At what age can baby fend off cat?

[ginger075]

Due to wierd house set up my DS aged 8 mnths is now in his own room which is also the cats way out (through cat Flap).We are having to lock the two cats outside every night so that babys door can be open so that we can hear him in the night (though he does sleep quite well).At what age do you think an unattended baby could be left in the same rrom as a passing cat?

Now dd (7 months) can crawl I have to keep an eye on her when the cat is around. The cat is stupid and knows that dd will climb on her/pull her fur out/grab her whiskers etc but she still lays down on the floor next to dd and swipes at her if she does anything she doesn't like. I also have to keep the cat downstairs when dd is in bed as she will jump into the cot.

As the others said, it depends what your cats are like with your ds.

all my cats loved sleeping in the cot and the carrycot - -it was a constant battle to keep them and their muddy paws out.

I waited until the kids were a year old before I let the cats roam free at night - -and yes sometimes one would get into the cot with the baby

Hi we have one cat and when our son was tiny the cat would try and get in the basket/cot with him and walk all over him if didn't keep pushing her off. We got a net but it wouldn't fit the cot bed. Once our son was in his own room we turned on the monitor and made sure the door was shut.

Now the child gates keep the cat downstairs anyway, and she stays out at night or goes next door as she usually prefers being out at night.

Locking our cats out of anywhere is enough to make them med without fail. We set up cot and moses well before baby arrived and let them sleep on it all, on plastic packaging and without sheets in of course to egt them used to everything bar the baby. Also ours do have fads for places to sleep so got bored of moses and then cot before DS was in either of them.
I do still worry sometimes, but since he's been with us (nearly five months) one cat's been once in the cot. IMHO I'm sure if cats killed babies the media would have a field day EVERY time and we'd all know about it ...wouldn't we?

Locking our cats out of anywhere is enough to make them med without fail. We set up cot and moses well before baby arrived and let them sleep on it all, on plastic packaging and without sheets in of course to egt them used to everything bar the baby. Also ours do have fads for places to sleep so got bored of moses and then cot before DS was in either of them.
I do still worry sometimes, but since he's been with us (nearly five months) one cat's been once in the cot. IMHO I'm sure if cats killed babies the media would have a field day EVERY time and we'd all know about it ...wouldn't we?

Ok cock-up, sorry, that's mad not med! What I meant was they become more desperate to find out what's going on if a door's locked or shut.

I think the whole idea of cat nets is ridiculous and designed to panic mums into wasting money

Cats are sensible creatures and they do not kill babies or sit on their faces. Unless you have a feral-type cat you know goes on the attack, just don't worry about it at all.

Think it should be "when do cats fend off babies"

I read somewhere that there has never been a reported case of a cat suffocating a baby whilst sleeping on it (although my mum swears it happened to some around the corner from my Gran!!!)

I have 3 cats and they will do their utmost to avoid the baby (now toddler like the plague) if she's downstairs they are upstairs and vice versa. Her room door is open during the night and I have yet to see nay of them in her room nevermind her cot. My cats are indoor cats so have never caught anything other than the odd fly though.

My cats won't ever take a swing at my kids. And to be frank, I wish they would - well, at least at DS1. If either kid does something mean, the cat just runs off, which is punishment of a sort, given how much the kids love the cats, but still ...