitor the hole in the nipple, as a poor-quality nipple can cause this phenomenon. Special bottles are sold that prevent air from entering.
• After feeding the baby, you need to hold it upright for a while so that milk withoutdifficulties went down the esophagus. For a baby, such support from parents is very important until his digestive system is strengthened.

How to stop hiccups in a newborn baby with emotional shock?

Newborn babies are very impressionable. Babies often begin to hiccup when frightened (with a loud sound, an unexpected touch, a flash of light or a sudden shutdown, etc.). Any emotional shock can cause a contraction of the diaphragm. There are kids for whom even going to visit is stressful. How to stop hiccups in this case? First of all, remove the irritant. Then you need to calm him down and help him cope with the shock, hug him and let the baby know that he is not in any danger. Such simple measures will be quite enough for the problem caused by hyperexcitability to pass.

Thirst

Thirst can be another reason. As a rule, drying of the mucous membrane of the mouth and digestive tube often provokes hiccups.

How to stop hiccups? Often it is enough just to give the baby water to drink.

Hypothermia

One of the most common causes of hiccups is hypothermia. If the baby is dressed not quite according to the weather, or if it is cool in the room where he is, the air conditioner is on, the window is open, etc., the baby freezes, his muscles begin to contract, which, of course, is natural.

To find out, it is enough to touch the child by the elbow and knee folds or the cervical region. How to stop hiccupsthe cause of which is really hypothermia? To save the baby from this problem, it is enough to warm him up and continue not to make such a mistake.

Periodic hiccups in babies are completely normal and most often stop quickly without causing any particular concern. However, there are situations when hiccups are a harbinger of diseases.

Hiccups in diseases

If hiccups in babies become systematic, have no apparent cause, and debilitate the child, this should not be taken lightly.

It is necessary to contact your doctor and examine your baby if:

• The duration of seizures is more than an hour (the norm is 15-20 minutes).
• Seizures occur several times a day and for no apparent reason.
• If a child cries, worries, sleeps poorly.

In this case, only experts can establish the true cause of hiccups. The doctor, when visiting the hospital, is likely to prescribe an examination for the presence of helminthic invasions. As medical practice shows, it is worms that cause hiccups in children.

How to stop hiccups in this case? Take a deworming course and all symptoms will go away. Most often, helminths are found in older children, in newborn babies this is a very rare occurrence.

Hiccups can also be caused by disorders in the spinal cord or brain. This happens if pregnancy and childbirth are accompanied by any complications, hypoxia. Here is the problem of the centralorigin. To find out the cause, it is necessary to take an x-ray and undergo an ultrasound (ultrasound examination). How to stop hiccups in an infant in this case? Contact a neurologist who will prescribe treatment.

Hiccups can occur with problems of the liver, pancreas and digestive system. In this case, consultation with a gastroenterologist is necessary.

Stubborn hiccups are sometimes caused by pneumonia. These can be viral or bacterial infections. The inflammatory process irritates the diaphragm and causes it to contract. Such moments should be especially carefully treated if the baby has recently had an acute respiratory disease.

Despite the fact that such events are quite rare in newborns, you need to know about them in order to come to the rescue in time if necessary.

Conclusion

Usually, hiccups as such do not require treatment, and a doctor will most likely not prescribe any medication when referring to him. However, if the child's body signals a problem, it must be identified and eliminated as soon as possible.

When assessing a child's condition, it is very important to take into account his age. The development of babies in the first year of life occurs at a tremendous speed. Accordingly, phenomena that are considered normal for a one-month-old baby may be a pathology for a one-year-old child. If a newborn baby hiccups after eating, this is most likely nothing to worry about. When an older child begins to constantly hiccup after eating, there is something to think about.