Cats suffocating babies - myth or experience?

[SmithTheCat]

Hi,expecting first sprog v soon. Cat seems determined to sleep in moses basket and cot. Have bought it own cat-basket but ignors it. Looking into buying a cat-net but seems v.fiddly to have to take on/off basket/cot in middle of night for feeds etc. Fairly convinced that cat will react with total horror at being confronted with real live child as it already views visitors' children as being evil and therefore to be avoided. However my M is convinced it will curl up in the cot and suffocate the child. Has anybody had any actual experience of cats/babies other than hearsay? Cot/cat-nets any good? Thanks.

We have two cats. DS2 used to sleep with them, when he was pre-mobile. But then, they were all in our bed, which is pretty big.

I honestly don't think there's a risk. I might be nervous with a preemie/poorly baby, or a mean-tempered cat, but otherwise, no stress at all.

Well, that's certainly an interesting cross-section of views. It doesn't sound like cat nets work really. Ebay is full of unused ones that people bought and never needed because the cats avoided the babies like the plague. I think we'll just have to see how it goes and be sensible and observant about it. I'm obviously not actually encouraging the cat to sleep in the cot and moses basket, it's just when it sneaks into the same room. I do wish we had a door at the bottom of the stairs. It certainly doesn't pee in the house! Nor shed excessive amounts of hair or be very interested in mice; it's not really a cat's cat. An interesting point re toxoplasmosis is that apparently 60% of the population have had it at some point. I got myself tested for it and they said that I'd had it ages ago and was very probably imune (and would protect the foetus). The symptoms are apparently "a bit like having a cold" so that could have been a few of times over the years. I'm intending to be fairly careful about hygene for the first few years and then gradually expose our offspring to as many dogs, cats, horses, mud, outdoor life etc that I was exposed to - I only get a brief cold once every 5/6 years, I'm sure this is related to my grubby upbringing :-) I expect all the bleach and anti-cat fanatics are about to jump on me now :-)

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where did you get the toxoplasmosis test done smith?

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I'll nevr forget my horror at changing a friends Ds;s nappy and finding cat hair inside the nappy!

Gross!

Our dog molts for england and for this reason alone she's not allowed upstairs. Even if I'm standing at the top of the stairs and call her she won't come so it's easily possible to train an animal to not come upstairs.

Yuk, yuk yuk....cat hairs in the cot and mosoes basket.

I got the toxoplasmosis test done at the local maternity unit. They had to send the blood sample off to be tested and it came back in a week. I had to do the reading about it myself.

After I had DD who is now 3 I read of a 6wk old baby who was smoothered by a cat in The Daily Telegraph. Maybe you could do a search on this? I have 2 cats and reading this made me realise that you just can't take a risk. Cats snuggle up for the warmth including the warm breath - apparently.

am actually an ex-cat lover, though still rather a reluctant owner of two cats. have been ticked off on another thread recently for expressing the wish for a cat-free life since babies arrrived.

cat hairs in cot is one of the reasons. we don't LET the cats sleep in the children's beds. they sneak in.

one cat loved babies and would snuggle up with anyone including babies given a chance. one is nervous of children but likes their beds. one was terrified of children til we had them and now she's quite fond of them.

ChicPea, there was a death in 2000 that was initially blamed on a cat lying on the baby. But it was since ruled to be SIDS. cite

fennel - perhaps your baby could smother and suffocate the cat for you?

I've got 3 cats and a boy aged 22 mths and was abit concerned (cat no. 3 is a burmese and will crawl under our duvet to get warmed up - and she's v pointy!!!)

We had a moses basket and found a cat net was useless (it just buckled under her weight). To be safe we operated a very strict "no cats in the bedroom with DS" policy, when he was sleeping and then if he was downstairs dosing and she tried anything, I'd just hoik her out by her scruff - she soon got the message.

DS now loves her and likes to have her in his room so I have to do a cat hunt each night to make sure she's not hiding there!

Of my other 2, one is very wary and will always leave the room if DS comes into it and the other is only worried about where I am so follows me out IYSWIM.

As to hygiene, well I firmly believe that exposure to pets helps children's immune system so it doesn't worry me too much. I would suggest having the moses basket out and either hollering at her or maybe squirting her to get her to understand that it's not her bed

Cats are actually very clean animals. Would much rather have a cat in my house than a hamster/gerbil vermin type thing.

