Tell me the truth about cats and newborns - Page 2

[Limabean1975]

Originally Posted by Norasmomma

Love this. I was just looking at pics of our DD as a newborn and our "old man" cat who is nearly 13 now sitting by her keeping guard. He has loved her since she was in the womb.

Sweet. INteresting that you say since she was in the womb - because of our three cats, this big orange tabby was the only one who still found my lap appealing when I had a giant belly - he would prop himself up on it! None of the three are particularly interested in my belly this time.

[Tellera]

Originally Posted by randomacts

The most dangerous thing about having a cat around a baby ime is that the cat will meow at exactly the time the baby falls asleep, causing the infant to be wide awake and wanting to play with the cat. This can cause fits of rage in the mother.

Other than that, they are harmless...and I hate my cat, can you tell??

Oh I remember those days. ripping my hair out, vowing to take the cat to the shelter. rage, the rage. and crying, because, seriously, awful.

[inky leeuhhh]

Originally Posted by JD5351

I remember my aunt saying that cats will drag a baby down to the basement thinking they were a loaf of bread.

LOL! i just had to butt into this thread because this is the funniest thing i have ever heard!

[dawncayden]

Our cats aren't aloud in our bedrooms anymore but that is not because of smothering, its cause they are so damn annoying, meowing, playing with things in the room and making noises, and the HAIR! I hate their hair every where, so its nice to have 2 clean rooms in our house that are pretty much hair free.

[herins]

I have a very nice cat and a very NOT nice cat, and haven't had problems with either. The not nice cat has actually put up with more from my toddler than I would ever have imagined. I think she knows she'd be gone in a flash if she ever hurt him. We co-slept for the first year or so, and kept the cats out of our room. We close our 2 year old's door when he goes to bed. My cats did love sleeping in the bassinet when it was empty, which drove me insane cuz of the hair. Someone already said that their cats disappeared for a while when baby was first born, which is exactly what happened. They were sooooo confused by him.

[MamaMonica]

Moved to Pets.

[Dahlea]

I have 3 cats and 2 dogs and they were scared of the baby for the first few months! They would sniff his car seat or blanket if he wasn't nearby but if he was, they stayed away! I think it's a good idea to be cautious at first but no reason to think they will hurt your baby.

[layla983]

Originally Posted by randomacts

The most dangerous thing about having a cat around a baby ime is that the cat will meow at exactly the time the baby falls asleep, causing the infant to be wide awake and wanting to play with the cat. This can cause fits of rage in the mother.

Other than that, they are harmless...and I hate my cat, can you tell??

YES, THIS!

I'm just happy we aren't the only one with this problem.

Anyway, we got random grief from some people when I was pregnant with my older son. The cats would smother him, so I either had to get rid of them or lock them away. The cats would scratch him, so they needed declawed which made me cringe because I don't believe in the practice of declawing cats.

I had 3 cats when I had DS, had zero problems with them. He loves kitties. He attacks & hugs them all, he meows all the time. Even one, who we joked is the worse cat ever puts up with DS being a crazy toddler & trying to pick her up. Has he been scratched a couple times? Yep, on his leg & arm, but that's only been a couple times when he's got too rough before we could stop it & it wasn't a big deal (DS didn't care, he was just confused as to why the kitty was running away). Now I'm pregnant again & have even more cats. I refuse to admit the number, I'll just say I took in a pregnant stray & ended up keeping most of the kittens. lol

[learnlovebe]

This thread seriously cracked me up. What's up w/ the bread?!?! My cats don't play w/ bread, don't eat bread, and have never dragged anything, much less a loaf of bread down the steps (THAT would require too much work for my fat cat).

I have 2 cats, one is fat, mellow, loves attention. The other likes my husband and myself, and that's about it if we have company, she hides.

Then the baby came. The fat one hid for a month, in the garage (we had just moved and were using it as storage, so there was no in/out w/ the car factor). The persnickety one kept her distance, but became sort of a "watcher" of the baby.

I don't think either are happy w/ the situation, but I think are coming to terms with it. My ds is 21 months now, and sleeps in his room in a crib. The cats won't go in his room when he's in it, but I have caught the fat one in the rocker when he's not.

At night, the cats go back and forth between the foot of our bed and right outside the door to my ds's room (it's like they're keeping guard).

Niether of our cats have ever been "head" sleepers though. I would have thrown them across the room long ago if they would have ever tried (NOTHING can touch the top of my head while I'm sleeping, NOTHING, it's a personal sleeping preference ).

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

When I was pg with dd I kept having people ask me what I was going to do with cats. My reponce usually involved me looking at them with great confusion and asking what they meant

Those old wives tail's about the cat stealing the babies breath and smothering the baby is just laughable. At the time I had two 7yo cats and they thought the baby was ebil seriously the crouching and slinking away any time they layed eyes on her was hilarious.

