Most baby hiccups stop on their own within 5 to 10 minutes and don’t need any intervention at all. If you want to help them along, a few simple techniques like burping, offering a pacifier, or adjusting your feeding routine can relax your baby’s diaphragm and shorten a bout. The good news: hiccups are not only harmless for babies, they may actually serve a developmental purpose.
Why Babies Hiccup So Often
Hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the dome-shaped muscle beneath the lungs, contracts involuntarily. In newborns and young infants, this muscle is more reactive than in older children or adults, which is why babies hiccup far more frequently. Swallowed air during feeding is the most common trigger, but overfeeding, eating too quickly, or sudden temperature changes can also set off a bout.
Interestingly, those hiccups may be doing something useful. Researchers at University College London found that each diaphragm contraction during a hiccup triggers a distinct pattern of brainwaves in a newborn’s cortex. The brain appears to use these signals to learn how the breathing muscles feel when they contract, essentially building the neural wiring that will eventually allow your baby to control their breathing voluntarily. So while hiccups look uncomfortable, they’re part of normal neurological development, and most babies aren’t bothered by them nearly as much as their parents are.
Simple Ways to Stop a Hiccup Bout
Offer a Pacifier
Non-nutritive sucking can help relax the diaphragm. If your baby starts hiccupping between feedings, letting them suck on a pacifier is one of the easiest things to try. The rhythmic sucking motion calms the muscle spasms that cause the “hic” sound.
Pause and Burp
If hiccups start during a feeding, stop and burp your baby before continuing. The pause itself slows down gulping, and burping releases trapped air that may be irritating the diaphragm. You can burp in whichever position works best for you:
- Over the shoulder: Hold your baby upright with their head resting on your shoulder, and gently pat their back.
- Sitting on your lap: Support their chest and head with one hand while patting their back with the other.
- Face-down on your lap: Lay them across your legs with their head slightly higher than their chest, and pat or gently rub their back.
If the hiccups don’t stop within 5 to 10 minutes, try resuming the feeding for a few minutes. Sometimes a little more milk is all it takes to settle the diaphragm.
Keep Baby Upright After Feeding
Hold your baby in an upright position for 10 to 15 minutes after each feeding. This helps trapped air rise and escape through a burp rather than sitting in the stomach and triggering hiccups (or spit-up).
How to Prevent Hiccups Before They Start
You won’t be able to eliminate hiccups entirely, but you can reduce how often they happen by making a few adjustments to your feeding routine.
Feed your baby when they’re calm and before they get extremely hungry. A frantically hungry baby gulps faster and swallows more air, which is the number one setup for hiccups. If you’re bottle-feeding, burp after every 2 to 3 ounces (60 to 90 ml). If you’re nursing, burp when you switch breasts. Even if your baby doesn’t seem uncomfortable, the pause and position change alone slow down their eating pace and reduce the amount of air they take in.
For bottle-fed babies, also check the nipple flow. A nipple that’s too fast forces your baby to swallow excess milk and air; one that’s too slow makes them suck harder and gulp air in frustration. Tilting the bottle so milk completely fills the nipple before offering it can also cut down on air bubbles.
What Not to Do
Many of the hiccup “cures” that work for adults are unsafe or ineffective for babies. Do not try to startle or scare your baby, press on their soft spots, pull their tongue, or hold their breath. These tactics have no evidence behind them and can genuinely hurt an infant.
You may also come across gripe water as a popular suggestion. Gripe water is an herbal supplement, not a medicine, and it is not regulated the same way as food or pharmaceuticals. There is no scientific evidence that it works for hiccups (or gas or colic), and pediatricians generally do not recommend it because safety and quality standards vary widely between brands. Multiple gripe water products have been recalled over the years for posing dangers to babies. Plain water is also off-limits for infants under six months, as it can disrupt their electrolyte balance.
When Hiccups Signal Something Else
Occasional hiccups, even daily ones, are completely normal for babies and tend to decrease as they get older and their digestive and nervous systems mature. Most infants hiccup noticeably less by the time they reach their first birthday.
In rare cases, very frequent hiccups that accompany other symptoms can point to acid reflux. This is worth looking into if your baby consistently arches their back or seems very irritable during or after feedings, spits up forcefully (projectile vomiting), refuses to eat, isn’t gaining weight, or seems unusually low-energy. Spitting up green or yellow fluid, or anything that looks like coffee grounds, also warrants a call to your pediatrician. If your baby is content, growing well, and just hiccupping a lot, reflux is unlikely to be the cause.