cats and babies

[pickledgirkin]

I just wanted to let any new parents know that we had two cats and they never showed any interest in getting close up and personal with our baby. They found her a wierd unpredictable thing and pretty much always kept their distance. We kept them out of the bedroom at night just to be careful but I don't think they would have snuggled up with her anyway - too unpredictable. Just wanted to reassure! SHe's 9 months now and they still keep their distance! She is too grabby for them! xxx

You're lucky. We had to get rid of our cat because she got so stressed out when my DS cried that she tried to attack him.

I guess it depends on the character of the cat - but I just wanted to let people know that you don't necessarily HAVE to get rid of cats if you have a baby. I had loads of people advising me to get rid of them and telling me horror stories but I never had any problems. Our LO had a few problems at the beginning and was a real screamer, but it didn't bother ours too much. I'm sorry you had to get rid of yours - I would have hated to lose mine! xxx

During my first pregnancy nearly everyone I knew asked me 'when are you going to get rid of the cats?'. They all thought it was terribly risky to keep them. But like yours, OP, they were too nervous of these unpredictable little things to go near them.

When they got a bit bigger, BigCat used to come running when they cried to see if she could help. She let them snuggle up to her and pat her, and now that they're bigger, they can pick her up like a giant teddy (she's huge!) and she just purrs at them.

LittleCat has just gotten to the stage where she'll accept head rubs from DD (who's 6), and sometimes from DS (4) is she's feeling very, very relaxed and he moves really, really slowly.

We've never had a single moment of regret that we kept them, and we're glad that the kids are growing up understanding how to treat animals and loving them.

My two won't go near DS either :)

My two won't be in the same room as dd let alone hurt her

We never had any problems. Fat cat spent my first pg sitting on my tummy. They were pushed out of the bedroom until ds was bigger than them. Skinny cat stayed away, but that's just her nature. It's like they knew ds was the boss and we'd take his side, so they never started anything.

My eldest said 'I love name-of-cat' weeks before he said 'I love mummy'.

My cat was terrified of DS when he was tiny. Then she got used to him, but still kept her distance.

Now at 13 months, they are best friends and his first word was her name

Ours have never showed any interest in 2yo DS or 10wo DD. DS is very gentle and tender with them though when they allow him near them. Very sweet.

I think my DDs first word will be cat, albert...!

This is really reassuring to hear, thank you OP for starting this post! I always wanted a cat but everyone had such strong, negative opinions on it when I was pregnant. Everyone's worry seems to be either that the cat will scratch the baby's eyes out (yeah, cause that's likely!) or that the cat will climb into the cot and suffocate them (in which case I would suggest to them that they don't think me capable of setting boundaries with pets).

Unfortunately now DD is 7months, DP wants to get a dog instead! I WANT MY CAT!

The cat ignored ds2 when he was a baby, avoided him when he was a toddler and now ds is 5 the cat adores him.

And she never went into the cost.
She LOVED the basket under the buggy though

I get so annoyed when people say you can't have cats with babies. For some reason it's often from dog people.
Bit of common sense such as keeping cat out of room if baby is asleep etc.
Our cat was fine with DD, she hid under the bed for 2 hours when we came home from hospital. DD did annoy her once and cat just put her paw on her as if to say "stop, I don't like that".
I think one key thing is to remember your cat(s) still need attention from you to help them deal with the change of a noisy small human appearinh in their home.