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Baby's room and cats - FAO cat owners?!

Hi all

Toby is just over 9 months and we always keep the cats out of his bedroom except when we're giving it a good clean and air.

When Toby is old enough to be in a big bed (ok not for a long time yet!!!) we would like to leave his door open so he can come into our bedroom in the mornings / during the night if he needs us etc...

Would you say it will be safe at some point for this to happen? I have no doubt the cats will go into his room - they like going anywhere they're not allowed! LOL

BUT... at the moment, the cats barely pay him ANY attention, but we hope when Toby is older and he knows to be a bit more gentle with them, they will play together more. At the moment, all Toby does is lunge after them and crawl after them - they just run off!!!

What are your experiences with cats and babies / toddlers?

Thanks!
Joo xxx

Replies

  • Our cat just ignored our babies! We childmind too and she does venture in with us sometimes but generally legs it if one goes near her!
    Occasionally she goes into the girls' rooms but doesn't try to get on their beds. If you are worried about the cats going in but want to air rooms you could leave the window open but shut the door. Is shutting the cats up an option? We shut ours in the kitchen at night as this is where the cat flap and her food are. I think it started because some mornings she would miaow outside our room for food at stupid o'clock but she doesn't do it from the kitchen.
  • Our cat is totally uninterested in Beth too. Think she hates her for disturbing her peace actually!!! But Beth is totally fascinated by the cat and will just stare at her with mouth open for ages. V cute.

    The cat has been found in the nursery on the chair I use to feed Beth whenever I forget to shut the door. And at any opportunity will lie on our bed (something we don't allow) so I have no doubt she will try to lie on Beth's once she is in a big girl bed so I think we will have to have door shut.

    Maybe see how it goes at the time. They may just not go in his room if he pulls their tails etc like my mum used to do with her family cat when a little girl! Apparently the cat hated her and would wait at the end of the drive and attack her legs as she came back from school!

  • Jo,

    I could have written that post especially as our boy is called Toby too! at the moment we have a guard outside of his door so they can`t get in as I am petrified of them smothering him although they don`t like him at all so it is unlikely they would sit anywhere near him!

    I have no idea whether it would be wise to leave the door open when he is a bit older, so sorry not much help! The thing is, the cats never go to sit on mine or hubby`s face so it is unlikely they would with Toby either but its that not knowing that is hard!

    We can`t lock ours downstairs but could you? (The cats that is!)

    Sarahx
  • In my experience the cat won't go anywhere near him for a good while yet. My dd1 is 5 and still the cat will barely go near her - she's lucky if she gets a quick stroke in before the cat runs off. And with the new baby when I take her into the bedroom to put her to bed the cat takes one look at her and goes and gets in the bottom of the wardrobe.

    My mum's cat seems to have a 6th sense about children - she disappears just before we arrive and will reappear within minutes of us leaving.

    When I was first pregnant I asked the mw about the danger of cats and she said that it was a myth that they like to snuggle up to babies - she had never heard of any baby or toddler being hurt by a cat - they usually just run away.
  • I've not been too worried about Lily handling our cat (in terms of being able to move out of its way if it jumped in the cot with her) since she was about Toby's age - bearing in mind that Toby is physically a lot more able than Lily even now and she is 5 months older. But my cat is so hairy I'm just not happy with Lily's bedding getting covered in it - so for that reason alone I still shut ours out of the nursery now. Afraid to say that when I did leave the door open - even ajar - the cat could and did get in the cot with her and try to sleep there.

    So no advice I'm afraid :roll:
  • i have been doing a bit of research on introducing babies to cats as we have 3 very spoilt ones! i think the danger is if the sleep to close the baby's face and baby cant turn away, also baby could inhale fur, as they will want to sleep where it is warm. our cats sleep on our bed, one sleeps in between me and hubby, the other two at the foot of the bed, but we are currently sorting out a 'nursery' for them in our little bedroom then will stop them sleeping with us as baby will be in with us.

