I am sorry, but I did not read the original post on clamping babies, comment
posts thereafter. I agree with Linda that birth interventions can play a big
role in intraoral hypertonicity. Interventions can wreak havoc with proper
structural alignment of the cranium to the sacrum and therfore affect the
nerves. Another possibility is allergy which works by creating
gastrointestinal pain (a stressor) which fires off the sympathetic nervous
system which in turn causes jaw clenching. I would suggest you take a
thourough allergy history (especially find out if mom is eating alot of dairy
products) then get this kid lots of skin-to-skin contact while you figure out
what is causing the problem. Sometimes clamping is from short/tight labial or
lingual frenula and sometimes it is because the tongue is not able to maintain
a good seal (hypotonic or flaccid tongue) and so the baby clamps to maintain a
grasp of the nipple as a compensation.

Any strategy that will get this baby to calm down will be helpful. I would
also minimize any other stimuli: lights, noise, excessive rocking or touching
until you find out the cause.

Hope this helps and is not too redundant!

Alison K. Hazelbaker