Ice Cream Baby

A while back, we were having problems with Taylor eating her lunch at daycare. For whatever reason, she just refused to eat. When we found out about this, we were shocked because at home, she ate everything!  We talked to her each day and asked what she ate. She always answered either, "nothing," or, "bread."  Our babysitter said that it had started to become somewhat of a game to Taylor. All of the other kids would ask her immediately when they sat down for lunch, "Are you going to eat today, Taylor?"  The babysitter said that it always seemed like Taylor wanted to eat, but she wouldn't.  I started to really get concerned.  We tried praising her when she did eat. We tried not making a big deal about it when she didn't eat. We tried having the babysitter tell the kids not to say anything about it.  Nothing worked.

One day, Taylor spotted a baby at Target that she really wanted!  This baby's tongue would come out and actually lick her ice cream cone!  Taylor thought it was the most awesome thing in the entire world and talked non-stop about it.  Now, I'm not above bribery when it gets positive results.  I had Jaden make a stair-step chart for Taylor.  Each day that she would eat at least three things at lunch, she would get to move up a step. If she didn't eat, she had to move down a step.  When she got to the top, she would get Ice Cream Baby!  Well, did it work?

Absolutely!  She loves the heck out of her baby and has eaten lunch ever since!

Now, if only we could make this magic happen for bedtime...

I'm participating in the Nester's 31 Day Challenge!