Cats and crib - concerned

daphne_descends

You may be able to all share, I have napped in my bed with my baby next to me and a cat on my feet, and they stayed in our room until the night I was in labour.

I would say relax, don't worry, and see how it goes

The important thing is that you're absolutely doing the right thing with having your baby in your room, this lowers the risk of SIDS until 6 months (and beyond... not yet evicted my 14 month old! <tired emoticon> )

Cullumpster

I have to say that i didn' have a problem with my 2 they didn't go near him after the 1st sniff however the myth unfortunately isn't an urban myth my husbands ex MIL had that exact horrible thing happen to her although the baby was in the garden in the pram ! let them have a sniff let them in your room but dont let them in at night just in case as they will go anywhere warm........i have to 2nd those radiator things my 2 loved them

LJM

I think all you can do is keep an eye out but i would start shutting them out in the eve now as you wont want to be worrying about it when baby is born,you will have to much going on.

Hardup_Hester

I used a cat net, it worked really well. When I forgot to put it on the crib the cat would get in with the baby, baby didn't seem to mind, probably because the cat had a purr like a machine gun. The cat didn't harm the baby, baby is now 32 years old!

Spendless

From snopes

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/catsuck.asp

My cats hated my kids so much the cats left home! No way would they have jumped into the cot when the baby was there. If it was empty though they'd have got it. I kept the door closed for this reason.

[Deleted User]

My cat has never got into bed with my babies when they were there, but had the odd occasion when they weren't, same with the buggy, so i try to keep their changing bag in it when its vacated. Cosy toes are simply that!

My cat isn't very tolerant of my kids, doesn't spend much time in the same room and would rather keep his distance from fear of being chased, pulled, prodded etc. My daughter is currently fascinated by him as he never lets her get close. My son had to learn the hard way and he got scratch twice before he learnt how to stroke him nicely and not pull his tail or touch his tummy. Just waiting for Little Miss to do the same, as she won't be told. If I say no, she answers me back (i'm not kidding - I have a 10 month with attitude and its scary). I'm dreading the terrible 2's.

iieee

caevans wrote: »

Plus mother and mother-in-law doing their very best to make me paranoid........

Do not worry about that, you will learn very early on to nod and agree with a glazed expression, whilst doing the exact opposite. The same goes with health visitors.

Our cat is still sleeping happily on our bed, she much prefers our company to the baby's. Besides which, if your cat did attempt to jump into the moses basket during the night, he/she would wake the baby up, and the baby would wake you up, so it's not really going to be a problem IMHO.

KellyWelly

When my daughter was 3 months old we were staying with family and heard her let out an almighty scream from the bedroom. We rushed into the room to find the cat had got into her cot and scratched the back of her head and right across her cheek. It bled quite a lot because the scratches were quite deep and they did scar but now she's 4 and 1/2 they've faded and I can't see them any more.

Anyway, the cat had never done anything like that before and she'd always been lovely and so we had no reason to think she would hurt the kids, she had been my pet when I lived at home and we'd had her since a kitten.

I would say start keeping the cats out now so they are used to it by the time the baby comes - it's not a good idea imho to leave babies and children with any animals unsupervised.

carlislelass

we`ve always had a cat, had 3 children with no problems from it. just kept an eye on them and never left them alone together. had a cat net for the pram outdoors

alison6692

Hiya

This opened a massive can of worms when I asked about this. We didn't buy any nets - have found that the cat has no interest in the baby and now she is older he is very good with her.

When I did my research I could find no proof that cats actually sit on babies faces for the milk or any of those old wives tales. People will tell you they know someone it has happened too but I could find no evidence of this.

HTH

Alison x