What can I do about my baby's teeth grinding?

[MrsThierryHenry]

He's 13 months old and has been teething for months. I think he grinds his teeth to combat the pain, but it's SO LOUD! I'm scared he's going to split his teeth.

I've tried admonishing him, I've tried carrot sticks and teething biscuits (he chucks them, ever time without fail). Does anyone have any other suggestions?

They all do it in my experience, it's a phase and doesn't last long. Just try to ignore it - easier said than done I know! They are just trying out these interesting new things in their mouth, and it doesn't seem to do any harm.

Don't mean to put a dampener on that but DD is still doing it at 3 and shows no signs of abating. I will be watching this thread with interest - sorry to not be able to give any tips myself!

Thank God it's not just my DS! I don't know any other baby that does it so I've been really worried!

Oh, and good luck Cashncarry!

God it's awful isn't it? DD does it in her sleep and when I hear it, I just feel like I'm eating chalk or cotton wool or something. She came up to me today doing it as if she wanted a reaction - the little monkey!

dd2 still does it and she is 5. she does it at night as well and i can hear it in my room. drives me potty. but nothing i can do about it.

Buy earplugs . Most babies seem to do it (at least when I asked around my friends when DS was doing it) and it is so incredibly loud. DS did stop, though -- if he were still doing it at three I think I'd go spare.

For adults you can get special mouthguard things to stop tooth-grinding. I wouldn't have thought you could use them in young children, though (need to be specially fitted and would probably freak out a toddler).

Gekco does this
she is 11 months and only has 4 teeth
it makes me feel icky but can't really do anything about it
try and distract her into something else to do
she seems to do it in little week or so phases when she is obviously teething

I feel for those of you with older children still doing it

Mine does this in her sleep and she has all her teeth-think it may be habit now but she's 4 and it makes me cringe SO BADLY! I'm worried she'll wear them down! Think it's fairly normal though-her friend stayed for the first time the other day and they were both at it-urgh!!!

My DD did this too, when she was teething, it was awful. I was like you - I was genuinely afraid she was going to crack her teeth! I even asked the Doctor about it.

I got the impression she was doing it more when I was grimacing - so I tried to ignore it. She did stop after a while, although she would probably have stopped doing it anyway

I feel your pain! I hated that noise - hopefully you won't have to hear it for too long. The Dr did say to me that it was extremely unlikely that she would damage her teeth though, no matter how loud it sounded. That helped me!