Both kids have been bitten with no long lasting effects other than learning to leave the kitty alone when she is resting.

[mouthcave]

Originally Posted by learnlovebe

This thread seriously cracked me up. What's up w/ the bread?!?! My cats don't play w/ bread, don't eat bread, and have never dragged anything, much less a loaf of bread down the steps (THAT would require too much work for my fat cat).

The bread! I honestly do have a cat that will snatch a loaf of bread and eat it if you leave it on the counter. He has never confused my son with a loaf of bread however!

My favorite part about being pregnant/having a newborn was all the people really, really worried about my cats doing something to my baby. OK, so I didn't enjoy much during that stage, haha.
Anyway, I have seven (uh huh) cats and there has never been an issue. One cat that is about 17 years old cannot stand my son now that he is a toddler and will scratch my son if he gets too close, so we just keep them separated. Most of the time she stays in our bedroom while he's awake and then I kick her out (lovingly!) when it's nap/bed time. She also hates all of our other cats too, so she loves the solitude (and I make sure to set aside some angry, old kitty cuddlin' time!).
I agree with others that the worst part about cats + a baby would be cats waking up your baby when you've *finally* gotten her/him to sleep. Oh it drives me nuts! And that I worry more about how my cats will survive around a toddler than I do about my son's safety around the cats. My son is really into the idea of sitting on my cats right now, so uh yeah.
I wouldn't really leave a tiny sleeping baby alone with a cat just because they can be really into cuddling. I'm sure the chances of something bad actually happening are pretty slim, but you might as well play it safe! Plus there is the whole annoying cat waking up baby when you just need a LITTLE bit of time to yourself! factor.
Otherwise, some of the cuuutest things I've ever seen involve my cats and my son, haha. Have fun!

[rere]

Well,I have a friend who had to get one of those crib tent things because the cat wouldn't stay of her daughter's head.Of coarse the cat was just trying to snuggle but I'm sure it was a bit alarming to walk in and see the cat on the baby's head.

We had a sweet cat when my daughter was born but he was not happy about her being there and started biting her and then moved in with the neighbors.No joke,I looked out the window one day and saw him in the neighbor's window.

But generally I don't think it's a problem.

[secondimpression]

My first outing as a newborn was to the family vet because of the cat My parents had an unaltered female kitty at the time whose chosen method of asserting dominance over me was to spray. So at just a day old, my mother packed up me and the cat (she didn't have any help) and go to the vet to have the cat spayed. The cat almost instantly gained 10 pounds but the spraying stopped

[crazycandigirl]

I have had cats around during both newborn stages and will have them around again. They mostly keep away from the baby. My older cat has been know to come up to a recently nursed baby and smell near her mouth and pull back licking her lips. She then sits staring at the baby like she does a can of tunafish. I think she is trying to figure out why a baby gets to have milk and she does not. She never actually gets in a baby's face or anything though.

[miss_sonja]

My cats loved napping next to my kids when they were tiny. Never on top, just next to. They liked the warmth.

[rachelsmama]

My cat used to like to warm her feet on ds's head while we all slept. It was a little alarming for me, but quite innocent. She still likes to lie down next to ds while he's sleeping and sometimes comes to him for pets when he's awake. It's quite sweet, she really is quite tolerant with him.

[Aliviasmom]

Mythmythmythmyth!!!!

The only issue we had with our cats were that they were kind of oblivious to the baby when she was in my bed. So I had to keep them out of the room when she was sleeping or they would walk on her.

And when she was a bit older, I had to keep them out because they would wake her up to play.

[2xy]

In regards to the bread....I've had many cats over the years and can distinctly remember two of them who enjoyed bread. One of them would climb on top of the refrigerator (where we kept the bread), chew a hole through the plastic and munch away.

The myth about babies being smothered by cats originated, I believe, because our superstitious ancestors linked cats with witches, and they were ignorant about what witches really were. This little tidbit of myth-information probably dates back to the Salem witch trials.

[onlyzombiecat]

I had a cat when I was pregnant. She liked sitting on my belly. She was a head snuggler and lap kitty.
She never came near our baby after she was born if she could help it.

I wouldn't stress about the cat laying on the baby.
You shouldn't leave your baby or young child unsupervised with any pet though. A baby or toddler might pull fur, fall or hit and get scratched or bitten.

[Uxor]

My cat liked to sleep and purr on my belly when I was pregnant. After ds1 was born she started climbing up into my lap ontop of ds1 while i was nursing. Ds1 never cared that he had a purring ball of fuzz on top of him during his meals. With ds2 she alway sat next to me during the feedings. She always left the crib and carseat alone though.