new baby & a cat

[janeggybee]

i was told that sometimes cats try to climb into moses baskets / cots etc to be with baby. is this true??? i am concerned as we have a cat and we let her sleep on our bed at night and i intend to have the baby in our room at first. apparently, you can get nets to put over the crib but i dont know if they work or not........

[Radley]

I have ALWAYS had cats, and must say that mine weren't interested in dd1 and dd2 at all, I NEVER left them alone together and never let the moggies sleep in their bedroom, but, when I was in the living room and one of them walked past dd1 or dd2 I used to stroke the cat to let them know it was ok to be curious, they sniffed round for a couple of days and after that when dd1 or dd2 started squawking they'd go hide.

I NEVER stopped mine sleeping on my bed when dd1 or dd2 were in the moses basket, you can still get nets but to be honest, I don't know how effective they are.

[janeggybee]

did they ever try and climb into baby bed???

[JessaJam]

our 2 cats avoided ds like the plague when he was 'new' (he had a habit of suddenly making terrrible loud high pitched noises!!! ) he slept in with us for a couple of months at first and we had no problems.
Now, the door to his nursery is kept closed, just to stop fluffy sheets really...

[janeggybee]

no problem with nursery as cat likes to sit under cot!!
the cat is quite mild mannered and i wouldn't mind her sniffing around or whatever. its just at night really.

[madmarchhare]

My cats have never tried to climb in, in fact they generally stay as far away as they can from him at all time.

You hear the stories but just keep the doors closed if it worries you.

Top tip for bringing baby home though...if you can manage to bring something home that baby has worn before baby comes home, it is supposed to get them used to smell before you come swinging in with the new ar'rival'.

[expatinscotland]

I've always had cats and never had a problem, either.

I do keep a spray bottle filled w/water to hand for when our resident black and white was trying to munch some plants I had.

I have a net over her cot, however, to prevent insect bites.

[CheesyFeet]

I bought a cat net for dd's moses basket, but I couldn't tell you how effective it is as I never had to use it. Our cat stayed away from dd when she was tiny. He started to show an interest when she was about 6mo and now she is 2.0 and he runs away from her most of the time! He sleeps on her bed sometimes though.

He (the cat) slept on our bed when dd was in her moses basket in our room but we never had a problem. We would never leave her on her own with him though until she was old enough to move away herself (around 7-8mo iirc).

Very much depends on the temperament of the cat I suppose.

[expatinscotland]

Now that DD1 is 3, I love it how the cat sleeps curled up at the foot of her bed. So does she.

It's really, really sweet.

The old male cat sleeps at my feet.

[apronstrings]

We have a cat who is older than any of our children - he was completely disinterested in the first two and gave them a very wide berth. I found him sleeping on no. 3 when he was three or four days old. LUckily baby was fine but as i came downstairs and saw the cat in the pram my heart stopped. I would keep the cat right away from the baby and take no risks. Its just not worht it.

[janeggybee]

it seems to be a matter of the temperament of the cat. our cat is friendly and inquisitive but would never hurt a fly. her inquisitiveness may lead her into moses basket but she wouldnt do any harm. i just heard that cats like to sleep on baby heads as they are warm (not much call for that in this weather!!)and smelt of milk. i will not leave cat and baby alone but if we are asleep - that pretty much classes as leaving them on thier own!1

[JessaJam]

babies heads probably aren't very comfy to curl up on though....more often they curl up on the blanket next to baby or on their legs or chest ( and it's the chest one that causes worry in case it affects breathing...)
See how your cat reacts to the baby...like I said, it may avoid any contact at all for a while! If you are really worried, do get a net, or shut the cat out of the bedroom for a while.

[janeggybee]

good advice. i will see how the cat responds to the baby when we bring it home and play it by ear. will probably be sleeping with one eye open all night for forst weeks anyway!!

