the little guy will outgrow this fascination soon enough so just keep the gate up for now. however, since he likes kerplunking in water and bowls, you could provide him with a play area all his own. Take a simple dish plan and fill with dry cereal like cheerios or puffed wheat, and give him some measuring cups etc. he can pour away and not torture you or the cat.

not sure what to suggest, beyond putting the cat bowl out of reach somehow. we have a baby gate at the mouth of our tiny galley style kitchen, it keeps our 16 month old out of the cat's food etc. as well as from getting underfoot. works ok for now.

sort of related...my niece (she's 3 now) likes to get into the dog's bowl and eat the dog's food. instead of trying to stop her, they decided to just buy better food for the dog. not advocating this by any means (in fact, the thought makes me ill). i gather they got sick of trying to stop her? they are pretty relaxed parents overall, but i dunno, going too far with going with the flow, perhaps??

We have to keep a baby gate at the door of our kitchen too, but we're shortly going to be moving into a house with an open plan kitchen, so that's not going to work anymore! Our daughter is pretty good about respecting the cat's food (although not so much other things in the kitchen.) She loves and is fascinated with our cat, and I've explained to her that it's the kitty's food and the kitty doesn't want her touching it, and so far it's worked. How does your son feel about the cat? He might be willing to respect the cat's property more than he's willing to obey what you want him to do. Or maybe you could move the cat's food up higher, although a lot of people, myself included, have issues with cats being on kitchen counters or kitchen tables.

1. you could get a tastier food that they eat more quickly and put the food bowl right up.(just make sure to keep their teeth clean.)then schedule the times they are fed during naps or when your baby is otherwise occupied. then put te water bowl down at bedtime.

2. you could put the food up on the counter and see if your cats can figure out how to get to it.

3. if you have a balcony or patio you could put it outside

4. you could start putting the food in a bathroom. since you dont spend as much time there it might not be as enticing.

5. keep the gate up

we put our food in the bathroom and gate that off. the only other thought I have is to get one of those wicker (or whatever) cat little boxes and use it for the food. of course, it won't keep your little one from reaching/crawling into that...

cats can get into smaller spaces than toddlers, so move the food into a bottom cabinet and prop it open, show the cat once, and they will go in and out to get it. Or a cat door and put the food on the top basement steps or in a closet (with cat door or just open a bit). Kid won't play with it if it's not right there tempting him.

Also, put something he IS supposed to touch and play with in that area at his height.

Move them.

Find a place in your house or outside and make a sensory table for your toddler and let him go wild.

We have our dog bowls and stuff in one of those superyards (a play enclosure meant for kids to play in- but it keeps them out just as well)

teach him no no! my first thought was we are keeping our gate up for the dog food. then i remembered our neighbors ( who watch our now 2 yr old often ) have dogs and dog bowls. he loves them, to stand in, to play with. so our gates are up. but over there they cant put a gate up...too big of an opening into the kitchen. any way they tell our son no and he stops. now he dosent do this for us but it works over there. also i dont recomend the bathroom door cracked open...the toliet would be much more fun for him than the cat bowl and its dangerous for him. also the tub faucets are in his reach...bathroom equals no no!

We had a similar issue with our daughter when she was that age, except for her her the fascination was with the tv and dvd player. She didn't watch tv at the time, but she loved pushing all the buttons and it became a problem. We did super-short time-outs in which we firmly said "no" and placed her in a corner (just to get her away from the object of temptation) for a count to ten. We did this every single time she touched the tv and it took a day or so, but she got it and no more button pushing. It worked like a charm during her brief food-throwing phase as well!

Lots of people who own cats and dogs also have the problem to keep the dog away from the cat food - most of them just place the cat bowls somewhere high where the dog can't reach them - this would work for your toddler as well. Another option would be to just babyproof the cat bowls and not the entire kitchen - take a small cabinet and cut a hole into the bottom for the cat, somehow like http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2009/07/ikea-ps-locker-into-litter-box.html .

We had the same issue. We started giving our son, around 16 months the chore of "feeding" the kitties in the morning and evening. We would scoop the dry food into a measuring cup and then help him pour it into the dish. I feel that it helped him to understand the reason for the food in the dish, and help set an expectation for what to do with it.

Move the bowls to the counter or higher. Show the cats and they'll learn fast enough.

At the 17-month mark with our son, it still works better to substitute other things (play with this bowl of water, not that one! bang on the floor, not the window!). But for absolute no-no's, a few days in a row of consistently enforcing the rule (i.e., touching the Christmas tree) works. I look him straight in the eye, say, "Mommy said no" and move him to another room. And he eventually gets tired of being pulled away from where he was playing.

We have cats too and our babies (3 under 4) think the food/water dishes are the most fun ever.

In our hall we have a huge Ikea unit which we use for shoes/school bags/gym kit etc and the top of it is lipped (I can't find it on the Ikea website but it was a high-gloss version of the 'Engan' chest in the Vinstra styling). It's so high that the kids can't reach it but the cats can get there no problem and because there's a lip around the top we don't get any cat food knocked onto the floor. The lip also hides the foodbowls from view so there are no ugly catfood dishes on view!