How to protect cat from crawling baby...

[JohnLapsleyParlabane]

... When she actively seeks out the baby! I have an 11month old human baby (HB) and a 16 month old Siberian cat baby (CB). At night they sleep together and all is well. However in the daytime HB keeps grabbing and dragging at CB. CB never retaliates and I seem to spend my entire day distracting or telling off HB and moving them apart. Despite having the run of the entire house CBs preferred spot is invariably close to HB so even when I separate them CB just comes back for more! As HB is getting bigger and stronger I'm getting worried that one day she'll actually hurt CB. Any suggestions oh wise ones?

I probably wouldn't have got a cat when I was pregnant tbh. Your cat is still a kitten and looking to play and your child is exploring.

Tbh and this will sound horrid but I have 2 similar v docile cats whom I suspect will also take a load of abuse when DS starts crawling - I hope one of them does eventually take a swipe at him as it is the only way he will learn!!

Our cat growing up did that to my sister when she went too far and it never did her any harm.

That's very helpful Iguess, do you have a time machine?

The cat will lose its rag and swipe and then the baby will learn.

My cat loves playing and diving around with my kids but won't let anyone touch her tail. The kids learnt sharpish and its fine here

You could put up a baby gate which will keep the HB away from the CB if the CB wants. If the CB chooses to put themselves in HB's way, then there's not much you can do. As Ifart says, the HB will grab too hard, the CB will retaliate and the HB will learn.

I'm not worried about the baby getting hurt, I'm worried about the cat. I wish the cat would react but she just takes the abuse!

She will react if she actually gets hurt

Yeah she will get the hump eventually and then kick the baby into touch.
Cats like to train all the humans in the house in their own time

Re-home the baby. The cat will be cheaper in the long run.

That's a bit of a jump Fluffy: from me wanting to protect my cat while my baby learns how to be gentle to implying that I want to rehome her.
And Lynda I wish that baby gates worked to separate them but CatBaby just leaps over them.

It was meant as a joke. Like when I say it's a good job it's dh who's allergic to the cat & not vice versa because dh would have to leave.

Was just thinking about the horror that would be caused on AIBU be cause the OP is more worried (quite rightly) about the cat getting hurt more than the baby. And that the baby will learn, when it gets scratched. All the comments would be to get rid of the cat etc etc!!

I agree with others that as long as you create safe space so the cat can get her peace and quiet if she wants to, then there isn't much you can do for the cat. She chose to get close to your baby. When DC1 was young, our cat was much more aggressive. DC got a bit too close and the cat just batted her paws at the baby. It really would have hurt, but it won't cause any harm as the cat was only trying shoo her away.

Love how cats just know when to be gentle. My 18 moth old god daughter was playing with our then Cat. He was showing his usual signs of having had enough but never moved and let her pet him.

I am going through this too, I spend all day separating my crawling DS and my boy cat (my girl cat is sensible enough to stay far away). There is a total love affair going on between the cat and the baby and they are drawn like magnets to one another, despite repeated fur/ear/tail grabbings! I'm just trying to protect the cat as much as possible, and we've been working consistently on 'gentle!' 'Don't pull hair!' 'Gentle with faces' etc etc since DS was really tiny.

My cat is clearly a glutton for punishment. HB pulled out a bloody whisker today and didn't even get hissed at!

At night they sleep together and all is well.

Have I read this correctly? The cat and the baby sleep together at night?

Oh and sorry for missing the joke Fluffy. Am a bit sensitive as both CB and HB were planned, as was their age gap.