Cat and toddler

[Amichelle84]

Looking for any tips experiences...

Our cat is 2.5hears old and we have a 16mth toddler who loves him and wants to play and play chase with him. Our cat has always been quite shy around people but has started to come out more when people come over.

Our son doesn't really understand how to treat him gently, we show him how to stroke the body etc but he grabs his tail and fur and the cat has started to hit him and uses his claws.

Son has quite a few scratches now on his arms and legs and I'm worried he's going to get him badly in the face or eye one day.

Does anyone have any advice or tips as how we can handle this.

Has the cat got high up spaces it can go to get away from him? It's not fair on the cat for you to let him pull fur/tail

The cat has lots of high places to go to, he could also go to other rooms if he wanted to. We don't let him pull his fur...we tell him off when we does and then show him to stroke. babies grab.

If he's at a grabby stage then I'd keep him away from the cat as much as you can. It's not the cats fault that he's getting scratched

I would keep them separate for now.

I have the most antisocial cat ever and when my son was born and in that grabby stage I used to remove my son give the cat some love and just keep reciting that you do not pull or grab the cat.

My son is now 3.5 years old and him and the cat are best friends but not without my son getting a few scratches along the way.

Definitely on team cat here ...

It's not a cat or baby post or who's in the wrong I definitely am not blaming the cat, I was looking for advice but as usual people have to be smart arses and make things out to be how they weren't intended.

Thank you to those who had useful comments.

we have an almost 2 year old cat and a 22mo toddler. the cat has high spaces in the main living area (kitchen) and 2 gated exits so he can get out of the main living area and the toddler can't. he is outside a lot of the time but when he's in and toddler is interacting with him we watch very carefully and block any movements the cat won't like "I won't let you hit him/pull his tail" and if toddler won't stop then after 2 or 3 attempts we say "ok I'm going to move you away now to keep kitty safe" then get him to play elsewhere if possible. we never move the cat out because the toddler is bothering him though.