Eat to the Beat

As I've mentioned quite a few times over the last 6 months, Leah has difficulty eating.  Her OT and I work everyday on her taking food by mouth and it is a slow process that requires extreme patience.  We celebrate the tiniest of victories.  Anyways, back to the point of this post, in order for Leah to swallow her food without freaking out and spitting it all back out on us, we have to distract her.  Our distraction techniques are quite silly and animated and I'm sure we look completely ridiculous to anyone watching, but that's what it takes.  It started out with clapping her hands and rubbing her feet and has evolved into singing songs with Leah doing motions along with us.  Typically I come up with the lyrics and tune and OT puts her own spin on it (she's a much better singer than I). We have joked that we need to record an album and call it "Eat to the Beat" for other kids with eating difficulties.  Here are some of the songs/chants:

The original- "Move it Around and Swallow it Down"

Just repeat those words with different beats while moving Leah's hands side to side and up and down.

"I've got (fill in the blank) in my Tummy"- tune of Love in my Tummy

Yummy yummy yummy
I've got fill in the blank in my tummy
And it's tasting oh so good.

Yummy yummy yummy
I've got fill in the blank in my tummy
And I'm eating like a should.

Yummy!
Yummy!
Fill in the blank
In my
Tummy!

Swallow my food- tune of We're off to see the Wizard from Wizard of Oz

I'm going to swallow my food
I'm going to swallow it down
I'm going to swallow all of my food
After I move it around.

I'll swallow swallow swallow swallow
swallow swallow my food.

I'll swallow swallow swallow swallow
swallow swallow my food.

We also sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and If You're Happy and You Know It a lot because she loves those songs.  I will often just to a "cha cha cha cha cha hey" repeatedly and spell her name like "Give me an L..."

That's all I've got so far!