Dance, Eat, Repeat!

Audrey has had limited interest in baby food since we started her on it at 4 months. I hadn't sent her to daycare with any because of this, wanting her to get some more practice at home before sending her off into the wide, wide world of daycare. When she didn't eat much there the day before, I decided to try it and see what happened. I warned her teacher in the morning that it would likely be an experience, with Audrey needing to have whatever was on the menu first put on her lips, then allowing her to decide whether she will agree to eat anymore (she typically only opens up for strained peas mixed with oatmeal - yuk!). Well, when I went to pick Audrey up, her teacher was so excited to tell me about Audrey's day. She said that Audrey had eaten all her baby food. This has never happened so I asked how that was possible. Her teacher said that Audrey seems to need musical accompaniment when eating. Now, her teacher has told me repeatedly that Audrey is very stringent that the music keeps playing in her classroom. She tends to only stop what she's doing when the music stops, and she then gives her teacher a look of "Aren't you going to do something about that?". Ok...apparently, she started dancing after being put in the highchair, her teacher then danced with her, and then Audrey opened up. They repeated this game until she'd cleaned her plate clean. I thought I had tried everything, including resorting to using a loud screeching sound which for some reason results in Audrey opening up wide! I'm not sure what kind of music Eric thinks they play at daycare, but when I told him this story as I was getting Audrey reading for her dinner, he proceeded to turn on some Run DMC song. It wasn't as effective, but Audrey seemed to think it was entertaining all the same.