A Good Laugh Is Nothing To Sneeze At

When my baby brother was six months old, he got startled easily. That was sometimes a problem for my mom since he was breastfed, and if something startled him while he was nursing, he’d bite her by accident. She could avoid most stuff that would scare him, but every so often she would sneeze, and that really freaked him out.

Her solution? Fake-sneezing at him to get him used to the noise. When she felt a real sneeze coming on while he was nursing, she would say, “Aachoo. Aachoo.” And then actually sneeze. It does sound silly, and it made the rest of the family laugh, but it worked. He stopped freaking out and biting her, and everyone was happy.

Fast forward to a month later. The family is all just hanging around, and suddenly my brother goes, “Tchoo.” Everyone looks at him, and he grins ear to ear and goes “Tchoo” again. At the age of seven months, he had remembered how much everyone laughed at my mom’s fake sneezing and learned how to do it himself so he could make us laugh, too!