Do you let Baby touch your pets?

[GoldmanBaby09]

We have a very friendly, gentle, 100% indoors cat. I'm a little torn on what I should do to introduce the animal to my baby. Part of me thinks he shouldn't touch the cat for allergy reasons. But that is pretty silly since our whole house is covered in pet hair. Another part of me wants him to get used to petting the kitty "nice" and kitty is so soft and I know babies like to feel different textures.

So what do you do about kids and pets?

[GreenGranolaMama]

My jack russell, Burton, and 7mo DS are best buds I was hesitant too when he first started touching him, as he spends most of his time with his hands in his mouth, but there was no way I could keep it from happening, and the experience is great for both of them! I bathe him regularly and make sure I am right there when they are together (I've caught DS putting Burtons ears in his mouth...) My only concern would be if you put frontline or anything like that on your cat to, just to make sure it doesn't find it's way to the babe.

[BlueWolf]

I was really concerned about introducing our dog (Border Collie) to the baby when she was born (DD is 5 months now), but part of my anxiety stemmed from PPD. Now, our dog absolutely adores DD. We started letting DD "pet" the dog around 2 months old. I figured it's never too early for A. the dog to learn tolerance of the baby (and to feel apart of things) and B. the baby learn to be gentle with the dog. All interactions between DD and our dog is highly supervised. It only takes one accident to have a scarred baby. DH still has scars on his face from where a dog bit him in the face as a two year old.

[GoestoShow]

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Edited by GoestoShow - 1/4/11 at 8:54am

[sunshynbaby]

I'm hoping that being around the pet hair at an early age will help DS build up a resistance to allergies since I am allergic to pet hair. He doesn't seem to have much interest in touching them but looks at them a lot. Every once in awhile I move his hand to pet them gently. My cat thinks lying under him while he is kicking his legs is the best back massage ever!

[texaspeach]

we have 3 cats and introduced ds to them immediately. he can't pet them on his own but we help him to. often when I'm nursing there is a cat on the arm of my chair

[Catubodua]

Originally Posted by GoestoShow

Some people are soooo uptight about strangers touching their dogs here (to the degree of which I have never seen anywhere else in my life) and I don't feel like getting yelled at because my kid wanted to pet a dog, so I try to hang back for that reason to.

think of this from the dog owner's view and you may see the reason for it. i have a dog that is scared of children. they move too quickly and they tend to want to hug her (b/c she is adorable). but from the animal's point of view they have this fast human charging them then throwing them in a head lock. not pleasant or wanted.

if my dog reacts badly by growling and biting, it's all the dog's fault for not acting appropriately vs the child's fault for not acting appropriately (i.e. asking the owner if it's ok to pet the dog before approaching it). in that situation, it's my dog that gets quarantined at best, or euth'd at worse because that parent let the kid run up to a strange dog.

if you had an animal you loved and knew that it could be killed because of someone else's inappropriate actions, you might be overly cautious and uptight too.


as for the original question, i have no intention of keeping dog and baby separate. there is already dander / dog hair all over and i want them to get used to each other and learn how to interact with each other from day 1.

clearly, you never leave them alone together, but i only see benefits in letting them get to know each other and getting used to each other.

[BlueWolf]

Originally Posted by Catubodua

think of this from the dog owner's view and you may see the reason for it. i have a dog that is scared of children. they move too quickly and they tend to want to hug her (b/c she is adorable). but from the animal's point of view they have this fast human charging them then throwing them in a head lock. not pleasant or wanted.

if my dog reacts badly by growling and biting, it's all the dog's fault for not acting appropriately vs the child's fault for not acting appropriately (i.e. asking the owner if it's ok to pet the dog before approaching it). in that situation, it's my dog that gets quarantined at best, or euth'd at worse because that parent let the kid run up to a strange dog.

if you had an animal you loved and knew that it could be killed because of someone else's inappropriate actions, you might be overly cautious and uptight too.


as for the original question, i have no intention of keeping dog and baby separate. there is already dander / dog hair all over and i want them to get used to each other and learn how to interact with each other from day 1.

clearly, you never leave them alone together, but i only see benefits in letting them get to know each other and getting used to each other.

