# My toddler and the dog bowl



## afishwithabike (Jun 8, 2005)

My DD has quite a love for the dogs water bowl. She likes to play in the water and occasionally dump it. The other day she decided to dump it as I was trying to do about three things at once. I was quite upset. I looked back after a second and I saw that she was cleaning it up. I praised her for it. I went to pick up what she was cleaning it with and realized it was a paper I was saving because it had important information on it. At this point all I could do was laugh. Has this ever happened to you?


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## CrazyCatLady (Aug 17, 2004)

Everyday









Today she got stuck in the big plastic tub that we keep the catfood in (you know, those clear storage box things). I heard her scream and I ran into the kitchen to find that she had taken off the lid and jumped in it. She now wanted out, and was too scared to climb.


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## Calvin'sMummy (Sep 20, 2005)

The dog bowl and food is one thing I have given up on in my pick my points parenting of toddler







DS likes to put the dog's food in the water bowl. He used to do a drive by quickly before I could catch him or dump the water out. So, we made some rules and so far so good. So, my "boundaries" include not dumping the water but using a little strainer I got to scoop the food out and back in the bowl when he is done. That seems to do the trick. Now he plays while I do dishes and he dumps/scoops and dumps/scoops and sings and this can go on for a good 15 or 20 minutes of fun and not much of a mess anymore and he plays with it less and less now that he can. I also put both in a place easy to clean up a plastic liner over the vinyl.


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## VBMama (Jan 6, 2004)

Oh yeah. Ds went through quite a phase with that. Playing in the water bowl, dumping the water bowl, putting food in the water bowl. The day I had to throw up my hands and just laugh was when I came in the laundry room to find him crouched on all fours over the water bowl with a big grin on his face and water dripping off his chin. My first solution was to put the food & water in the garage - the dogs have a doggy door to get out there. Then ds learned how to crawl through the doggy door! So the food went up on top of the dryer except for feeding times. Then ds got tall enough to reach the bowls & topple them. I finally gave up and just tried to keep the door closed from the main house most of the time. He's mostly past that particular obsession now, although he does like to "help" the dogs eat by picking individual pieces out of their bowls and bringing the food to them.


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## chann96 (May 13, 2004)

My daughter had a thing for the dog water bowl for a while. Drove my in-laws crazy (they're already pretty close IMO







) when they visited and saw she had her face in it drinking from the bowl and I wasn't freaking out. I had long since decided I wasn't going to freak out over it. The dumb dog licks her face anyway and he got fresh water all the time so I really didn't think it was going to kill her. She mostly leaves it alone now, but every once in a while she'll dump some toys into his bigger water bowl which is upstairs in "his" room. It's just not usually a battle I feel is necessary to fight.

Now dumping water from her sippy cup (which leaks so she can do this) is a battle I keep fighting. I tried telling her she could do it if she dried it afterward, but she doesn't do that so I keep stopping her. She think it's funny to dump it and funnier to have me grab it from her. It's just water so I usually don't get too upset about it. I'm sure she'll grow out of it at some point.


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## zavierchick (May 12, 2005)

aren't they crazy? peanut went through her phase...playing with the dog food, splashing in the water bowl, eating the food (ewwww.... uke ) she finally got over it... now little man has started in...he started crawling 3 weeks ago...nothing is safe....caught him yesterday with dog food dribbles down his chin... again with the uke what can you do?!?!?!


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## PajamaMama (Dec 18, 2004)

Ann- My own Charlotte was born just a few days before yours, and also has a thing for the dog's water, and making messes with her sippy cups!









The thing I really can't stand is when she takes the dog's food and puts into the dog's water. We try to get around that by just giving the dog a cup of food at a time, several times a day. Occasionally the dog leaves some food behind and any time that happens, Charlotte is all over it!

I just don't worry about the germs in the dog's water. As a pp said, the dog gets fresh water several times a day, and we wash her bowls all the time, so it's just not a big deal.


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## chann96 (May 13, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *PajamaMama*
Ann- My own Charlotte was born just a few days before yours, and also has a thing for the dog's water, and making messes with her sippy cups!









The thing I really can't stand is when she takes the dog's food and puts into the dog's water. We try to get around that by just giving the dog a cup of food at a time, several times a day. Occasionally the dog leaves some food behind and any time that happens, Charlotte is all over it!

I just don't worry about the germs in the dog's water. As a pp said, the dog gets fresh water several times a day, and we wash her bowls all the time, so it's just not a big deal.


Ha! My dog always thinks he's starving so if there's food in his bowl he inhales it. We only give him food twice a day because he would eat all day and we really have to watch his weight. The poor dog though. Charlotte's phase for a while was to take his bowl and dump his food all over the floor. The dog was being really good and not chomping at his bowl because she was right there and she'd just dump it. He ate his meals off the floor for a few months there. Now she likes to help feed him and will help to dump the food into his dish and then carefully carry it over to its spot.

oops gotta go


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## happymomma (Jun 27, 2004)

Oh my gosh, does this ever happen to me? Uh, yes! Everyday...every hour. Well, it was until we put the food bowls in the laundry room, put a pet door in the laundry room door so they could eat and put a door handle lock on the door so ds could not get in there.









Problem solved.

Although whenever I do laundry he can hear that door open from anywhere in the house and he comes running.







Then its how fast can you change the laundry over and distract the toddler before he dumps all the food into the water bowl.


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## Fuamami (Mar 16, 2005)

Well, it's good to know we're not alone...I guess!


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## katsam (Mar 3, 2005)

I wish I had a laundry room or something for our cat food. I put it on the table for a while, which although probably unsanitary, gave me my sanity about the issue. However, now ds can climb on the table so that arrangement is no longer any good. He actually likes to put the cat food in the cat water and make one lovely mushy mess. We tend to go through cat food pretty fast!


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## happymomma (Jun 27, 2004)

Before the laundry room we put it in a hallway with a gate blocking the food. The cat jumped right over it and kept ds away.


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## veganbaby (Oct 28, 2004)

DD loves to try to eat the dog food. I watch a boy in the home. He is 2 months. The other day I picked him up and saw that he had dog food on him. I thought that DD was going over to pat him, but instead she was sharing her treasures with him.
Today she was feeding our dog bits of his food. Of course he wouldn't take it and so she would pick it up and try again.


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## sarah_bella1050 (Feb 19, 2005)

When my little brother was a toddler he got Giardia (sp?) from drinking out of the dogs water dish. He got REALLY sick and lethargic, and spent a week inpatient in the hospital. He had to get an IV, antiobitice, meds, and nearly stopped eating all together. He would just lye in my mothers arms and stare at the wall when he wasn't sleeping.







I would NEVER let my dd play in the water dish.


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## sarah_bella1050 (Feb 19, 2005)

Oh and also I was told by a Nurse and CPR instructor that dog food is one of the leading choking hazards in infants and toddlers b/c when it's wettened by saliva it swells several times it's normal size and blocks the airway. Just thought you guys might want to know


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## Clarinet (Nov 3, 2005)

My daughter used to eat the cat food when she was around 18 months. One day, she offered her "nack" to me and I'm so glad I accepted it into my hand instead of just opening my mouth for her to drop it in. We moved the food up to a side counter in the kitchen that we didn't really use and she tried everything to it. She'd stack toys, plastic bowls, a mini-cooler. She really wanted those "nacks" back.


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## dlm194 (Mar 23, 2005)

My dd seems to think that cat food is a more delicious snack that O's or crackers. Luckily, she is not out of my sight long enough to actually ingest any cat food. We have 2 cat food dishes and she also likes to dump the food from 1 dish into the other dish. Another time, I had just gotten her all dressed and cute looking when she crawled over to the cat's bowl and dumped it all over herself! Luckily, she doesn't seem to want to drink the water in the cat's dish. She discovered that if she presses on the knobs of the water cooler, she gets fresh water that way.







:


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## wolfbaby (Oct 4, 2005)

Glad to know I'm not the only one!








I never put the broom away anymore! On the bright side, ds loves to "help" me sweep - I bought him a tiny broom of his own for Christmas.


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## limabean (Aug 31, 2005)

My 13-month-old loooves to play in the dog's water bowl. I usually don't mind too much -- normally all he does is splash his hands a little. But yesterday morning I was trying to clean the house, bake cupcakes, and make pancakes for my son all at the same time, and I accidentally spilled the vacuum's dust container all over the floor instead of into the garbage, and just as I was cleaning that up, my son accidentally sat on the edge of the dog's water dish and tipped the whole thing all over himself and the floor, where it made a disgusting paste out of the vacuum dust.







It eventually all got cleaned up, but I went out last night and bought a tip-proof water dish so that it doesn't happen again. Some days are just crazy like that!


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## pixiexto (Mar 6, 2003)

Yup, another water bowl hound here (the baby, I mean







)

I try to keep the bowl only about 1/4 full most times in the day, and then give our pooch a big bowl of water with/after meals. This helps a bit in that at least Miss B is not COVERED with water (and the floor....) if she does spill it.

I remember DD #1 went through this too. She kind of lost interest after a while. I hope that happens here too! I guess I'm just waiting it out.


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## Wabi Sabi (Dec 24, 2002)

My 14 mo. old DS has been OBESESSED with the dogs' water bowls ever since he was old enough to scoot/crawl his little butt over to the dishes. I try to be tolerant, but it is driving me nuts!









We spent a small fortune on new dog bowls that we thought would be toddler proof, but they haven't worked. A little bit of splashing is all fun and games, but this has progressed to the point where he completely soaks his clothes multiple times a day necessitating changing his entire outfit. He dumps the water on the floor and then slips in the slippery puddle cracking his head on the floor. The floor is also starting to show some signs of water damage because it is ALWAYS wet/damp.







:

I wish we had somewhere else in our house to put the bowls so that the dogs could have access and DS couldn't reach them...


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## Golden (Mar 15, 2002)

Oh how this makes me nuts. He plays in the water bowl, eats the dog food which is *totally* chokable, dumps the water bowl,and his new thing is to bring all his toys and put them in the bowls.

The other day, I pulled out his little tykes plastic table and put it on top of the bowls. He hasn't touched it since. I'm guessing it's an out of sight, out of mind thing...at least for now it is.


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## Wabi Sabi (Dec 24, 2002)

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention- last week DS broke our brand-new cordless phone by dunking it in the water bowl. Little booger.







:


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