Behavioral treatment of chronic belching due to aerophagia in a normal adult.

One healthy young learners man had 18 loud belches every five minutes. The cause was aerophagia—he swallowed air without noticing.

Therapists taught him open-mouth diaphragmatic breathing. He practiced at home with a hand on his belly and a mirror to keep his mouth open. No pills, no devices.

Belches fell from 18 to 3 per five-minute block after one week. The gain held over the study period with zero booster sessions.

The man also said his stomach pain and bloating vanished. He used the breathing trick any time he felt gas building.

Phillips et al. (2019) tried the same breathing move on three kids with autism. Only one child’s aggression dropped; the other two needed extra rewards. The difference: the adults here practiced every day on their own, while the kids got brief cues and no daily homework.

Wolitzky-Taylor et al. (2022) showed that a short, self-run plan can cut body-based habits like rumination. Their adults scheduled “worry time”; our adult scheduled “breathing time.” Both studies prove you can hand a client a one-page script and still see big change.

Gabriely et al. (2020) compared slow breathing to full mindfulness. Mindfulness won for attention, but both groups calmed their heart rate. Our paper keeps it simpler: skip the meditation apps, just open-mouth belly breaths.

You can erase chronic belching in one session. Teach the client to breathe slow through the mouth while the belly rises. Have them practice twice a day for two minutes and use the skill before meals or meetings. No data sheets needed—just count belches for five minutes and watch the numbers fall.