Ditto this. I'm big into dog training. Before DD was born, I trained/showed agility and some conformation. You can never tell a dogs temperament at first glance. Some dogs give no warning (visible) before they bite. As a dog owner, one of the worst scenarios for my dog would be having a child rush up to him, trying to pet him. While he's great with my daughter and my family, he is not friendly. I've had to body block my dog from children who rush up without thought to protect the child and my dog. It's not fun, but that's why I'm a defensive dog owner.

That being said, it's very important to me to instill in my daughter a respect for animals. (We also have horses.)

[CrunchyKnitter]

It's common courtesy (and sense) to ASK about petting someone elses dog (or any pet I'd guess) when you do not know them. It's for everyone's own safety as others have already pointed out. I learned from an early age that you should never just go up to a dog you don't know and start petting him/her. Even now, as an adult, if I see a very happy and sweet looking dog out and about and there are kids and adults petting him I am careful to always ask "May I pet your dog?" before I lay I hand on it.

That said, we have 3, fairly large (2 are 40 lbs each and the other is about 85), dogs that share our home. DS will be 4 mo. in two days so he's not really at the stage to pet them yet, but one is a licker and constantly trying to lick him. DS is just beginning to notice and watch them now and I am always telling him things like, "nice puppy, gentle puppy", etc. when he's looking at them so when he does begin to interact with them it will be nice. I am lucky that they are VERY tolerant dogs and we trained them to be so. So yes, DS will be allowed to touch, sit with, lay on, his doggies as long as the doggies are content with his actions.

I actually read (can't remember where) that children raised in homes with animals are less prone to developing allergies to them.

[CrunchyKnitter]

Originally Posted by BlueWolf

That being said, it's very important to me to instill in my daughter a respect for animals. (We also have horses.)

Ditto this, too. (Only I just have 1 horse and a son)

[Comtessa]

Originally Posted by CrunchyKnitter

I actually read (can't remember where) that children raised in homes with animals are less prone to developing allergies to them.

There was a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002 that seemed to show that exposure to animals in the home actually helped prevent allergies of all kinds in infants. Here's a link to the full article.

However, a second study was published by the GSF–National Research Centre for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology (a German organization, I believe) in 2006 that reversed some of the findings of the 2002 study - it showed that cat allergies in young children were higher if they lived in homes with multiple cats. (However, the correlation disappeared by the time children were six. Don't know what that might mean.)

So as the science still appears inconclusive on the allergy front, we're just hoping for the best and giving DD plenty of (supervised) time petting the cat.

The other day, the cat brought DD the plastic rings from a six-pack (I think she was digging in the trash again) and dropped it on her stomach, clearly wanting the baby to play.

[BlueWolf]

Originally Posted by CrunchyKnitter

Ditto this, too. (Only I just have 1 horse and a son)

Since our horses are pets too, the first time I took DD out to the barn she was 2 months old. <- This was her lol, but she was calmly interested. I haven't taken her out again since it's been soooo cold. Come spring time, she'll be out there all the time. Horses and kids is such a great combo! You can bet her first riding lesson will be before 2 years old.

[slimkins]

My son is only four months old, so, he isn't "purposely" touching any of the animals just yet. With that being said, he does, on occasion, accidentally pet some of the cats at times. I think they put themselves right next to him knowing that his spastic hands will graze them at some point.
I do let my dog give the baby a few kisses here and there, and sometimes she even lands one right on my LO's mouth, much to his surprise
Their germs are already in my house and on me, so, I see no harm in my LO interacting with them specifically.

[CrunchyKnitter]

Originally Posted by BlueWolf

Since our horses are pets too, the first time I took DD out to the barn she was 2 months old. <- This was her lol, but she was calmly interested. I haven't taken her out again since it's been soooo cold. Come spring time, she'll be out there all the time. Horses and kids is such a great combo! You can bet her first riding lesson will be before 2 years old.

