Infantile swallowing

[tigwig]

My dentist told me that my 6yr old has the above 'problem' and that when she swallows she pushes her tongue against her teeth. I have noticed her do this a little but it seems to be a nervous thing when she is shy. I have never heard of it but the dentist said she must stop doing it or her teeth will end up really sticking out. Is this true?

[boxtops]

I don't know this one, but I used to suck my thumb until I was twelve. and I have ended up with snaggly bottom front teeth as a result.

[Sqad]

I have never heard of infantile swallowing in a child and it must be exceedingly rare.

If your 6yr old does indeed have this, then what can be done about it.....Nothing I would suggest.

I am not a dentist so I cannot say what the end result would be to the position of her teeth. As an uneducated guess, I would doubt that it would have any effect,in my opinion.

[karenmac60]

Most children seem to get braces these days anyway....

[annie0000]

apart from all the comments above, it is probably a habit and now that she is aware of it and if you tell her that she is doing it when you see her, I am sure she will soon stop. My son used to develop all sorts of strange wee habits for example he would take a really deep breath in every 20 breaths or so for a while, he stopped that and then he started to make funny grunting noise before he started to speak, he stopped that and then chewed on the neck of his t-shirts for a while. Now he's 9, he seems to have stopped them all, thank goodness!

[tigwig]

Kids do have very strange habits dont they! I thought the dentist was talking rubbish so I'm glad you have never heard of it too Sqad. I think she only does it when she's shy anyway. I will not worry about it now then and ignore her on the rare cases she does it.