My 4 year old son is constantly gnashing his teeth together. He's done it for a long time. Initially he would just do it when he was tired or stressed - he would start to get a bit hyper and gnash his teeth. But now he does it all the time and the sound drives me crazy. He does it in any setting. It worsens if it's because he's tired or stressed (e.g. somewhere very new or busy) but it seems to be a general habit now.
Asking him to stop seems to make it worse and more often than not he will start again straight away in a kind of defiant way. So I tried explaining to him that it's not good for his teeth and that he needs to stop but that I understand it's hard to remember. I told him I'd tell him when I noticed him doing it so he could remember. I was hoping this approach would help him understand a reason why to stop as well as giving him some control rather than him feeling I was giving him instructions. It seems to work slightly better in that he stops longer but it's still all the bloody time. I noticed during his gymnastics class the other day he was both gnashing and grinding his teeth. Grinding isn't something I've really noticed before.
He doesn't do it at night when asleep.
I don't know how to handle it. I've not really tried ignoring him for any proper length of time, whenever I do it's just constant until I think shit, leaving it is making it worse and I say something. I suspect I just have to ignore and he'll grow out of it but hoping someone might have some kind of method they've used to help their child with something similar. I know I used to chew my hair when I was little and nothing my mum said stopped me.
I can't bear the sound which doesn't help.