throughthebackyards asked:
I am 8 mos pregnant and have 1 male cat who is 1 yr old. So far he seems to obey well (except lately he’s been a little bad- we moved to a new place & that could be why- stress etc). So my question pertains to my concern about if he may somehow jump into the babys crib while she’s sleeping and possibly suffocate her. He already jumped from a box onto her changing table once and grabbed an item of hers in the middle of the night and I found it the next morning on the bathroom floor). I don’t want to put up a protective tent or shut her in her room, so I’m hoping it won’t be a problem. 1st time mom and 1st time cat owner… Ahh!!!
I am 8 mos pregnant and have 1 male cat who is 1 yr old. So far he seems to obey well (except lately he’s been a little bad- we moved to a new place & that could be why- stress etc). So my question pertains to my concern about if he may somehow jump into the babys crib while she’s sleeping and possibly suffocate her. He already jumped from a box onto her changing table once and grabbed an item of hers in the middle of the night and I found it the next morning on the bathroom floor). I don’t want to put up a protective tent or shut her in her room, so I’m hoping it won’t be a problem. 1st time mom and 1st time cat owner… Ahh!!!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I have two cats. Mostly they like to hide under the crib, not in it. One of them also likes to lay on the pad on the changing table sometimes. I have never seen them in the crib, but when my daughter is asleep in it, I shut her door so they can’t get in the room. Problem solved. The baby doesn’t really spend that much time in her crib, so it’s not like she’s shut in there all day. Most of the day is spent out in the living room with me.
If your cat isn’t neutered, I’d do so before the baby comes. He might decide to get possessive of the house and start spraying her toys and other things.
Pets can be very dangerous for little ones. Especially cats because they are known to be more needy. The fact that the cat has already taken something of the babies and the baby is not even here yet is not a good sign. My parents have a Jack Russel and when I was at there house for the first 2 months after my daughter had been born we made sure he was never near her unsupervised and he was always locked up when nobody could watch him in. At night he went to bed with my parents and they shut their door tight so he could not get out. I would recomend having a friend our family member take the cat for a while or lock him in a certain room at night and when the baby is in their room and you cant watch the cat.
I keep my baby’s door closed when she’s in there, and I keep the door closed when she’s not, too. That way my cat never gets a chance to get in the crib. If you are worried about the baby being in there alone, get a monitor. The cat will get into the crib if you let him. When my oldest was a baby our cat got in there with her every chance he got-so that’s when I started closing the door-it solved the problem fast! Good luck with your new baby
ha ha inquisitive kitten! I have two of them. The cat is curious, however i wont worry about the cat jumping in with the baby and suffocating it, i would worry more about the cat hair in the crib and on the babies things, and well although cats are fairly clean remember they dig in their litter boxes, so their paws are a bit ickY! My cats love to claw my babies things, drives me nuts, the bassinette i had for my 10 month old should be new, but the cats slept in it because my daughter slept in my bed with me due to easier during ****** feeding, now i am 3 months and will most likely buy a new bassinette, ack! Cats can be irritating, but i love mine, i try to keep them out of my daughters things, but for some reason they are drawn to it. Try a spray bottle of water and ****** the cat when i goes near the babies things, it does not work for my two but may work for yours, you still have a month to try to condition the kitty! Good luck
My daughter is 11 weeks and her crib is in our room. One of my cats is pretty bad, always racing around the house so I lock him out at night. Well, one night, I must have locked him in on accident. I woke up at 3 am to go to the bathroom and take a peek at my angel on the way out and guess who’s in the crib? He was laying by her feet and both of them were fast asleep but I freaked out. I grabbed the cat out of there and locked him out. He is really good with her though. I had the baby laying on the floor and the cat came racing around the corner straight for the baby. But once he saw her on the floor he jumped straight up and over her. It was actually kinda funny. He also likes to sit in her swing when she’s not in it. I guess the point of my rambling is – trust your gut. You know your cat. But like a pp said – be careful of the cat hair. You don’t want that in baby’s mouth
He’s a cat, right? Okay, this is easy (at least in my house) — just explain to him how badly you _want_ him to sleep in the crib (or sit in the baby’s chair, or whatever)…
Pick him up and put him down in it; do it like you’re six years old and try (gently) to push him into a sitting position.
Any cat worth his cattiness will say ‘MrrOOWR!’ and scoot. And after once or twice, he’ll just give the crib (or wherever) a disdainful look. Reverse psychology works brilliantly with cats. My two think the ‘baby papasan’ is a terrible place since I set it up, picked them up, put them in it a few times and tried to hold them there for more than 30 seconds.
But the thing about cats suffocating babies is a myth. Has your cat ever gone around sleeping on _your_ face? Can you imagine a cat sleeping on a softball, or anything else baby-head-sized? Don’t sweat it too much.
We had a cat that used to like to curl up in my sons crib before he was born. We used to spray him with water, etc. but ended up just having to keep the door closed because he wouldnt stop. Never went near my son though and was a pretty timid cat so by the time my son could grab he didnt want to even be on the same side of the house.
My cat jumped in my second childs crib I guess she was curious. I whipped her *** and made sure she knew the baby was off limits. Now I just had a baby and this time I introduced the baby to the cat and let the cat smell the baby. Now she leaves the baby alone.