baby and cat, how do they mix?

[alle01]

hi all
i am having a baby quite literally any minute now, and i have a 3 yo male cat, he is been neutred, so not territorial, but feels fascination with any objects to do with the baby, especially with trying to sleep inside the cot and the pram,... also i am a bit concerned about his reaction when they baby arrives. any mums with cats out there, can tell me you're experience...?
thanks in advance to all suggestions.

We have two males who were about the same age. We kept them out of the babies room when as given any opportunity would jump into the cot/pushchair/car seat.

Our cats are quite timid but didn't seem really bothered by the baby. They were most hacked off when they started crawling/toddling/running after them, but the children soon learnt to leave them alone.

I have always had cats. We got a cat net to stop them getting into the pram with the baby, but actually they would avoid them as they were too noisy anyway although they would sleep in an empty pram if they got the chance.

We have 2 cats, just keep them out of the nursery, make sure they can't climb into the pram/bouncy chair etc then you're not looking.

Our cats just occasionally sniff DS or rub their heads against him, I used to worry about this also before baby arrived, and my advice is, dont worry.

thanks, mine is very calm and quite as well, just don't know what to expect. at the moment we leave him out of the babies room, not sure it will be so easy when the baby arrives, and there stuff and baby everywhere,...

my old cat (RIP) was disgusted when we brought our DD home. The cat thought she was far too noisy, avoided her like the plague, and went on a bit of a hunger strike.

She mellowed after a couple of weeks, and grew to tolerate her, but actually never wanted to go into DD's room.

Mt cat would always climb onto my lap as soon as I sat down to breastfeed I have some quite funny photos of her trying to squeeze into the smallest space.
She was already quite old by then and as the DC's got older and noisier she could no longer cope with it and moved in next door!

OK, we have 2 cats who don't really get along - both neutered females (worse on territorial matters IME) - they basically live in separate parts of the house. DD is now 15 months - we had no problems at all when DD was newborn and tiny - they looked disdainfully at her, and slightly alarmed when she was yelling. There was the occasional pram occupation incident (but hardly surprisingly as it was lined with lovely soft blankets and a fleece). Does cat have a specific place that he sleeps? If so, try to preserve it. Your instinct in the early weeks will probably be that you don't want him anywhere near your baby - just be prepared for this. Does he spend time outside? If so, outside is your friend - but make sure you (or DP if you have one) makes time to pet him and reassure him a bit.

The problems arise when the babba gets mobile - DD loves our cats, but the feeling is NOT mutual. They are, however, very tolerant - even the old grumpy one - one of them lies and takes it, the other will warn her (growls - hilariously, DD growls back ) - and has even given her a warning swipe - now she's 15 months, we tolerate this as it's always in response to severe provocation (tail pulling, fur grabbing). So the issue is more about protecting cats from DD - letting them sleep where she can't get at them, and putting their food out of her way (it is, apparently, irresistibly attractive and tasty

good luck with imminent arrival

thanks for the good wishes
the cat sleeps in either a particular spot under my bed or in his own bed by the window, only very occasionally on the sofa if nobody is on it, he does go outside, only to the garden though, but seems to love it and gets him really calm, meets the cats next door, but only buffs at them although one insists in coming to him every time, agree that the pram and cot must look attractive, good tip about dp extra petting him, one thing he will not like is anybody touching his food, though

well you won't want your babba touching it either!!

I have two norwegian forest cats (HUGE).

I was worried about the cats when I was expecting my baby. Specially one of them is soooo attached to only me. Sleeps with me, seats with me, walks with me etc.

Now once I brought the baby home the strangest thing happened. Instinctively they both left me alone and kept their distance!!!

Not a problem at all. I keep nursery closed.

My two cats always kept well away from my son when he was a baby, as they were scared of him. Still are.

We have 2 females and they are massively tolerant of DS. He goes up and lays his head on them and says "awww" We keep his room shut so they can't sleep in the cot

Hey, jaabaar, I have a NFC too! And she reacted the same way but she always was a rather reserved cat and she's scared of kids ever since my nephew hoovered her! In fact, I've been feeling sorry for her as she's imposed a kind of self-isolation since we brought DD home 6 weeks ago. She's coming round now and will join us in the evening and sleep on our bed again, which I'm pleased at.

We also have a Somali and she's been fantastic with DD since day one. Curious, friendly and no sign of aggression at all. Like fruitshootsandheaves' cat, she tries to sit on my lap when I feed DD and so long as she doesn't stick her bum in DD's face, I tend to let her.

