The Proof Is In The Pudding
Woolworths TASTE|May/June 2021
When Seb gets a case of hiccups, Sam Woulidge and her husband deploy a plan that involves hugs, science … and a self-saucing lemon pudding
Bianca Strydom
The Proof Is In The Pudding

Seb hates hiccupping. It distressed him from the time when he was a small baby. The other day I fetched him from school. “How was your day?” I asked. “I had hiccups,” he told me sadly. Having hiccups is a Big Bad Thing.

There are all sorts of old wives’ tales about how to make hiccups stop: drink a glass of water upside down (how is this even possible?), or give a hiccupping person a fright, or make the victim hold their breath. None of which I was prepared to inflict upon my beloved son.

Instead, I decided I would hold Seb tightly to me – heart pressed against heart – and we would count down the time between hiccups. When a hiccup would come, I’d go “Oh no!” in mock exasperation and start counting again from the beginning.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, oh no! One, two, three, four, five … oh no!” And so it would go until he started laughing and the hiccups magically disappeared.

It’s our thing. He is eight and we still do this. Of course, he has now learned to manage the hiccups on his own, and he has become fascinated about why we hiccup. So am I. Charles Osbourne held the world record for having hiccupped for 68 years, which is quite frankly horrifying.

This story is from the May/June 2021 edition of Woolworths TASTE.

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This story is from the May/June 2021 edition of Woolworths TASTE.

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