To give 1yo food dropped on kitchen floor in a house with a dog

[JamSandwich89]

We have linoleum in the kitchen at home (and no pets). Normally when DS1 drops food we pick the food up, have a quick check in case there's a stray hair or dust on it, and if not we give him the food back.

We're currently staying at PILs. They have a tiled kitchen floor, so we're happy to pass food back to DS like normal. PILs think this is really unhygienic. They do have a dog, so I'm thinking maybe they are right to not do this at there's, but then they mop the kitchen floor every second day, if not every day.

AIBU to pass food back to DS when it's dropped on the floor at PILs?

(To clarify, the dog never touches the food. It's more that he's been walking around)

Do you wear shoes inside at either house? The dog would definitely put me off, as would shoes.

We do this in our house. The only problem here is picking it up quickly enough before the dog eats it though

Do you abide by the 5 second rule? 😂

Yanbu. I’ve got two hairy dogs and we’re happy to eat floor food (check for hairs first). My ds dropped his ice lolly in the garden in the dirt yesterday. I gave it a rinse under the tap and gave it back to him. No way was I wasting a solero 😁

If I was going to worry about anything, it'd probably be the cleaning product used on the floors.

But I'd probably follow the 5 second rule anyway.

Yeah if you whip it up immediately it's fine 😂

This is a no grey area issue imo.

Personally yanbu, and anyway germs build a good immune system.

Food hygiene and microbiology bods will tell you to bin it. In a professional kitchen/dining room it would be obviously binned.

In the home though, I honestly couldn’t give a stuff, provided the floor is visibly clean, the food has no visible debris on it, the pets and humans involved have no transmissible illnesses or immunity issues.

When ds was a 1yo he spent most of his time on the floor with the dog. I once found him drinking from the dog's bowl. Not something I encouraged, but I definitely didn't worry that it was going to do him any harm. I wouldn't think twice about handing back food from the floor.

I reckon the dog did wonders for his immune system. Ds is now 17 and has never been ill. The last time he saw a doctor was for his 6 week check up.

I am a food hygiene/microbiology bod Personally I don’t let my kids eat off any floor. I mean, would you eat food off the floor? If not then at what age does it become not OK?
But to answer the question a dog will increase the bacterial load on the floor, same as shoes that have been outdoors.
Plenty of people will agree that it's fine though. Food poisoning is a roulette, and the odds of your number coming up here are relatively small.
5 second rule is not a thing. Bacteria doesn't actively jump onto food, it's transfered at the moment of contact.

I remember reading a study that farmers kids are generally the healthiest kids with the least illnesses. I think it’s generally well known that children with pets have a better immune system, as they are exposed to more bacteria. Not enough to harm them, but enough to build immunity

5 second rule is not a thing

Of course it is, everyone knows it is a thing

5 seconds safe, 6 seconds sick, 7 seconds dead.

Personally I don’t let my kids eat off any floor. I mean, would you eat food off the floor?

Yes.

Not something wet, but if I dropped a bit of cracker or biscuit etc, I'd eat it.

I seem to recall it was the 3 second rule when I was a kid. That bacteria must be getting lazy 🤣

Fair play, at least there's no double standard

It wouldn’t bother me, presuming the floor is a normal level of clean and dogs are regularly wormed. With a child that age, they will be doing it themselves soon enough, if they’re not already.

We didn’t always clean our kids hands before eating when they were crawling and I suppose their hands had bacteria on from all the crawling. And their hands were in their mouth constantly anyway.

I think it’s something that if you think about too much, could make you quite paranoid but the reality is, kids do eat stuff of the floor and do various things that are ‘dirty’ and it’s usually fine.