Olive and her baby food table

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CarolC
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Olive and her baby food table

Post by CarolC »

Olive is a little senior lady who is peppier in the morning and sometimes totters during the day. I began noticing she would lose her balance bending over to eat, so I raised her bowls and that has been working.

Olive_bowls.JPG
She gets a snack every afternoon, trying to keep her weight up. Sweet potatoes are good for dogs with kidney issues (and she loves them :chef:), but I was having to put her tub of Gerber sweet potatoes on the floor because how do you raise something that size and shape, and so it won't tip over?

Today I took the Gerber box and cut a hole in it, and it works very well. Here is Olive with her new raised baby food table. :D

Olive_baby_food_table.JPG
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critters
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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Interesting! :smart:
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CarolC
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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I totally love it! It even has that little gap underneath so you can get your fingers under it to pick it up, like they do with pet food bowls. It fits perfectly on the shelf, so I have a place to *put* it when not in use. She has it all figured out, and is cleaning up her tubs of baby food better. :D
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CarolC
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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I washed one of the baby food tubs and am using it for a dish so now she can use her table to have treats like Cheerios and Corn Chex.
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critters
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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Neat!
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CarolC
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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Today I made Olive an additional table for her baby food that comes in a jar. The jar table has 2 parts. There's the table itself, with a hole in it to place the jar, and then there's a shorter "table" that fits underneath, so the jar has something to rest on without going all the way down.

Why does she need this? She is a little tottery on her feet. She does better when she is walking, but if she has to stand still, that is harder, and putting her head down to eat something off the floor (like a normal dog bowl) makes her lose her balance. If the food is raised, she can keep her balance better, and I finally realized :idea: that she is also keeping her balance by having her nose inside the container now that she has the table to hold her baby food. If she falls forward, her nose bumps the back of the tub, and if she starts to go backward into a sit, her chin braces against the front of the tub. This way she can eat the whole thing without falling if the tub is anchored in the table.

This is even more true of the jar. When I gave her the jar of Gerber chicken this morning, I held it up for her with one hand, and steadied her from behind with the other hand. My hand holding the jar could tell how much she was bracing with her nose in the jar. Her nose is way down in the jar and it gives a lot of steadying to her from the front.

For this, you need the jar to be firmly anchored and not scoot away. The raw corrugated cardboard edge of the bottom of the box really stays in place on the carpet. I could have poured the jar into an empty sweet potatoes tub, but she enjoys eating out of jars. :D

(NOTE: Beech-Nut jars are slightly smaller in diameter than Gerber.)

Gerber_jar_baby_food_table1.jpg
Gerber_jar_baby_food_table2.jpg
Gerber_jar_baby_food_table3.jpg
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CarolC
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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The table needed one more thing. When she stood at the table to eat, her feet were sliding out sideways on the washable fleece potty pad. I have a bathmat (that I bought for the cat), and the bottom is rubberized. So I gave the kitty a thick blanket instead, and put the mat in front of the baby food table with the rubber side up. It works! She can stand and eat and her feet don't slide out sideways.
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critters
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Re: Olive and her baby food table

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:smart:
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