can babies grind their gums?

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Over the past few days dd has been making a weird noise with her mouth which sounds like teeth grinding. She only has 3 teeth and even they aren't fully grown (she is 10 months). Can she grind her gums? It is such a horrible sound and I'm wondering if she is trying to copy her dad as he grinds his teeth whilst sleeping (which I hate). She is full of cold at the moment so don't know if that is related to this noise. It is very odd!

ds used to grind his teeth when he had two at the bottom and the top 4 coming through - it's such a horrible noise, gave me the shivers! No way at all of stopping it though. I think it must have been something to do with the novelty of having these things in his mouth, as it has stopped now!

ds1 used to do this when he was teething. I noticed ds2 do it a few times as well (again when teething). HTH

Dd ground her little pegs when she only had a few teeth, from time to time. I think it's afirly common. Now she's 17 months and the last lot are coming through. Today I heard her grinding her gums (where they must be swollen at the back) and it sounded like two wet balloons being rubbed together. Don't ask me how I arrived at this analogy... All I know is that it made me wince!

Yes! My ds did the same with his new teeth. I had a panic the first time I heard him do it as I thought he was chewing gravel in his mouth (honestly!). The sound of it completely freaked me out, but I really made the effort to ignore it as I knew any attention paid to it would just prolong it. He has stopped now, but I did have visions of him grinding his teeth to powder. As elliott said, I think it's a novelty thing which wears off.

I am trying to ignore the noise but it is horrible. Glad to hear dd isn't the only one to do it. Hope she grows out of it soon.