So here's what we found: Both our cats are very good at understanding "no" and we have not allowed them to sit in the pram or cot from the get go. If they don't respond to "no", squirt them with water from a plant sprayer if they go near. But I also suggest you fill anything you don't want them in with balloons - it means there's no room and they don't like the balloons anyway. They'll soon learn to disassociate those places with somewhere nice to sleep. It's worked for us.

We haven't felt the need to keep our cats out the bedroom or nursery. Like I said, the cot in the nursery is filled with balloons til DD is big enough for it and I really don't mind the cats being in there otherwise. We blocked off the only route to jumping in the crib in our room, i.e. just put big jewellery box, lamp and other awkward bits and bobs in the way on the drawer units next to it so the cats can't negotiate their way through. And they've just stuck to sleeping on our bed as a result.

The only thing I would add is that my cats don't get outside. Never have. So I have the extra reassurance that they're not bringing in any nasties from outside.

And lastly, don't forget that your cats are still part of your family. If they are used to love and affection, don't let that dry up when baby's there. It'll breed resentment and possibly cause problems in itself. Cats can do things that seem mean - like peeing on your bed or pooing in strange places - if they are upset. So try to give them five minutes when baby's asleep and that way your little one won't be the enemy.

Never had any problems with my cat when the boys were babies. She'd get quite upset if they cried- she'd run in circles miaowing. When they were toddlers she was extremley patient with tail pulling. She's also great with any other babies or children that come in.

My younger cat (got her when ds2 was 4) is terrified of babies and toddlers- she runs away and hides if they come in.

meandacat, thanks for the balloons tip, will try that, i used doublesided tape, they are supposed to dislike sticky things, but he learn to ignore it, hope the ballons are more irritating for him

We have two cats - 12 year old male; 11 year old female. DTs are now 3 years old. Female cat was fine until the children could crawl, and now stays out of their way during the day. Our neutured male is completely different - we call him 'Cat Nanny'. From the day we bought the DTs home, he has LOVED them. Would curl up with me when I fed them; would tease them when they were learning to crawl - seeking them out, getting them to crawl after him, skittering away, letting them catch up etc. From about 15 months on, they started petting him and if he wasn't getting enough attention, he'd roll about on the floor until he did.
DTs now regularly put his food down for him and like to comb his fur with his special cat brush. They tell me (and him) that they love him, and I think the feeling is mutual - he's beside himself with joy when they come home from nursery.
Interestingly, I have only ever found him in one of their cots once - and that was two months ago, when they were three. He appears to completely respect their 'territory'. But he does share our bed and continues to be the king of the household, which is why he's probably adapted so well!

blender

We have 3 youngish female cats. They were fine when we brought DD home, just sometimes a little disturbed by her crying. We were totally paranoid about the cats getting into the cot and pram etc and bought various cat nets - totally unnecessary in our case since the cats showed no interest in DD stuff at all.

We made a big effort to give all the cats lots of love and carry on as normal and everything went swimmingly until DD could crawl. DD loves the cats but they are not so keen on her now she is cornering them, grabbing at their tails and ears and shrieking with delight as they race around trying to get away from her. We're trying to teach DD that the cats need her to be gentle and quiet but she isn't quite old enough to understand. Two of the cats just scarper now when DD is on the loose, but one of them tries to stand her ground which has resulted in a couple of warning swipes and a wobbly lip from DD.

I know that in time DD will learn to respect the cats and they will hopefully come to trust her. In the meantime we're closely supervising DD to stop her getting scratched and the cats getting too stressed out.

I would recommend getting a Feliway phermone diffuser to keep the cats calm when you bring your baby home (and for when the baby gets mobile and thre cats get more threatened) - we got one and I'm sure it has helped.

Good luck!

Sorry forgot to say that make sure you keep your cat's worming and flea treatments up to date!

Just wanted to add that we have 2 male cats aged around 8 or 9. One of them is absolutely terrified of ds19 months and the other is completely chilled out - he'll let our son rest his head on him and stroke him, if DS pulls his tail he'll just shout and run!

However, when we brought DS home we had a moses basket and the cats LOVED to sleep in it (when DS wasn't in it). Whenever I caught them in it I had a plant sprayer (the plastic bottles for spraying water or whatever on your plants) and I used to spray them with it to make sure they knew my DSs bed was out of bounds.

Now that DS is 19 months, the chilled out cat will sleep in his bed during the day (couldn't care less), but at night DS door is shut and the cats sleep in with us.

Anyway, this has always worked for us (although I did used to freak out about the cats when I was pregnant!).

in case anyone comes across, an update
cat and baby coexist peacefully, basically cat ignores baby, to the point that he now sleeps in a different room, only watches from a distance if baby is asleep