Aaron's newest stim.

The dentist says he doesnt even have evidence of grinding-- but its like after every sound he makes he grinds his teeth super hard.

There's a little boy at church that is autistic and around Aaron's same age, that does the same thing.

Just wondering if any of your kiddos do/did the same thing. When I hear him to it, I usually thump his mouth and tell him no. Most of the time he wont do it for a while afterward. But he's still a kid that likes to get away with things.

*siiigh* Someone please tell me there's a light at the end of a tunnel somewhere with this one LOL!

jUnGlE wOmAn

I believe, if my memory serves me well, discussion about chewers, or biters...and, perhaps, grinders and that keeping him busy by chewing on some gummy toy. I remember looooonnng time a co worker who couldn't help it to chew on every pencil while we had meetings, or just when was thinking pondering without realizing doing it. A friend's NT son grinds his teeth when he sleeps so he wears special dental apparatus and he goes through several a year.

Instead of saying don't do that give him something to grind on? I don't know.

My son never did that. Only when he was on large amounts of Valproic acid that he bit spoons, etc. so bad to wear off his teeth, when the VPA was reduced he stopped and the doc said that the drug was causing 'too much tension'.

seems some autistic like preasure of sort. there is some lady professor off in colorado who works with animals (cattle and such) who has a preasure suit (air pressure) and she lays in it. not sure exactly why? but i grind my teeth and seems i really do it a lot. like awake and asleep when thinking and seems just a ton through out the day. seems there could be a corilation of the pressure "sensors" from my teeth and the doctor ladies pressure suit? or maybe i am reaching for this association? but they seem very similar and i do get an ejoyment of sort when grinding my teeth?

oh plus my wife is starting while she is sleeping so the dentist just told her to start wearing the guard at night.

oh plus i use to (and still kinda do just not as much) stick my tongue out when i am thinking. and i would wisper say my words sometimes. meaning i would say something and then say it again just in a wisper right after. that actually has no corrilation to the bitting and grinding thing. but oh well. it does deal with my mouth.

Its really great to get your perspective Moose!!

Temple Grandin is who you are referring to. She used a cattle press to get over her sensory disorders.

I am a total mouth sensory person. Pens and pencils never survive being around me. I always chew them up. I really wonder if Aaron does, in fact have a sensory issue that its helping him deal with.

When he started school last year, they gave him this little rubbery letter Q to chew on.

I tell you-- I bit down on it really hard and I felt it in my sinuses when I released my bite-- and it felt REALLY good to do it.

So, you're probably right about the teeth grinding.

Thanks for the input!!

I have had problems like bruxism, nail biting and chewing on the inside of my mouth growing up and through adulthood. I still have these periods where I want to chew the inside of my mouth. This is one symptom that has been pretty presistent in hanging around.

This is a nervous habit, which I think is related to my vitamin b6 deficiency. But I actually think my low b6 levels may be doing something to my magnesium levels. Nervous habits seem like they are more about magnesium. But this is one symptom that seems to persist for me.

In the book Enzymes for Autism, the auther calls this the chewies. This is a pretty common problem though.

I will even sometimes consider chewing a piece of gum to deal with that need to chew. But most times I grab a sublingual b6 supplement that seems to work for me.

The bruxism is more damaging to teeth in the long run.

or tooth grinding or clamping the jaw, responds to magnesium.

Here is a link I found a while back:
http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/bruxnet/ploctran.htm

I have started a new magnesium thread on our Vitamin/mineral board
here. It gives links to foods high in magnesium for children, or the magnesium
cream made by Kirkman labs.

Some posters on the OBT forum at autism used the cream effectively for
children. Supplements are problematic for small kids...it is safer to use food
to obtain it.

This is a dosing chart for those interested: