For those of you that have cats, how interested was your LO in their food/water/litter box? We live in a smaller condo and I'm thinking I will need to separate all of these things from my 7 month old once she starts to crawl. My only option is our guest bath (which is more or less in our open living area). Was it necessary for you? Temporary? Permanent change? We'd put up a gate just inside the door so it could still close. It needs to still be a functioning bathroom. The downside to this solution is that bathroom has our only tub (a giant monster jacuzzi) that I guess will eventually be used for LO's baths.
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My son is just over 7 months and has been crawling for about a month now. We don't really have a solution yet for the food/water bowls. DS does follow me into the kitchen, where they are located, and when I see him heading that way, I put them on the counter. They are fed twice a day, so it's usually not a problem. As for the litter, it's in the basement, which is gated off. We leave the gate open unless DS is moving around, then it's closed. The cats can still squeeze underneath (it's too low for DS), but we generally open it up for them.
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My 10 month old treats the water dish like a giant sensory tray and loves cat food. We try to keep him away, but in a 500ft open-layout apartment, it's futile. We put a thick towel under the water bowl so he can't hurt anything playing in it and change the water daily. We play with LO and keep him distracted while the cats eat since he wants nothing more than to eat their food. Real fish, not so much, but the fishy cat food is his holy grail.
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Semi-luckily, one of our cats has kidney problems and so instead of free feeding, which we used to do, they now get fed twice a day. We have the water bowl stashed under a table because my son liked to splash in it, and when he was younger (9 months ish) he went through a phase where we often found him with handfuls of cat food (and occasionally mouthfuls. A baby with cat food breath is such a terrible thing). He outgrew it fairly quickly, though. The litter is in the furnace room in the basement which we keep him out of, so that's not as issue.
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My LO did eat several (fistfuls of) cat treats around 10 months old, but other than that has never shown any interest in the cat's food and water dishes. The litterbox is in our laundry room and LO has never been interested at all in exploring it, even when she helps me do laundry in that room!
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We have this issue and chose to get a temporary cheap door and install a pet door. The cats couldn't figure out the flap, so we removed it and basically just have a door with a cat hole in the bottom. Works great though our toddler sometimes peeks through the door when people are peeing. Fine for family but a little awkward for guests!
ETA: Our son figured out how to open our interior doors pretty quickly because they had latches, so we also had to replace those with doorknobs. Once he figures out how to turn a doorknob then we are totally screwed.
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Our litter box is behind a chest/sofa in a corner and we put food and water up on a counter in our kitchen because we have a little mini counter far away from where people food prep happens. But you could do the same with a shelf. Our cat doesn't mind jumping up to eat. LO1 is 2 now and can reach both,but knows not to. LO2 is about to start crawling.
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Ugh yep we are screwed. Water is one of those fountain things on hardwoods so that is guaranteed to be a disaster. Thankfully we don't free feed anymore so that won't be an issue.
@yoursilverlining: that gives me hope we might not need to isolate the litter box!!
@ElbieKay: I hear ya on the door thing. Within our open kitchen/living room I can count 10 doors within 40 feet. They contain such tempting items as our hvac, water heater, front and back doors, laundry and pantry. We are so screwed too.
Thank you all!
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@MrsSRS: shelf next to the kitchen counter is a good idea. Thanks!
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