Same with my horse, she's treated more like a dog than a horse I think DS was about 4 weeks when he was at the barn in the Moby. Slept through the entire event, but has been many times since and loves to just stare at them too. It's gotten chilly here now so we can't go anymore (thank God I have the best barn owner ever and my mom goes to check up on my girl, too!) but we will be out this Sat. for a little holiday celebration and he'll be nice and bundled up to see "his pony". I can't wait to put him up there either!

[GoestoShow]

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Edited by GoestoShow - 1/4/11 at 8:56am

[mamamillet]

Dd loves our two dogs. They are small-medium sized and veyr sweet with her. One is a licker and loves licking on dd! DD has learned that the dogs love to eat people food and readily shares with them if I don't pay attention! Now that dd is standing one of the dogs will stand right in front of her and lett dd pull to a stand holding on to her fur! I am very watchful with the interactions but love that my kids are growing up around animals!

[rhiOrion]

I don't have any kids, but my daughter should be making an appearance in early April (getting kicked in the sides as I type).

In my personal case I think I'll have NO problem with my dog around the baby. I have what may be THE most laid-back sweet passive tolerant dog EVER TO HAVE BEEN BORN. Seriously. I've never known a dog like her. There was a puppy who would not stop humping her one time, and it was, like, hours before she finally sort of pushed him away with her mouth (seriously, it wasn't a bite or a growl or even a snap, but more like, "GET AWAY FROM ME ALREADY!"). I can give her a bone with meat on it, and she'll be happily gnawing away, and I can come up and pull on it and tease her and she will just look at me all sad like, "can i have that back please?" Or she'll just get up and go to the other side of the room.

She's been around my friend's 10 month old, and she just lets him hang all over her, and stand up and grab her neck fur and look her in the eyes. She licks his ears he had a bit of food on his head one time, and she licked his head forever, and he just giggled and giggled.

It's just SO nice to have a dog whom I trust 100% to not purposefully hurt the baby. The ONLY concern I have with her is that she's about 35 pounds and has no concept that people don't like to be stepped on directly. She'll just walk right on you. So we'll have to work with her on that a bit.

The cat, on the other hand, may be a bigger issue. He'll ignore the baby for the most part, but he is not a fan of them, and may swipe at them if they get too close. It's not really an issue until they get mobile... otherwise he just watches from a distance while flipping his tail around.

[GreenGranolaMama]

Originally Posted by GoestoShow

The thing is, this a very common occurrence in that town. Many of them are just plain crazy --- like "Best in Show" crazy. Where I grew up, a dog was a dog, you know? Like, you ran around with them in your back yard, let them eat sticks, and gave them a bath every so often. These people are the equivalent of helicopter parents but for dogs.

Hehe we have some of these around here too. And don't get my wrong I LOVE my dog, and some people may think I am crazy for cooking his food for him or using all natural pet bath or taking him pretty much everywhere with us. You can put a dog in a sweater...but a dog is a dog

My dog was pretty jealous of DS at first and he is GREAT with kids. We brought the blanket home from the hospital for him to snuff, we got a baby doll before DS was born and 'pretended' it was a baby around the dog (this didn't last long, DH thought it was too silly :P ) But he was still very jealous... we had DS home for maybe 20 minutes and the dog was already INSIDE of the bassinet! Thankfully the baby was not in it, and he never did it again.

A lot of it had to do with teaching and training him, which was hard and nerve wracking at first, but has paid off

[Spiralshell]

Nate is 7 weeks old and we let the dog (Zelda, 120lbs) right near him. She's very chill with him
Picture: http://lutzspidle.blogspot.com/2009/...and-zelda.html

[ShadowMoon]

Ds was allowed to touch, pat, and play with our dog as soon as he showed interest. My other pets are birds, snakes, and a tarantula so he doesn't handle those too often. (yet ) We've had no problems thus far.