Mealtime & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

I'm ashamed to say that at the tender age of 5 months old, I've successfully "conditioned" Penny to eat at least 80% of her meal before she is allowed to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It started when I switch on the TV for her when I go clean and wash up the aftermath of her meal.

I tried a few other channels like CBeeBies, BabyTV and Cartoonito but I'm not very keen. Penny doesn't seem bothered with any of those channels either. Growing up with American TV, I guess I'm naturally biased towards American programming and TV shows. Back in Malaysia, when I was living with my friend Lynda  and her 2 children 2 & 4, I remember Carina the 2 year old loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She used to rule the roost with her monopolising the TV remote control and her favourite channel is the Disney Junior channel. It used to drive me crazy watching those programmes repeatedly.

Anyway, I'm glad that Disney Junior channel is available on Sky 611 & 612. The first week of weaning Penny, I used to feed her once a day around 11:30am and by the time we finish, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse came up at 12noon. When I moved it to twice a day at 11:30 am and 3:00pm, again Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is available from 3:00pm to 4:00pm! Now that I'm feeding Penny 3 times a day roughly around 9am, 12noon & 3pm, I find that Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is on at all these times either on channel 611 or +1 at channel 612!

I noticed Penny getting very excited when Mickey Mouse Clubhouse comes on compared to The Hive, Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso, Curious George, etc. She kicks her feet, coo and gurgle in delight at that show! She seems to responds to that show a lot!

As part of the EAT Study requires me to feed Penny food that she isn't keen on like Weetabix & Tahini, I struggle to get her to open her mouth, eat it and not spit it all out. If I try to force her too much, she will only get very distressed and start crying. I don't want to force feed her and have her associate meal time with stress.

While trying to coax her to eat her food, from "Ahhh" to "yummy" to "yum yum" and making various different sounds, I tried to explain to her that if she eats her meal, she gets to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Imagine my surprise when she lit up and open her mouth for me in excitement! I slipped in a little food into her mouth and she surprised me by eating it! She seems to understand that she has to eat whatever I give her whether she like it or not and knows that she gets to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when she finished her meal!

So, don't be surprised when say "Mickey Mouse" or "Oh Toodles" or "Mishka Muska Mickey Mouse" with a high pitched sing song voice to coax my daughter to eat her meal. It cuts down the feeding time from 30 mins to 15 mins for non favourite food. If I give her Petit Filous or some fruit custard or fruit puree which she loves, it takes her 5 - 10 mins to devour everything! 

The question now is, what do I do when we go visit my in-laws as they don't have Disney channel there? Get my hubby to feed Penny every meal or just give Penny her favourite food? Hmmm... What a dilemma...