The Magic Eating Song

When Kimmie was little we had a lot of trouble getting her to eat. She might eat a few bites to satisfy her hunger, but then she would lose interest. To get Kimmie to eat we would sing to her. We had a long list of preschool songs that we would sing. She would focus on the songs while we spooned food into her mouth.

We would sing The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, Over In The Meadow, The Ants Go Marching One by One . . . Some of these songs we had books for, with lots of extra verses that we learned. There were Sesame Street Songs, Disney Songs, movie soundtrack songs . . .

Over the years Kimmie became conditioned to open her mouth when we sang to her.

As Kimmie moved into adolescence and one of her medicines was changed, her appetite improved and we no longer had to sing to keep her eating. Since we no longer needed to sing on a regular basis, her "eating" songs dwindled to one favorite that Dad has dubbed, "the magic eating song." The magic eating song is Over in the Meadow:

Over in the meadow in the sand in the sun
Lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one.
"Dig," said the mother.
"We dig," said the one.
So they dug all day in the sand in the sun.

It has ten verses, one turtle, two fish, three owls . . .

This song still comes in handy when we need Kimmie to take medicine or try a new food. We sing and she cannot resist. Her mouth just pops open! Sometimes she tries hard to resist and keep her mouth closed, but the longer we sing the more she gets into the song and forgets to resist.

--Mom

(This is a lead in to the next blog entry, stay tuned . . .)