Grinding Teeth

Hey guys... I did a brief search for this subject in another post but couldn't find anything... I do apologise if it has been talked about before.

Gabby has started to grind her teeth! Neil and I both cringe when she does it and I am really worried that she's going to damage her brand-new toothy-pegs!

At the moment, I pop a dummy in her mouth whenever she does it because it's so scary!!

Is this normal behaviour? I tell her "no" when she does it but she's not very good at the "no" thing as it is, LOL.

Will she stop doing it as more teeth come through? She has 6 - 4 at the top and 2 at the bottom.

I'm not too sure what to advise for this Deb... or even if there is any advice to give. Aidyn used to do the same thing quite frequently for a little while, but now he only does it a little bit... Do you know if she has anymore teeth coming through? As that may be a cause for her to be grinding so frequently... but I agree, its AWFUL to listen to, and to think about their teethies being ground down! But I do think that it may be fairly common?

It's horrid isn't it!!!

Jacob goes through stages where he does it and we have found that rather than drawing attention to it by saying "no", we're better off ignoring it and not saying a thing because the novelty then wears off. The reason I say this is initially I think it was just something he discovered he could do.....I don't think there was a particular reason IYKWIM? But once he knew it got our attention as we'd say "no" or "ah" he thought it was clever to continue with it! So we found ignoring it resolved the problem much more quickly (even though we'd be silently cringing!)

Yeah... I think it might be the novelty of it that is making her do it.

Ambah - I'm pretty sure her next two bottom teeth are going to try and make their ascent in the near future but I am not sure if they are causing the grinding. I think it might be just for fun?? Hmm... who knows!

Melinda - good point about drawing attention to it by telling her "no". I guess we just have to grin and bear it for a while. I'll still keep the dummy handy tho. It's pretty cringe-worthy!!

Glad to know it's fairly common tho! Thanks guys!

Paige started doing this a while back when she was teething. I think the pressure from biting down and grinding gave her some sort of relief. She doesn't have a dummy so couldn't give that to her, but gave her a icy pole in the packet to chew on instead.

I noticed recently that when I'd pop Indah over my shoulder to burp her I'd hear & could feel her grinding her gums from side to side & then she started doing it on the boob, kinda squashing my nipple & rubbing it back & forth....
Yesterday afternoon I noticed a white dot on her gum & felt it, there is an ever so small sharp tooth popping up!
Now that explains her grizzliness & extra pooing of late!!!
It hasnt hurt when she mashes my nipple, but I am guessing it will soon, if this tooth cuts right through!!!
She also wont take a dummy!!!
She grabs our fingers now & tries to rub it along her gums!!!

Matthew has done it too Deb! It really makes my skin crawl th hear it but happy to say it didn't last that long. I usually gave him a teething toy to munch on to try and distract and it worked most times.

I'm happy to say that Gabby seems to have stopped doing it.... for now...
I guess it must feel good at a certain stage of teething.... glad it's over for now!

Makenzie does it too occasionally, I can't stand it (it's like the fingernails down the chalkboard thing, makes me shudder lol). I've noticed she does it mostly when a tooth is about to appear. A couple of days ago a top tooth looked very close to coming through - then she was having lunch and started grinding like crazy, then after lunch I looked in her mouth and that tooth was through - I think she ground the gum away!

I remember my boys doing it as babies too. I don't think it's a problem when they are little like that though. I used to grind my teeth at night as an adult, I know THAT was a problem (for my teeth, and DH's ears lol). Had to wear a mouth splint to bed for ages.

My little one started doing it after his eighth tooth came thru. I think it was just something that he discovered he could do. It is worse than nails down a chalkboard. He has stopped doing it now.

Kynan just started doing this a couple of days ago, when he's sitting in his highchair. I have to walk away or shove food/drink in his mouth because I hate the sound LOL! Funny though, I grind my teeth in my sleep when I'm stressed... now I know just how awful it sounds!

Jonah has started doing this too, and it's awful, I hate it when he does it, it's like fingernails on a blackboard.

Indah now has her top 2 teeth through & 3 bottom ones & grinds them literally 24/7!
It is hideously annoying...