Old wives tales- true or false?

How uncomfortable are hiccups! And once you start, it's hard to stop.Yesterday, my grandson had them.. and, everyone was suggesting remedies. "They just won't stop!" he cried in frustration between hiccups. I suggested he try a spoonful of sugar. He laughed and said, "That's not going to work." I was pleased to note, though, that it did.

So I checked, and a number of studies have shown that, yes, a spoonful of white sugar will stop hiccups in 95% of cases. Researchers haven't been able to figure out why the remedy works, but they think that 'the sugar may irritate the throat so that the nerve impulses that cause the hiccups are interrupted'.

It's interesting to note that many of the simple, old remedies and solutions for common problems are being proven accurate. Maybe gran does know best. Have you come across any true 'old wives tales' recently?

What about a nice hot bowl of home-made chicken soup when you're feeling ill. It seems that, more than just a comfort food, chicken soup may reduce the inflammation of the lungs and slow down the activity of while blood cells that can cause the inflammation. Who knew?

Have you heard that rubbing a walnut on furniture will remove scratches? Yes, that one's true, too. The oil from the walnut will penetrate the surface removing the blemishes.

For generations, mothers have crooned lullabies to babies to calm and soothe them to sleep.A recent study at a British hospital has found that, not only do lullabies help babies get off to sleep, they also ease pain. Heart rates dropped and children as young as a week old were visibly in less pain. Other studies in US have shown that newborns played lullabies put on more weight and were discharged more quickly from intensive care.

And nursery rhymes are also important. Although modern families often brush aside these old rhymes or substitute other stories and songs, these nursery rhymes play an important developmental role in language acquisition. Nursery rhymes teach important prepositions to children- under, over, beside, on, and more. Think of any rhyme- Little Miss Muffet, Jack be Nimble, Little Jack Horner- teaching it to kids will also teach these important positional prepositions.

While knowledge and information grows at an unprecedented pace due to modern technology, there is still an amazing legacy of helpful hints and remedies from previous generations that should not be overlooked. As current studies investigate the validity of many of these, we are finding that, yes, sometimes grandma really did know best. Share any true old wives tales or remedies that you have come across.