Are we taking a risk with cat and newborn?

[trrk]

Is it risky to let our cat sleep in our bedroom at night with a newborn sleeping in a Moses basket (on a stand) next to our bed? Cat hasn’t shown any interest in the Moses basket with or without baby but i’m still a bit nervous about it.

I think there's always a risk whether the cat is interested in the cot or not. We used to kick ours out, I couldn't be doing with him in there as well even if he was just asleep on the wardrobe!

Congrats on the little one!

I have lots of cats and lots of babies 😂 no I wouldn't allow the cat in the room when the baby is under 6 months

Yes it's a risk, just put the cat in another room at night. It only takes the one time.

So I asked my vet friend about this as we have a clingy/needy cat who will cry and cry at the bedroom door if we shut her out. She said that if you cat likes sleeping on or around your face, there is a chance they might try and do that to the baby. However, she said it’s very unlikely as most cats do not like babies (the noise/smell), and most likely will not want to be anywhere near them. A lot of this is knowing your cat - my cat is a 10yr old cuddle bug who likes to sleep on our feet and has never gone near the baby or cot. At most she will sit next to me while I feed the baby but she doesn’t like to be touching the baby.

if you are concerned you cry try adding things to the cot to get the cat to get a negative association (obviously remove this when baby is in there). Eg tinfoil or sellotape - most cats hate it and will avoid it.

in our case our baby hated the Moses basket, so the cat slept in the Moses basket, and ignored the cot. So if you can give the cat a different place to sleep they will pick that over the one where the baby is!

Don’t risk it. What are the benefits of having the cat sleep in your room - none. And what’s the worst that could happen - not worth thinking out. Shut the cat up in another room with a treat.

We purposefully got the cats used to sleeping without us before baby arrived as this was our worry. Although if you do do this, be prepared for clawing at the door. It has been 6 months and one of our cats still claws at the door (now only in the morning when it's nearing breakfast time, but still very irritating when we haven't woken yet!). They don't go in the crib when they do have access so I doubt it would have ever been a problem but I just couldn't take the risk personally. It is just that very tiny chance I didn't want to take!

Not being woken up by the cat scratching at the door is one benefit😆 but yeah I wouldn't chance it! Rather that than risk it. It's what we did and 6 months later cat still scratches but now only in the morning when he's getting hungry.

Our female cat got very stressed when she heard our newborn cry (maybe similar to a kitten’s mew) Baby’s was on lying on a mat on the floor, I was next to her and she started crying. In a flash, cat appeared and attempted to pick up baby as if she were a kitten (ie in cat’s mouth) Fortunately I was sort close that I was able to push cat away before her mouth touched baby. I wouldn’t op. Don’t take the risk!

I have two cats and when my baby was born I was worried about this. So our cats used to sleep on the bed too, but I trained them a few weeks before baby was due to get used to being shut out of the bedroom. They weren't keen but soon got used to it, plus they weren't keen on the baby crying etc so weren't actually interested in sleeping in the bedroom. Now my daughter sleeps in her own room, they come back in with us at night!

I Googled this ages ago, and there was only1 reference to a suspected case somewhere in Eastern Europe that could not be verified.

It doesn't really matter, does it? If the cat could go in and sleep with the baby, that's not ok, regardless of outcome.

Loads of typos. Apologies. You get the idea - crying newborn, stressed cat, cat tries to pick up newborn in her mouth.

My cats used to always get into the pram with my babies when they were newborn. If they were asleep in the garden in their pram the cat would slink under the top cover and lay alongside them. Had to buy a cat net to stop this.

Cats won't harm the baby - but I would worry about the accidentally tipping the Moses basket over - I've got 9 cats myself so couldn't use a Moses basket on a rocker

We have cats who decided the moses basket was theirs before baby was even born!
While I knew they wouldnt try and sleep on top of baby because she was noisy etc, i didnt want to risk it.
For the first 6 months, while baby was in her next to me crib, we kept the cats out of our bedroom.
They scratched at the door for the first few months. It woke baby up several times but eventually they got the message and slept elsewhere.
We were just careful to give them as much attention as they had before baby arrived.
Now baby is in her own room the cats are back in ours over night and theyre happy.
To be fair the cats arent worried by the new small being. She on the other hand LOVES them. They tolerate strokes and would chill next to her on her playmat

We got a cat net to put over the cot but the cat never showed any interest so we stopped using it after a while.