Yahoo! Answers

Hey Guys,

Guess what? I just had a kid. Well, my wife did, but I was there to feed her ice chips and tell her she’s beautiful, so, of course, that makes me an expert. But there’s one thing I still don’t understand: hiccups. Why does my daughter hiccup so much? And does she mind?

An article from Parents.com explains that hiccups are totally normal, and are, in fact, a good thing for babies. “Hiccups are caused when the diaphragm, the respiratory muscle at the base of the chest, gets irritated and spasms. Since a baby’s stomach and torso are small, it doesn’t take much to fill his tummy to the brim and push it up into the diaphragm.” If you hear your baby hiccup, it means he or she is eating well.

A change in room temperature may cause hiccups, too. According to Baby Center, if the baby gets cold, hiccups may be more common.

So why don’t kids freak out during hiccup sessions? According to Baby Zone, “hiccups seem to bother parents more than they bother the baby.” Unlike 99% of the stuff that can make babies fussy, hiccups apparently don’t bother them. Go figure. The exception is if the hiccups affect the baby’s ability to feed. If that’s the case, consult a doctor.

So that’s the story with baby hiccups. Small stomach + hungry baby = big hiccups (and, eventually, a dirty diaper).

Thanks for reading,

Mike

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Since its introduction back in 2007, the Community Moderation proved to be extremely effective and accurate: in fact, our stats say that over 94% of deletions by the community are correct and happen within a few minutes since content is reported.

With accurate reports, reliable Answers users increase their trust and gain more influence in removing content directly. On the other hand, people who report inaccurately will see their reputation quickly decrease and will have less power. You can find more information on how the Community Moderation works in our previous posts and in the help section.

Today, we’re introducing a small change to the penalties for content removed by the community. Similar to what happens with the traditional deletions by customer care, abusers will now be deducted 10 points for each question or answer removed by the community. This change will let us align our systems and discourage users from posting content against our community guidelines.

Although very effective, Community Moderation is not perfect and occasional slips may occur. If your question or answer has been removed by the community in error you can have your case reviewed by clicking the appeal link in the email you will receive. A customer care representative will check and, if they agree, reinstate the content and give points back. However, if the appeal is rejected, the content will remain deleted and you will be deducted 10 extra points. Before appealing we suggest reading our community guidelines and testing your knowledge with our community guidelines quiz: it’s fun and, if you pass, you will earn 20 points!

We strongly believe empowering the community is the right way for keeping Yahoo! Answers healthy and free from abuse and we think this change will have a positive impact. We look forward your feedback and we encourage you to continue reporting the abuses you find on the site: doing so will result in more reputation for you and a better experience for the whole community.

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**Secret Revealed**

In South Korea, it is a commonly held belief that an electric fan can cause death if it is blowing on you overnight in a closed room.

To prevent “fan death”, the Korean government’s Consumer Protection Board urges everyone to leave a door or window open and use the oscillate function or a timer that automatically shuts the fan off. They also list fan death as one of the top five fatal summer accidents.

The exact origin of this phenomenon is not known for sure, although it allegedly emerged in the 1970s. Some people believe the Korean government may have created this ideology in an effort to save energy during the energy crisis. Oh, and fan death is not limited to just fans, it also includes air conditioners.

South Korean media outlets credit fans and air conditioners for deaths too. In fact, between 2003 and 2005, some 20 deaths were reported to Korea’s Consumer Injury Surveillance System.

Many experts in South Korea firmly believe in fan death, including respected doctors and scientists. South Koreans don’t always agree on why fans can cause death but the following theories are often cited.

Hypothermia is a common one. It’s true that if your body temperature drops low enough, you can die. However, experts claim your body temperature needs to drop by about 16°F (10°C) for this to happen. Since fans don’t actually cool the air, it is not plausible that a fan could cause this temperature drop by convection cooling alone. Not to mention, people frequently asleep outside in much cooler temperatures and survive without question.

That leads to the asphyxiation theory — the belief that somehow these fans reduce the available oxygen in the room. There is no scientific proof to suggest this is true. In North America, the believe is almost the opposite since fans are often recommended to help babies sleep (as a source of white noise).

Another theory is that fan deaths are actually suicides, but reported as fan deaths in the media to spare the family from any cultural shame associated with suicide.

A fourth theory is that the fan combined with hot air creates a convection oven like effect, raising a person’s body temperature, causing them to sweat until they are dehydrated. This theory is interesting because it’s kind of the opposite of the first theory and it could theoretically work, but not likely in South Korea. You see, the highest average temperature in South Korea is about 84°F (29°C), which is still well below body temperature and well below the temperature where the body will start to shut down and die (around 107°F / 42°C). The highest officially recorded temperature in South Korea is 104°F (40°C), just slightly above core body temperature.

The same way a fan doesn’t cool air, it also doesn’t heat it, it just speeds up the transfer of heat between the air temperature and your body. That is why you can cook something in a convection oven at a lower temperature — the fan doesn’t make it hotter, it just improves the transfer of heat. In a traditional oven you need to use a higher temperature setting to make up for the fact that still air doesn’t transfer heat nearly as well.

During extremely hot weather, heat can cause fatalities. Because fans can increase the rate at which your body temperature increases, the EPA does caution against using a fan at temperatures above 90°F (32°C). Don’t mistake this as a suggestion that fans can kill you — you are at risk of dying in extreme heat whether you use a fan or not. In terms of Korean fan death, the 90°F warning is still 6° higher than the average high temperature in South Korea.

It is interesting that this theory is so prevalent in just one country. Most people outside of South Korea do not believe in fan death and there does not seem to be any scientific evidence that a fan will kill you while you sleep.

Do you believe it? Let us know in the comments.

Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.

Sources: wikipedia (Fan Death), snopes, ask a korean, FanDeath.net, cpb.or.kr, ggweather.com, weather.com

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