Baby coming home; 2 cats also live there. What to do!

10 years ago

My 40 year old daughter is bringing home her first baby this week. She developed pre-eclampsia so they delivered him at 33 weeks. Being an overly concerned mother and a Mother-Baby nurse of 25 years I have a question for you.

She has two indoor cats that she has had since they were babies, both about 10. I haven't been able to think of a way to be sure the cats don't get into the room where the baby is sleeping.

She is planning to have the baby in the room with her and her hubbie at night and I assume he will also nap there. I have read online that one solution is to install a screen door rather than have to close the door to the room to keep the cats out.

My daughter thinks my worries are unfounded.

I would very much appreciate your thoughts and ideas about this.

Thanks,

Ginny

Featured Answer

lam702

9 years ago

My mother in law insisted that my cat would smother my baby and advised me to get rid of it before the baby was born. But I didn't think that would happen, and it seemed unfair to the cat to do that prematurely. Not surprisingly, the cat was fine, she was curious about the baby, I let her sniff her and once she realized it was just a tiny human, she pretty much ignored her. She would have been much more upset if I brought home another cat, a baby didn't bother her at all.

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Comments (8)

sushipup1
10 years ago
I think that your daughter is right. This is not the time to challenge her.
tete_a_tete
10 years ago
I think that sushipup is right about your daughter being right.

If you upset the applecart at this time, when your daughter is in these lovely weeks of feeling high after such a difficult job of giving birth, it will be so sad.
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User
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
There is no need to worry about the cats going in the baby's room - I was raised with cats as were my nephews and as will be my own baby. We are not worried about the cats and the baby. As a pregnant woman myself right now, I'd say step back and let your daughter me a mom - and give advice when asked but don't try to control the situation.
Dany
9 years ago
My baby was a preemie born at 24 weeks and we have a 10 year old cat. I was worried at the beginning, not letting her in our bedroom where my son sleeps, but later I found that my cat gets into our bedroom during the day. Nowadays she sleeps on the floor(where before she slept on my husband's chest) and my baby hasn't had any issues(respiratory wise). The cat mainly ignores him, and this is a VERY cranky mean cat.(but we love her)
ginjj thanked Dany
ginjj
Original Author
9 years ago
Our baby is now 14 months old and the cat didn't pose a problem. We grandmothers just worry a lot, at least I do.
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Anglophilia
9 years ago
I know this is an old one but just had to reply. 47 years ago, I was expecting my first child and we had 4 cats. Both sets of parents were worried about this, in particular my own mother who didn't like cats and was sure she "knew" of cats who smelled milk on the babies breath and suffocated the baby trying to get to the milk. My mother would not drop this and I knew she never would.

So, we got a plain old cheap screened door and installed it on the baby's room, opening out into the hall. We were NOT getting rid of our cats! This made my mother happy. The upside was that we found it very useful. We had an old-fashioned hook/eye closure on the top and when my son napped when out of the crib, I always hooked it so I could nap, too, and not worry about him escaping and being harmed with me asleep. We also discovered that no child on earth can resist allowing a screen door to slam, so we always heard our children (by now there were two and they shared a room) when they got up at night. It saved us a few times from a potentially "embarrassing" moment!

That old screen door may have "protected" my babies from the cats (from which they needed NO protection!), but it had its uses!
veggiegardnr
9 years ago
Don't worry about the cats. Cats don't smother babies. It's just one of those old myths. But, I agree that a screen door on the nursery is an excellent idea, not because of the cats but for the other reasons mentioned. It would be pretty easy to install.

Baby coming home; 2 cats also live there. What to do!

lam702

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Baby coming home; 2 cats also live there. What to do!

lam702

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