A spoon of peanut butter

Do you get the hiccups very often?  Whenever my kids have the hiccups they ask for "a spoon of peanut butter" (not a spoonful of peanut butter, for some reason).  I heard that suggested as a cure for the hiccups one time and we've done it ever since.  I don't know if it works; it seems to sometimes, but mostly they just like it.  In fact, they often try to convince me they have the hiccups when they don't, but I am strict and not easily fooled (my sensitive hiccup-detector must be triggered several times before I'm willing to get out the peanut butter).

My mom used to have me drink a glass of water upside down (tricky).  And my cousin Spencer has explained the exact physiological causes of hiccups (which I don't recall) and set forth the foolproof cure (holding your breath for 20 seconds) but this never works for me as another hiccup always interrupts the breath-holding.  Any other cures out there?

3 comments

  1. Funny. I read it as "a spoonful" even though it didn't SAY that. And I don't believe for a moment that it works, much as I'd like to. I tried the upside down thing, too - where did that COME from, I wonder. My father's cure was tickling and it worked, but sometimes could have been more pleasant. I try to zen them away - long, slow breaths (regularly interrupted by hiccups). I am terrified, I think, of being one of those people who get them - and THEY NEVER GO AWAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. If someone else has a sure cure, it would put THAT particular worry to rest.

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  2. No cures, but I let my Max have a spoonful of peanut butter any time he wants. (It's that whole "gotta get the kid out of the 5th percentile" thing. And it worked.) I suppose your boys would think I'm the modern Mary Poppins.

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  3. I have never heard of using peanut butter, but I like the idea.

    This reminds me of the Charlie & Lola episode where Lola can't stop hiccuping--wait, have you seen Charlie & Lola before? I know you and your kids would love it. Here's a clip from the hiccuping one, and there are more on Youtube:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHJxqhT_AiQ&feature=related

    It is my favorite and my best kids' television show.

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