I wouldn't be so concerned about your soil as your baby.. The soil should be fine.. The baby could not be effected neither, but who knows what pathogens etc are in the cats feces.. If it's above the ground(tomatoes,pellers) I wouldn't worry. If its below the ground(beets,carrots) then a would be cautious.. Give it a thorough washing,.. Or.. It would be a wise idea not to feed it to your baby.. If it was me, I would eat it without thinking twice, but I would be reluctant to feed it to my baby..

Maybe some garlic/cayenne would deter the cats.. Or maybe some dog hair if you have a dog? Not to sure.. Is it your cat?

Lots of animals use garden beds as "litter boxes" not to mention all the normal bacteria found in soil. So assuming you practice good garden hygiene and properly wash and/or cook all garden vegetables before consuming, then all you need to do is till or turn the soil well before planting.

Mixing in a good dose of quality compost prior to planting provides additional beneficial bacteria that can help eliminate many garden pathogens.

If interested there are a number of previous discussions here about this that the search will pull up for you. That way you can get several opinions on the issue.

Dave

Some previous posts to help you

Here is a link that might be useful: Cats in the garden

I actually dump some of our used (indoor) cat litter on my garden. I can't see that whatever bacteria I'm putting there are any worse than what the birds, squirrels, and other beasts are already putting there. If you want a garden that is feces free, get a greenhouse. FWIW, if it makes you feel better, I don't have any root crops in that plot. Everything I eat from there is well above the ground. I like to believe that putting that used cat litter there discourages rodent pests. If your cat has bad stuff inside of him or her, perhaps best he or she not be in the house at all.

DO NOT put any of that "clumping" bentonite litter in your garden, though. You'll regret that. It's like glue in the ground. We used to use that stuff, and I'd dump it out back. The patch where I dumped it turned into some kind of mucky concrete, and I'm struggling to get ground cover to go over it.

Thanks for the insight.

Raw Nature: The cat is not ours. I do believe the chicken wire will keep it out going forward.

All of our vegetables are above ground (tomatoes, beans, peppers, etc.) so I am not as worried after reading your comments.

Thanks again.

I think that if you use many bags of composted manure of any kind, you've got to have some confidence that the manure is completely, absolutely, wholly composted and disinfected. Very unlikely.

Of course, when you're inviting people over for dinner, you don't regale them with your "cat poop" tomatoes. Nor do you serve "beheaded" chicken. Gardens grow in dirt. We need to get over it.

The damage from toxoplasmosis can be pretty severe to an unborn baby. I believe for a pregnant woman, taking precautions such as avoiding cat poop make sense. That may mean washing hands and maybe even wearing gloves, not terribly onerous and hopefully something done in any case, but the caution should be there..

I believe that you can get unpleasant parasites from carnivore feces, and cats are carnivores.

If it were me, I would avoid feeding the baby uncooked root vegetables and uncooked near-the-ground vegetables like lettuce or scallions, this year, and I'd very carefully wash everything else. I don't know if this is too much or too little caution.

Ahh but these parasites, if they exist, will survive how long exposed to the elements? Plus this assumes that no parasites already exist normally with in soil. They do. tapeworms, whipworms, roundworm, hookworms, misc. protoza, to name just a few. Not to mention all the bacteria and fungi.

As mentioned "Gardens grow in dirt" and it will never be a sterile process, nor would it work if it was. Thus the "wash your hands and wash your food" guideline in gardening.

While pregnant women are advised to avoid dealing with litter boxes due to the possibility of toxoplasmosis they are also advised not to raise chickens or other fowl or be exposed to manures while pregnant due to histoplasmosis, not to work with garden chemicals, and many other things. But we aren't talking about pregnant women and the OP has already pointed out that they are not growing root vegetables or other low growing crops.

So scare warnings about unrelated issues serve no point.

Dave

Sigh. A family with a one year old child is a family that might add to their family again. These warnings are on point, not to dissuade gardening, but to give knowledge.
It is the sort of knowledge one appreciates knowing about before the fact.