Newborn hiccups are almost always harmless and will stop on their own, usually within about 8 to 10 minutes. Your baby isn’t in pain, even if the hiccups look uncomfortable. Newborns spend as much as 2.5% of their time hiccupping, which is far more than older children or adults. The frequency naturally decreases over the first several months of life as your baby’s nervous system matures.
Why Newborns Hiccup So Often
Hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the large muscle beneath the lungs that controls breathing, contracts involuntarily. In newborns, this reflex is triggered more easily because their digestive and nervous systems are still developing. The most common trigger is swallowed air. When babies suckle, they have to coordinate swallowing with breathing, and air inevitably gets pulled into the stomach along with milk.
One leading theory is that hiccups evolved specifically to help young mammals clear swallowed air from the stomach, freeing up room for more milk. Sensors in the lower esophagus and stomach detect the air bubble, and the signals travel along the phrenic nerve and vagus nerve to trigger the diaphragm spasm. This is why hiccups so often show up during or right after a feeding. Your baby was actually hiccupping well before birth, too. In the womb, the diaphragm practices the same rhythmic contractions while the baby inhales amniotic fluid rather than air.
How to Stop an Active Hiccup Spell
If hiccups start during a feeding, pause and try these steps:
- Change your baby’s position. Shift them to a more upright angle. This can help trapped air rise and release.
- Burp your baby. Gentle pats or circular motions on the back can bring up the air bubble that triggered the hiccups in the first place.
- Offer a pacifier. The rhythmic sucking can help relax the diaphragm and calm the reflex, even when your baby isn’t eating.
- Wait it out. If the hiccups don’t stop within 5 to 10 minutes, try resuming the feeding for a few minutes. The swallowing motion often resets the diaphragm and stops the spasms.
Most hiccup spells last around 8 minutes on average. Some are shorter, some stretch a bit longer, but they resolve without any intervention at all.
Preventing Hiccups Before They Start
You can’t eliminate newborn hiccups entirely, but a few feeding habits reduce how often they happen.
Feed your baby before they get extremely hungry. A calm, relaxed baby swallows less air than one who is frantically gulping. If your baby tends to get fussy before feeds, try shortening the interval between them slightly so feedings start in a calmer state.
Burp your baby at natural pauses during feeding, not just at the end. For bottle-fed babies, that means pausing every ounce or two. For breastfed babies, burp when you switch sides or whenever your baby pulls off naturally. This keeps air from accumulating in the stomach.
After feeding, hold your baby upright for about 30 minutes. Gravity helps milk settle into the stomach and lets air bubbles rise to the top where they can be burped out. Laying a baby flat right after a feed makes both hiccups and spit-up more likely.
If you’re bottle feeding, check the nipple flow. A nipple that’s too fast forces your baby to gulp, swallowing more air. A nipple that’s too slow can make them suck harder and pull in air around the seal. You want a steady drip when the bottle is inverted, not a stream.
What Not to Do
Many traditional hiccup remedies that work for adults are unsafe for newborns. Do not try to startle or scare your baby. Do not pull their tongue, press on their fontanelle, or hold their breath. These have no evidence behind them and can genuinely harm an infant.
Do not give your newborn water to stop hiccups. The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding (or formula) for the first six months of life. Giving water to a young infant can reduce their milk intake, compromise their nutritional status, and in extreme cases cause a dangerous drop in sodium levels known as water intoxication. Gripe water products, despite their popularity, fall into this same category for very young infants.
Sugar on the tongue is another folk remedy that has no place in newborn care. Babies under six months should not be given anything other than breast milk or formula unless specifically directed by their pediatrician.
When Hiccups Signal Something Else
Occasional hiccups, even daily, are completely normal for newborns. But persistent, frequent hiccupping paired with other symptoms can be a sign of gastroesophageal reflux (GERD). In most babies, some degree of reflux is normal and resolves on its own. It becomes a concern when it starts affecting your baby’s growth or comfort.
Watch for these patterns alongside frequent hiccups:
- Poor weight gain or growth that falls behind expected curves
- Forceful, projectile vomiting where stomach contents shoot out of the mouth
- Spit-up that is green, yellow, or contains blood or material that looks like coffee grounds
- Refusing to feed or arching away from the breast or bottle
- Extreme irritability after eating that goes beyond normal fussiness
- Persistent cough or difficulty breathing
- Low energy or lethargy
Any of these symptoms warrant a call to your pediatrician. On their own, hiccups do not. A baby who hiccups several times a day but is feeding well, gaining weight, and generally content is doing exactly what newborns do. The hiccups will become less frequent over the coming weeks and months as the diaphragm and the nerves controlling it continue to mature.