Almost 8-Month-old Grinding Teeth

My son was grinding his teeth for the longest time. It is very annoying. The more you some him attention towards it the more he will do it. I also posted a thing about my son grinding his teeth and I got a lot of feed back on it. I just igored it and try to get his attention on something else. and it seemed to work now he only does it once in a while. If you go to requests and responses and go to medical and then go to Dental & Orthodontics Requests my posting is there maybe something there can help you the posting is (02/12/07 J. A My son grinds his teeth) hope this helps

my daughter did the same thing. she outgrew it. :) good luck!

Hi M., I have twins and both of them at one point were grinding ! I HATED IT ! i noticed if they had a pacifier or teether in there mouth they stopped. everything I read on line about it was a lot of agravated moms who were just being told to live with it, there is nothing to do and I even heard of one mom whos kid grindng down to the gums ! dentist and docs dont worry about it now mostly because there "baby teeth" and you have a better chance correcting it when they are older w/ there adult teeth. hopefuly it is just your lil ones way of tryin out his new teeth and it will be over soon. If you dont used a paci I would deffinitaly try a teether. good luck

My daughter did the same thing around that age. She is now 17 months. My husband is a dentist and he said she is probably just figuring out she has teeth and grinding them is just a new activity (apparently this is very common for young babies to do this). We decided to just ignore it and she stopped within a few weeks. I didn't even bother saying no as sometime my daughter thinks saying 'no' is funny and it will make her do something more to get a reaction. So, for us, ignoring it (but cringing on the inside) seemed to work.

My daughter also grinded her teeth. If we said no or drew any attention to it, she did it more. We found that ignoring it, or distracting her, was what worked best. It is the worst sound though, isn't it!?

Hi M.,

My son did the exact same thing when he was your son's age. What we found out was that he only started grinding his teeth when he was teething. The friction and pressure caused by the grinding helps to soften the gums and makes it easier for the new tooth to push through. He probably did this some when his first teeth were coming through, but you didn't notice it because there weren't a top and bottom tooth grinding together at that point. Provide your son with lots of teething toys and try using one of those fingertip infant toothbrushes to rub his gums whenever you notice him grinding those little chompers. With any luck, the problem with be shortlived and disappear when all of his teeth are through. After all of my son's teeth were through but the 2 year molars, the grinding seemed to stop completely. Just know that this is normal for his age and try not to worry too much. If you notice that it continues beyond teething, bring him to a pediatric dentist. They may have more suggestions than your pedi. Good luck!

Hello,
My daughter now 8 years old used to grind her teeth when she was a baby. It started when she got her fisrt couple top and bottom teeth. I heard it was normal but I knew it would hurt her teeth. I used to tap her mouth with my finger not hard at all and just say no any and everytime I heard her. Even in her sleep. She did stop. I know that my way might not be favorable to other people, but I think just anything you do if you are constant and consistant with it It should work. Sorry for rambling.. Good luck and best wishes.. K..

Some kids need more oral stimulation than others- just as adults do. Try a "chewy tube". It worked wonders for my son.