    my friend brought her baby round when he was a few months old and left him on the sofa to sleep while we were upstairs. i was worried about the cats so kept going to check on him. i found one cat asleep by his feet. refused to move. however, now the same baby is a toddler my cats just scarper whenever he arrives!
  • Out cat (6 years old) likes to think he is human (just found out from my neighbour that he jumped into a taxi waiting out front the other day... not sure where he thought he was going :lol: !!). My son is 12wks and the approach we took from day 1 was to not make too much of a fuss with our cat, but at the same time keep a watchful eye on him. Like yours, he likes going where he is not allowed. So rather than try to resist him we work with him. He has always slept on our bed at our feet and has various beds around the flat (probably too many!) So we ensure that he has his special places so that he doesnt feel the need to seek more, like our son's cot.
    In the beginning we kept finding him on the change mat and would have to remove him every time and change the towel. In the end we ended up giving him his own change mat next to it and put a dark towel on his too as well as his cat cushion (he is attracted to sitting on anything in dark colours and at first kept moving back to our son's changemat because his didn't have one!)
    Some may think we spoil him too much but I feel it would be worse if we were to restrict him or take things away as we don't want him to resent our son now being the centre of attention and not him. Now he will happily sit by our son and look on, or just sniff him and walk away. I have no fear of him going in to his cot anymore as he has plenty of other spots of his own that he doesnt need to share. He will happily sleep on the bed while our son is asleep in his cot next to it.
  • We make sure the two cats don't get into Michaels room. One likes to sleep under his cot, the other sleeps in the changing table. I have never seen them in his cot, however one liked to sleep in his moses basket. They don't like to sleep on our bed, but if it is cold one of them crawls under the douvet and lays behind my legs. (very scary the first time you wake up and you feel something furry)
    The male cat loves our son and loves to tease him. He can jump the baby gate and just sits in front of Michael and only moves when M gets to close. It is quite funny to see actually. I leave them to it most of the time, cause they need to get used to each other. The female cat we have is a lot more reserved and doesn't come out till M is in bed asleep.

    We used to shut our bedroom door, but they scratch it and meauw just on the other side and wake me up at 6 in the morning. If the door is open one jumps on me and wakes me up that way. So we than locked them in the kitchen, but they found a way off opening the door. (it isn't a proper door, you can slide it open) So they still woke me up at 6 in the morning. So if possible we now throw them outside at night and they love it. We let them in at seven in the morning, have some food and than go to sleep for the rest of the day.

    I hope that by the time Michael is a bit older the cats are used to him a bit more. I am not to worried about them smothering Michael. One hates man and only sits on my lap, the other one is capable of it, but prefers to be in our bed.
  • we keep all our bedroom doors shut when the cat is roaming (i'm asthmatic so cant have her hairs getting on my bed) and at night time she gets locked away in the back room downstairs till we get up in the morning so hollies bedroom door is open at night.
    my cat is great with hollie and hollie pulls her and all the cat does is run whereas most cats would lash out. but saying that, i never leave them in a room on their own together cause it only takes a spilt moment for something to happen.

    my cat is also an indoor car (we've never let her out of this house cause of the neighbours) so dont know if that makes a difference.
  • We had 3 cats when dd1 was born and then got a kitten when dd2 was 5months the only places i have found them if i leave the girls bedroom door open is on top of the wardrobe downstairs is another thing though they loved the babygym we had to get another one as the cats claimed the first one lol and when the girls were in bed they liked to sit in the bouncer.i dont worry really as they have always been really good with the girls we have one cat that is scared of everyone but us but he was brill with both the girls even letting them stroke him.
    Also when i was pregnant with dd1 everyone told me i had to rehome the cats as you couldnt have a baby and cats but i have found no problem.

    [Modified by: 2girlywhirlys on February 14, 2010 10:20 PM]

  • We have 2 cats and we also keep the door closed at night so they can't get in next to us, which is a total shock for them as previously they were allowed to go wherever they wanted! As soon as Jack is old enough to go into a bigger bed I would have no hesitation in allowing them into the room if they want to go in. Before Jack was born, they would come into the room and lie down the bottom of the bed or up the side of it so they were no where near the top so I wouldn't bother too much about them lying on Jacks bed although I'm sure they would probably scarper once he knew what their tails and ears were lol xx
  • Thanks everyone

    We have no issues with the cats going in his bedroom at all - we just want to be sure there will come a time when its "safe" if you see what I mean.

    I think the cats and Toby will eventually be great pals once Toby is old enough to realise its not nice to pull their tails and grab their fur and grab their whiskers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

    xxx
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