On Toys

Is that a baby toy or a dog toy? They all look so similar! Dog toys have squeakers. Baby toys have not just squeakers, but also rattles. Rattles seem like fun for dogs too. Some of the stuffed animal toys in our house are for dogs and others are for baby. Dogs have ball toys and baby also has ball-like toys. It’s so confusing, how can you tell the difference?

In our home, the dog toys remain the dogs’ toys and the baby’s toys remain the baby’s toys. They do NOT share toys. When Loki showed interest in the baby’s sheep cloth book, I only allowed him to sniff. I then removed the toy from Loki and put it in the crib. In general, the dogs’ toys are on the ground and the baby’s toys are stored in high places. Sometimes baby toys are on the floor, like when I put Baby on the floor mat to play, but I always pick them up afterwards. We haven't had any incidents yet of a dog picking up a baby toy.

I fully intend on maintaining the separation of toys as baby grows into toddler. So far, Baby hasn’t shown any interest in the dogs’ toys. But I plan on not allowing him to play with the dogs’ toys. The thought of him playing with dog toys is especially gross considering that everything that Baby plays with ends up in his mouth.

So far, we’re doing well. The dogs have their toys (and occasionally my flip-flop shoe). They show minimal interest in Baby’s toys. And Baby hasn’t shown any interest in the dogs’ toys. This whole issue has been a non-issue at our home mainly because we have very few toys. The dogs only have a handful of toys and Baby only has a handful of toys. We’ll see what happens as Baby grows in to Toddler. I know that I’ll be using the dogs as a threat to get our son to pick up his toys when he’s older: “If you don’t pick up your toys, Juju is going to chew it up.”