[apronstrings]

my cat has a great temperament and has let all the children play with him and been very gentle and kind. When I found the cat on the baby the baby was sleeping in the carrycot, tha cat had jumped iin and was sleeping at the side of the baby stretched out long - the length of the carrycot - baby had turned his face and was snuggled in to the side of the cat. no question that the cat was trying to be mean - but especially if your used to curling up next to sleeping people - and our cat was - they can't distinguish between acceptable beds and carrycots. Keeping a cat contained - and away from a baby with other small children opening doors and wandering round the house is VERY hard work

[BettySpaghetti]

Our cat has always given our two a wide berth when they were babies. The most she would do is sniff their heads if they were asleep in our arms. If a baby cries the cat runs a mile in the opposite direction.

However we have always kept the nursery door shut as I think she would probably quite like to curl up in the moses basket/cot when theres no baby in there and obviously I'm not too keen on that idea!

I remember one day finding lots of what I thought was cat hair in the moses basket and was really cross the cat had been in there -then I realised it was DS's hair ( he went through a phase of shedding it when he was turning his head from side to side when settling to sleep!)

[BettySpaghetti]

Forgot to put in my post a tip I picked up -

use a cloth/tissue to rub the cats head (under their chin and around cheeks etc) to pick up their scent from the glands. Then rub this on things like the car seat, moses basket, pushchair etc to transfer the cats smell. This apparently makes them more accepting of the baby. Not sure if theres any truth in it or not though?

[pucca]

I had (sadly only have 2 now) 4 cats when my dd was born, and they were my original babies iykwim, always slept on the bed etc, they were really good and were fine when dd came along, i felt a bit mean as they did have their noses pushed out but they adapted fine, and actually didnt go near dd at all tbh.

I just made sure of a night the cats were down stairs with doors shut, i bought them a nice comfy cat bed they could share and i never left them alone with dd just in case, i would just make sure you shut your bedroom/babies bedroom door of a day as they do like sleeping in cosy places and nothing is more cosy than a moses basket/cot/pram.

[kbaby]

We had 3 cats when DD was born. I found the cats asleep in the moses basket when the baby wasnt in it so I bought a cat net. They arent much good though because they stretch so much that our cats actually walked on the net and slept on it.

I would advise that even though the cats may mean no harm its still a nice place to sleep and wouldnt let your cats sleep with you if you have the baby in the same bedroom.

Ours soon got used to sleeping downstairs.
Were now about to have baby 2 and the cats have worked out how to climb through our open bedroom window so we either have to boil to death with a closed door and window or work out how to block the window with a mesh of some type.

[PinkTulips]

my cat kept a healthy distance from dd when she was tiny, wasn't a big fan of the screaming! the closest he'd come when she was a baby was to curl up at her feet when she was co-sleeping with us or on the couch but oddly enough he never had any interest in her cribs or cots. now that she's older he plays with her and comes up for cuddles even though he's liable to get his ears wrenched off or whacked on the head with a toy bless him.

thats said my aunt found her cat fast asleep on top of me once when i was 8 weeks and my parents cat always tries to sleep in the travel cot when dd's not in it, although she's terrified of dd!

wouldn't panic too much, just be wary for the first few weeks to see how puss is going to take to the new arrival and have babies room off limits to avoid fur in the cot etc.

[squishy]

Anyone got any experience of how a home birth affects cats? It's not the main reason we want one, but thought it it's born at home, it might be less like we've gone out and "bought" something just to upset the cats IYKWIM!!

[Ellaroo]

Think it probably depends on the cat's personality. We had one cat who completely ignored the new baby and another that we already knew to be quite neurotic (she used to suck my clothes when I went out - yuk! - and was quite territorial with me and didn't ever like dh) that did climb into her moses basket and would hiss at dd while I was changing her. I can only imagine these things happening with a cat that is quite unbalanced though - I can't imagine a normal cat that used to be just sweet and friendly turning out like that. To overcome it we had little locks on all the doors and that cat was never allowed in the same room as the baby. It never occured to me to worry about the other cat being near dd though - I simply can't imagine it being an issue with a normal cat.