My 9 1/2 month old is grinding her teeth. She currently has five teeth (top front middle, bottom front middle and bottom front incisor). At the moment she has three more teeth coming in and I am wondering if the grinding perhaps helps to alleviate the pressure on the gums or if it is her way of familiarizing herself with her new teeth. Has anyone else had their babies grind their teeth? I put an email in to her doctor just to find out if this is normal or if there is anything I can do to help her stop (i.e. special teething ring or something). She does have some teething toys, but for the most part likes to chew on everything else but - Murphy's Law I suppose!
My son who's almost 10 months just started doing that. I think I recall my older two kids do that too. It's probably just b/c they "found" their teeth like Erica M said. I just try to distract him when he does it.
My youngest son is 4 almost 5 and he grinds his teeth when he sleeps.
Our dentist said that at this point there is not much we can do about it.
He said that we can get him a mouth guard for his mouth when he is bigger.
I wish your little one the best.
Take care.
My ped always said the grinding was a way of self soothing during teething, apparently the grinding has some kind of numbing effect so it lessens the pressure felt while teething.
both of mine ground their teeth.
I would take my fingers and put pressure on their cheeks to push open their mouths and tell them " No" and to stop. It took a few tries but they eventually stopped.
My 5 year old grinds her teeth. Her dentist said it was very common in children and not to worry about it. Most kids outgrow it. He also said it does not cause any damage.
Lisa
She's just "found" her teeth. It may be something that stops eventually or she may be like me and continue it for the rest of her life. There's really nothing you can do to stop it at this point. When she gets older, she can be fit w/ a mouth guard to wear while sleeping if this continues.
Hello New Mom,
My first daughter did the same thing (second daughter just cut her first two teeth). I was told by her doc that it IS to relieve the pressure on the gums due to teething. We used teething tablets (forget the name), but are all natural, and they dissolve on the gums as you rub them in. We put them on our daughter's gums before she went to sleep and it seemed to help a little bit - it continued on and off and stopped completely when all of her teeth were in.
Whatever you do, do NOT use baby oragel/anbesol. It works wonders when it is first applied, but it tends to tighten the gums so when the teeth actually break through, the pain is worse.
Good luck, and I agree with the e-mail you sent to the doc just in case it is something more serious,
L.
My son grinded his teeth too. It went on for a few months when he was round your daughter's age while he was teething. I asked my ped about it when we were there for a doc's appt and he said that his kids did this too and he asked their dentist about it and it was normal. My son grew out of it so I'm guessing if they do it beyond a certain age that it might not be considered normal anymore.
