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Why Do We Hiccup?

Why Do We Hiccup?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.52

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    coordinates, diaphragm, hiccups, swallows, uncontrollable, opening, medical, cases, saliva, jerk, windpipe, signal, works, attack, travels, exhale

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Why Do We Hiccup?
By Cindy Grigg 		  
1     Have you ever been embarrassed by a sudden attack of the hiccups? Most of us have. What causes that (sometimes very loud) noise? We breathe air through our nose and mouth. At first, the air travels down the same way that our food travels to our stomachs. Inside our throat, we have a kind of swinging door that opens and closes. That door is a flap of tissue called the epiglottis. The epiglottis keeps our food from going down our "windpipe" or trachea that takes the air to our lungs. Try swallowing. Do you hear a small sound in your throat?
 
2     Notice how often you swallow. Our bodies produce about three cups of saliva, or spit, every day. We are swallowing very often all day long. When we swallow, the epiglottis must close the trachea so our spit doesn't go down into our lungs. Sometimes that can happen, and we choke and cough. We usually say, "I swallowed the wrong way."
 
3     Helping us breathe is a big muscle called the diaphragm (pronounced die-ah-fram). Put your hand above your belly-button. Take a deep breath. That is your diaphragm you feel that pushes your hand in and out.

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