My 11 month old has eight teeth. He grinds them all the time. He is also chewing on my table/scraping the paint off with his teeth and on his crib. I have never seen a baby do this before. Have you ever experienced this? Do you know of anything I can do to make him stop?
Thanks everyone for you comments. I will be taking him to the doctor next week for his well baby appt. Until then, I will be keeping an eye on him...and try not to make it a big deal. He hasn't been doing grinding his teeth as much lately and at least now I know it is normal. We have some things around here that he can chew on just in case...and plenty of Cherios to get us through for now. Thanks again for your advise and support.
My son did that until he got molars. I would get a plastic crib protector. It's nothing to worry about.
Hey C.... I'm sure its totally normal for your little one to be grinding.. He is probably just getting new teeth. Just in case though I work in a dentist office that deals with really young children all the time and there seems to be a pattern of kids that grind their teeth and having big tonsils... so you may want to give his throat a quick look just to check... Hope this helps...
C.,
The crib that my younger daughter just recently had turned into a day bed still bears the marks of the chewing that my OLDER daughter (now eight years old) left on it when she was teething. She was a fast teether, being done by age one. She didn't fuss about it, she chewed instead.. This is a phase, and is normal, normal, normal at your son's age. If he's still doing this a year from now, THEN call your pediatrician.
My older daughter is fine now. Her jaw, etc...all normal for an eight year old.
~D.
C., My son does this in stages (when teething mostly) This to shall pass.
Hi C.! Yeah, my 11-month-old also grinds his seven teeth, not all the time but a fair bit, and he also chews on the furniture. I've heard of quite a few babies who do/did it. Apparently they just grow out of it. I tend to take my baby around with me and I spend a crazy amount of time on the floor playing with him, and it keeps him away from chewable furniture and distracts him. But then, I don't have to work and I'm a really fast cook!
My son grinds his teeth every time he's getting a new tooth. I try to give him acceptable things to chew on and it helps a little (until he sets them down somewhere). He got a lot of teeth all at one time around your son's age (five, I think), so he really needed all the oral imput he could get. Thankfully, when the teeth came in, he stopped doing it.
My first son was grinding his teeth a lot around a year old. At first I don't think he realized he was even doing it and when I started telling him to stop, it became a game to him. He thought it was funny so he did it even more! Once I stopped making a big deal of it (even though the grinding sound is awful and the habit is a little concerning), he stopped on his own.
I think it might just be a phase about experimenting with his new teeth. Maybe try a rubber protector you can put on the crib rail. I have seen them at Babies R Us. Hopefully your son will outgrow it but in the meantime I would offer him a teether everytime you notice him start chewing or grinding.
Hi C.,
My first son was very much the way you're describing: he needed LOTS of oral "input" to self-calm. He ground his teeth, destroyed two sets of sippy cups (the plastic ones, not rubber-tipped), and chewed the faces of some of his animals.
I had to make sure everything around him was "chew-safe" for about a year, and it slowly began to ease over time. But the sound of him grinding his teeth gave me the willies (wooh!)
Check with his Ped if you're worried about his teeth, but don't expect him to just quit. He may be like my boy and "need" that particular kind of input.
He could also be a potential "biter" in the future, so now's the time to watch for this behavior and, "nip it in the bud" if you see it ;)
Good luck!
T
C.,
I would talk to your doctor!! I have grinded my teeth all my life off and on (usually when asleep) and it has caused problems with my teeth. The dentist told me that when I grind them I am causing cracks in my teeth which make it easier for the teeth to go bad. I have had to have quite a few teeth pulled. I am supposed to wear a guard when sleeping which stops this but my gag relexes do not allow me to wear it. Talk to your doctor, maybe they will know what needs to be done before your little ones teeth have issues as a result.
Good luck to you and I hope your doctor is able to help you!
