Welcome to Monday Mornings with Dr. Mona where each week I answer your questions.

To leave a message call 954-526-2641 and I may pick your question for a future episode.

Let's get to our first caller.

My baby often gets to hiccup sometimes after eating, sometimes when she wakes up from a nap and

sometimes just randomly. Is this normal? Is there something that can be done? What should I do?

Thank you. Good morning and thank you for this question. It's a common one I get and something

that actually worries a lot of parents and it's something that we commonly see and I have nothing

that I'm worried about when babies have hiccups. Why do we get them? The same reason why adults would

get them. So hiccups are common after eating when they spit up. It's thought to be related to

irritation of the diaphragm. So the diaphragm sits right above the stomach area and the abdomen.

So the muscles at the base of the lungs, that's your diaphragm. Sometimes they spasm or cramp

common when they spit up like I said so that is something we commonly do see. Now when that happens

and you see that diaphragm spasm the vocal cords will shut which causes that sound that you hear.

So this is why hiccups happen in adults and also why it happens in children. It seems to happen

more in children because they're still coordinating their feeding. They can have more spit up so it's

very common. You'll see it like you said after eating but also just randomly. It is something that

improves with time. Similar to us right. We get hiccups as adults but we don't get it all the time.

Your baby will also start to improve in the amount of times that they get it.

Commonly newborns will have it and parents will often ask me you know oh my gosh they're

hiccuping so much and I ask I say did the baby hiccup inside of you? It's very common that they

probably hiccuped in utero and so then when they come out they're still hiccuping. So really is

nothing to worry about. It's very common it will get better. Don't do the things that you would

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