Teeth Grinding

[mats01_99]

16 month old keeps grinding her teeth, if I ask her to stop she laughs and does it more so I've just been ignoring it. However I'm worried it could do damage. Anybody got any ideas how to stop her? Many thanks

[redcrx]

my son did it a lot at that age and even now will do it on occasion.

I found that if it tried telling him not to he continued and if i ignored it it continued so I distracted him instead.

When she does it try and catch her attention and get her to focus on something else, dont mention her teeth at all but get her talking or babbling and interacting with you and some toys or something.

[Psychick]

I agree with redcrx, distraction is the best idea with grinding teeth! Unfortunately I cant do that with my daughter as she does it in her sleep (just like I have always done! lol)
Remember, these are her milk teeth and it will take years of grinding for enough damage to be caused for it to be a problem. If you can get her out of tha habit, as Im sure she will, then you really have nothing at all to worry about. As I said, my daughter grinds hers at night. She is now 6 and losing her milk teeth and has regular visits to the dentists and her grinding hasnt caused any problems.