Holy Hiccups!
Hiccups—nbd, right? This past weekend we visited my husband's family and my 5-month old, Crosby, had the hiccups (not exactly a cause for concern). At one point my husband and I left the room while my mother-in-law stayed with Crosby. Next thing I know my little buddy has a piece of thread plastered on the middle of his little forehead. My MIL suggested to us that placing a piece of moistened hilo, thread, on his forehead is a sure-fire way to make los hipos go away. "Es un misterio, pero trabaja," or "It's a mystery, but it works."
Soooo, it's one thing if you believe in these old wives tales—Latino style (I, myself, haven't succumbed to taking that Latina leap of faith), but it's yet another when extended family members impose their beliefs on your LO. I didn't know how to react! On the one hand I didn't want to share how crazy I thought their approach was out of a concern that I would offend them...but then I thought, could hiccups be a sign of something worse? Ugh, one more thing to research! Like any mommy with an iPhone, I Googled hiccups. After reading about them from different sites, and hearing from other mommies, I was relieved to know that hiccups are pretty normal and completely common in babies. I managed to work myself into quite a tizzy over nothing, when I should have just taken a step back to realize that this pattern of self-medication is common in our Latin culture. When you pair that up with our elders' penchant for "over-parenting," which I'm also guilty of, the result is typically an over-reaction to the simplest of things, like hipos.
Tell me: How you would handle a sitch like this?!
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Photo via Yesenia Almonte
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