My baby has started to grind his teeth. It is a noise that gives me goose bumps, I hate it so much, and worry about what it is doing to his teeth. How serious is this?

There are a couple of different reasons why babies do activities like tooth grinding. Firstly it can just be part of the whole discovery mode that he is in. Suddenly he has discovered that if he rubs his teeth together, they make this loud and satisfying noise. If this is the reason, then he will gradually lose interest in it, and it will be replaced by his new favorite behaviour.

In addition, this may be one of the way that baby copes with tension. Babies do experience stress, and they find strange ways to deal with it. Head banging, rocking and hair twiddling all fall into this category. It may be that when baby is trying to go to sleep, the grinding of teeth helps him reduce his stress levels enough to doze off. So adding some extra quiet soothing play and cuddling, especially at the end of the day, may reduce or even eliminate his need to grind. He may also find other ways to cope with his stress as he gets older, and stop grinding of his own accord.

If you feel that the amount of grinding is excessive, and that it is increasing in duration or intensity, then it is worth discussing this issue with your doctor or dentist.