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Ericka Swanger, hiccups for 65 days
Ericka Swanger battled hiccups for 65 days.
HICCUPS
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Girl Fights 65-Day Bout Of Hiccups

Condition Just Stopped, Mom Says

UPDATED: 8:08 am PDT June 19, 2008

A chronic case of the hiccups has an Iowa woman looking for a cure for her daughter.

Dawn Swanger called Omaha television station KETV because her daughter, Ericka, 11, started hiccupping in April as she sat in her Missouri Valley classroom and hadn't stopped.

"It started April 1," said Ericka, speaking through hiccups. "We were in English class at school, and it was no big deal. Then, a couple weeks later, we started getting worried. They hurt, but not that much any more. I got used to the pain."

The family has tried all kinds of home remedies, including a contraption called a "Hic-Cup."

"It's like a metal cup that you drink out of, and it has this rod that sits at your temple, and you're supposed to drink and it's supposed to help. So far, it hasn't helped at all," said Dawn Swanger.

"You're supposed to chug it down, but it's hard when you hiccup while you're doing it," Ericka said.

How about drinking water through a towel, upside-down? Ericka tried, but it didn't work.

Doctors have said there's nothing physically wrong, so the Swangers approached hypnotist Jeanette Laitner. The hypnotist said she would try to persuade Ericka's subconscious mind to give up the annoying, bad habit.

"It might have started out physically, but it ends up being subconscious," Laitner said.

Exactly 65 days after Ericka started hiccupping and on the very day that she was scheduled to see the hypnotist, her hiccups stopped.

Dawn Swanger said she thinks it is because she called the television station.

"I really do. Because she didn't want to do the interview," she said.

Since the pause, Ericka's hiccups have come back a couple times for about five minutes, but for the most part, she is hiccup-free, the station reported.

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