Anybody else have a toddler with some odd/silly behaviours? (jaw thrusting in DS' case)

[Kalypso]

Hi,

My almost 22 month old DS has been thrusting out his lower jaw quite a lot. It happens when he's excited or being 'silly' - for instance, he'll launch himself at me shouting 'big cuddle' and as he comes towards me, he'll push out his lower jaw (giving himself an underbite, making himself look like a miniature Gruffalo) and tense his jaw, sometimes so hard that it tremors a little. He also sometimes bites on the rubber spout of one of his sippy cups, which makes me wonder if it's related to teething (second molars?). He very rarely does it when we're out and about: only once in soft play when he was overexcited in the ball pit.

I haven't really any other concerns about his development, which is why up until now I've put it down to toddler 'silliness'. I'm just wondering if I'm perhaps downplaying its significance?

TIA.

Oh. Just mine then? :(

Sucking in / biting his cheeks as if he's doing a goldfish impression.

Flapping his arms & hands like a bird when excited.

Banging / scraping his hands together when upset and having a strop about something. (He used to have eczema on his hands so I wonder whether it's a left-over from when that bothered him.)

DS is 23 m.o.

He's having a biting phase when he says 'eat' and goes to bite something, looking at me. His second molars have all come through so I don't know what that's about.

Ear twizzling. Ds2 used to rub his upper ears if he got excited, or nervous, while shifting from one foot to the other. Dh got worried (like you OP) but I found it very sweet. I assumed he would grow out of it...which he is now, he does it far less. Every now and then he'll have a wee twizzle, but a year ago he did it a LOT.
Think it's fairly normal.

Our 13 month old does the Gruffalo thing but I've not viewed it as something to be concerned about tbh. I just assumed it was teething related.

Yes, DS twizzles his ears when tired / needing comfort. He likes to do mine too while he bf's, and used to do it to DH every time he came home. He does it less than he used to although he occasionally gets upset when he's got his eczema gloves on and he wants to twizzle his ears at night.

I remember my younger brother used to do that jaw thing, he used to knock his knees together aswell, he couldn't walk more than a few steps without putting his feet together and banging his knees, it drove my poor mum insane as we she was ways rushing!
He grew out of it and doesn't seem any worse off for it!

DS1 did exactly the same at that age, we called it his "rottweiler" face but mini Gruffalo sounds much sweeter

I wonder if it's a developmental thing which they learn to inhibit, it was a fairly short lived (few months) phase you'll be pleased to hear

mine does the mini gruffalo face, less now than he used to, but its always in excitment of a cuddle - whether its me, daddy or his favourite cuddle toy, that face happens as he's diving on you - and he does actually bite the cuddle toy but not us thankfully!!

Mine pulls his eyelashes. Sometimes he throws something and then flaps both his hands up and down. Odd creature.

Mine balances thigs on his thumb,literally anything he can,hasdone since around 5mo,now 16months

Hi, I see this 6 years old now! Did anything ever come from any of the little ones that did the jaw thing? My son, who is now 3, has done this when excited or silly since I can remember and still does this if he's feeling really silly. It looks quite aggressive when he does it around the other children but I know he's just excited. He used to bite when excited too when he was 18 months but he stopped that. He is very heavy handed and will jump on you full force if he wants a cuddle!
I thought it would be interesting to hear if they all grew out of this?
Thanks, Donna

Hello, I'd love an update on whether these kids grew out of this and when. My nearly 4 year old does it. It's great to hear it's more common than I thought.

My son is almost 4 years now and he does the hands flapping together with jumping when he gets excited. He now started to do the jaw thing recently, he also unnecessarily says 'Ba', 'Ah' like words (incomplete) words when he is talking to himself. Makes us a bit worried. Did anyone face this and at which age ur kid overcame this?

Update on my boys habit, I think he stopped doing this around age 4 maybe, he is 8 now.
he has always been a unique character and we always suspected possible high functioning asd with many of his behaviours and anxieties when he was young. For example he had a few excessive habits that to me seemed like stims.

he never had any big issues with schools or teachers and always had feedback he was fine at school so we never persued a diagnosis.
he gets on well at school now and has friends and is happy 😊 I presume he does not have asd, or else it is very mild/ high functioning if that’s possible?
I hope this helps anyone seeking information updates 💕

Yes! My 21 mo old does this too! And then I see him chewing his food sometimes like that. Not sure what’s going on! All his other developments are good and normal.

My son does this! Did you ever figure out what it was and did he grow out of it? :)

Oh, what a lovely blast from the past! Where did that time go? I have just read this aloud to my 15 year old boy, who laughed to hear about his younger self.

It was either a movement he liked doing, or just an early tic (an involuntary repetitive movement). He had a series of minor tics until he was around 8 or 9, when they faded away. I noticed them all, and worried - especially with the throat clearing and nose twitching ones which got very frequent at one point. I even took him to the GP at one point (aged 6), but in the end, he grew out of them, which was just what the GP had assured me was most likely to happen.

Nobody else ever really noticed them; it was only me who was hyper aware of them. I do remember watching my son’s friends at one point, and feeling less anxious once I realised that every single child did the odd little repetitive movement now and then! I wish now I had spent less time worrying over it.

So my advice is don’t worry in the slightest - enjoy your boy’s sweet little quirks. He’ll be a big strapping lad in the blink of an eye 😊

Aww, that's a lovely update!

It's true when they're small you worry about absolutely everything then it goes away and you forgot it was even a thing!