My M-i-L used to think it was so sweet that the 3 cats used to sleep in the cot with her grandaughters. Was always full of cat hair. When the kids had sticky mouths (not my kids) they would have cat and dog hair stuck on there cheeks too... Wasnt unusal to have animal hair in your dinner either since the spend alot of time in the kitchen... 5 cats and 2 big hairy dogs...

Yuk!

Oy, Northerner leave us vermin loving people alone - my rats are lovely thanks .

we have a cat, family were worried for us when dd was on the way and bought cat nets for us to use. we never needed them. i remember coming home from the hospital with her and putting her in the moses basket which was on a stand at the end of our bed. the cat was lying on our bed, moved towards her, poked his nose in the basket, she moved and he shot out the room as fast as his paws would carry him!. he never botherd going near basket or cot after that. we also did research on the tinternet on this subject pre children as it was a concern of ours and came to the conclusion that cats smothering babies was a bit of an old wives tale.

but just to be on the safe side, we keep the cat downstairs so he's never anywhere near where the children sleep. when we go out, he goes outside.

I found the cat net useless because it was fiddly to fit and when dd got a bit bigger she grabbed it and got tangled up in it.

Our cats haven't really bothered with dd but we have always shut them out of the bedrooms at night (due to their noisy nightime habits).

I did go into dd's room one morning and find a cat asleep in the cot with her. I think the cat suffered more, she was horrified to find herself in such close proximity to a baby!

Mine are indoor cats so no worm/flea/dead mice problems. Like fennel though I don't have the same love for my cats post DD. They just annoy me with their stinky poos in the litter tray, fur over the sofas, fighting in the middle of the night, miaowing for food then throwing it back up etc etc

However, I used to think that I would get a dog once I was at home with children, no way now. My mum has 2 a Springer and a rat type terrier thing. Ok when DD was a baby but once she was mobile it's a nightmare. One visit she was commando crawling one of the dogs was on heat and bleeding on the carpet yuck. They jump up on her and lick her face (double yuck) she picks up their ball covered in slobber and they knock her over (when she was just learning to walk). My mum will say "they are just being friendly" I lock them in the kitchen!! I used to be a dog lover as well.

i was worried about our cat with ds, as she's a bit of a grump. didn't get a cat net because i thought - the baby can still lie next to the bars / with a hand touching the net, and the cat could still scratch them thorugh the net. instead we just make sure they are never left alone together, and the cat can't go in the room where ds is sleeping. like everyone has said, though, the cat avoids him. she looks really disgusted with him and when he cries she walks away in a really slow, pointed manner.

My children are very sad that the cat that used to sleep on their beds has died. Our previous cats that we had when they were babies kept very much out of their way, but then we have only had old cats, and basically they sleep all day (on our bed) get up briefly when the children go to bed and sleep on our laps, and finally went to sleep on our bed (apart from the most recent, now deceaded, who slept alternatly with the children from story time until we went to bed). So very little contact with the children! We had an old rocking cradle (slept in by the last three generations) that would have required quite a leap to get into. As they were old cats they never tried.

I co-slept with my DD and I did wake up and find my cat asleep on top of her (body not face) {shock] I imagine she (the cat) was atracted to the warmth (???). She never did again as I jumped up and practically threw her across the room (don't call the RSPCA on me!).

This got me thinking and one thing that really annoyed me when I was pregnant was the number of friends who asked when we would get rid of the cats, "now you've got a baby on the way". I kept having to explain that they are part of our family, etc.

Oh and saw an odd statistic on excema the other day in the Guardian

"German researchers at the Medical University Lubeck reckon that children who have had worms are significantly less likely to develop eczema" YIKES!

Okay, Only just spotted this thread, very close to my heart this one.

When I was a liitle baby our cat used to sleep either on the hood of the pram or by my bedroom door. One afternoon, my mother put me in my cot left me to sleep. half hour later mad cat round her feet, biting scratching making a complete nusence of its self. When she treid to to catch it the cat shot up stairs and in to my room, something it never did apparantly. I had been sick and was by this point blue and floppy, hence the reason the cat ahd gone a bit loppy. Obviously I survived thanks to the cat.

When i was pregnant with DD my in laws wanted me to get rid of the cats - they reckoned they would beattracted to the milk around a babies mouth and scratch it - what a load of tosh! DD is now 2, and loves the cats - she copies her daddy and says "hello boy" - they never go in her room though.