GainesvilleMoms.com

I am new to the board and motherhood and have a strange question and need some guidance. I have a 3 year old cat and my mother in law is extremely concerned that the cat is going to get into the bassinet/crib and smother our infant due to mothers milk. How do I satisfy her need to be listened to without feeling paranoid that my cat may harm our infant? Any suggestions? Thank you.

This is an urban legend. Check out snopes.com.
Link

I have two cats and neither one of them wanted anything to do with the babies, I thought that maybe they would enjoy the crib with the blankets but soon my worries were put to rest when the babies actually arrived and they never tried to get in the crib with them. Your cat is also your child and an important part of your family. Relax, there are plenty of other things to worry about!!!!

First of all, I would definitely not worry about a cat trying to purposely smother an infant. There are so many people with cats and children that if it was happening, then people would be hearing or seeing it in the papers and such all the time. You don't!

Second, and this may sound kind of gross, but if a cat was "wanting" mother's milk, then wouldn't they be like extremely attracted to sitting on or near your chest, since it would still have the "smell" of such. Or to the nursing pads that are used? I've never seen a cat trying to mess with any woman's chest or nursing pads that have been used. Most cats mind their own business. Sometimes you see them laying with a child, and people take pictures of both the child and cat being so sweet, but I don't think a cat has the ability to purposely "suck the breath of a child." Old wives' tales....

Third, aren't there so many other things to worry about, or not worry about? There are many things that parents are told, advice given, "this is the way we did it when you were little and you turned out fine," and so on that you have to decide what works for your family. You have to decide if this is something that worries you enough to find a way to keep the cat completely away from the child, or get rid of it. If it was my mother-in-law, I would just tell her that I keep an eye on the cat when she is around the baby, and she doesn't seem interested or hasn't ever messed with the baby, etc.

I could keep going on about how a lot of kids do well having been around pets growing up, or cat scratch fever is the closest I've heard, but it has more to do with being pregnant, but I will quit typing now. You get the idea: quit worrying as there are other things to worry about and a child to enjoy as much as possible, cats don't usually seem to be that interested in mother's milk, if your mother-in-law is worried then just tell her you'll keep an eye out, and again, enjoy your little one.

Yeah, it's totally urban legend...no worries! We have 5 cats..yep...5! And we have never had any problems with them and our kiddos

Right there with you bishop!! We have 6 cats right now and I have raised 3 kids all with a minimum of 3 cats in the house and no issues.

I have had curious kitties about the babies when they come home...after all they wanna see where all that noise and wiggly movements are coming from! I have never had any kitties try to get in with the girls to sleep when they were little either. The only issues I had were the cats trying to sleep in the crib and bassinet before the babies where born. So I put a big white sheet draped over the top of all the bedding while I wasn't home or near to watch. This way if someone was getting in the cat hair would give them away on the white sheet...also if I caught them trying to get into the crib or bassinet I would squirt them with a water bottle and they quickly learned that was not a place for them to try to sleep in.

But after the girls were born I never had any issues. They liked to look at the babies...but usually 4 or 5 feet was the closest they would get to them..lol

Complete BS. We had 10 cats when Macy was born, all indoors, and never had a single issue. No scratching, no hissing and absolutely no attemtps to smother. In fact, 3 of them would sleep in the crib, at the foot,(not at the same time) and if she started fussing the cats would come find me. When Zane was born we were down to 8 due to old age and illness taking 2 of my "babies" and the 2 still living who played nanny to Macy did the same thing with Zane. In fact, now if he gets disciplined or told "No" loudly, one of them will get between us and him to make sure he is okay. He and Macy each would lie on, pull on and poke the cats and once in a while the kitty will give a warning then a quick 'pop' to the kids, be never with claws even.

I have an older male cat. he was our baby until we had kids and now he is more like their big brother . He never tried to harm them. In fact, seems a little protective! I am sure safe is better than sorry-if you are worried. They sell those nets to go over the crib to keep pets out.

I always thought the whole story about the cats was true! I'm so glad to know the real story now, even though we won't ever have a cat. My dad is really allergic, so he'd never be able to visit. But my daughter does often say, "Mommy, I wish I had a cat." It's so sad!

I guess I'm in the minority I have a cat that did try several times to crawl in with my son. I just kept the monitor on and the door closed when he was in the crib. My cat would never have intentionally hurt G, but I was concerned about smothering by accident as Selina was a big cat. I think she just liked the warmth and was possibly trying to take care of baby.

Thank you so much- you all have made me feel better. I now just have to convince my mother in law that we will be watching very closely. Our daughter will be coming home tomorrow after 12 days in the hospital and we can't wait. Thank you again.

You shouldn't have to convince anyone, she's your baby and you raise her the way you want to. That being said, it's hard to say that to family without causing WW3 so unless MIL lives with you, she will have no idea you even are keeping the cat. Perhaps you could say something about how you appreciate her advice, but for now you're gonna keep the cat and you will revisit it in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you will be home with her (I assume)so you will be able to monitor the baby and cat closely. And assure her that when you are not in the baby's room, you will keep the door closed and always make sure kitty is out of the room before you leave.

I will say that I have some worries about our cat getting into the Pack N Play that we've set up for the first few weeks. She's already been in it on her own checking it out but since then I think she's left it alone. The crib is higher and I don't think she'll get in there because she can't see where the top of it is.

My feeling is that the baby will annoy her more than anything but we'll watch her anyway.

I'd ask your pediatrician so that you can tell your MIL that you have and then let it go. If you really want to you can always buy the crib covers that are like a framed netting that sits on top, also useful to cover the baby on a blanket outside apparently. They have them at Babys R Us and probably elsewhere as well.

The existence of Cat Scratch Fever is real. I don't know the real name but it has to do with the fecal matter under the cat's nails getting into your bloodstream when scratched. A girl in my high school had it and she was sick for weeks.

Good luck!

Paigesmomma - I am so glad to hear your little one will be able to come home soon! That's wonderful!

I was also worried about my cat when we had my son. I found her in the crib once and then we decided to always keep the baby's door closed. That turned out to be a great thing because my son developed allergies and asthma at 4 months and the fact that we'd never allowed the animals (one cat, one dog) in his room really helped. Neither my husband or I have allergies or asthma so we hadn't thought of that concern with animals, but I recommend keeping animals out of kids' rooms just in case. Of course, if there was a severe allergy, you'd have to get rid of the animals all together, but to not allow them in the baby's room really does help.

So you could tell your MIL that you plan to keep the door closed and that might help.

The bassinet issue is a little tougher since it's likely in a common area. Our cat never tried to get in the top of ours, but did get in the bottom once and peed in it (storage area). The vet and pediatrician both said that cats will sometimes do that out of jealousy. Disgusting to clean and we had to really watch the cat after that, but a lot of love for the kitty seemed to reassure her that we still loved her .

We have two cats and I heard the same things when I was pregnant. I hadn't seen any evidence that cats were that dangerous so I figured it was just an old wives' tale. Our cats did try to sleep in our pack and play before the baby arrived, but once the baby was here the cats kept their distance for a long time. We did keep a close watch on the baby and cats since one of our cats is a cuddle bug. If we couldn't watch them closely we'd just shut the cats out of the room temporarily. The worst problem we ever had was one of our cats occasionally trying to step on the baby when we were holding her on the sofa as he was on his way to find a place to curl up next to us. I think it had more to do with the fact that he didn't realize he was walking on the baby because she was under a blanket. We'd uncover the baby so he could see where she was and he'd go around her then.

Anyway, the cats didn't start to come near the baby until she was crawling, and by then they were generally running from the baby who would follow them! ;-) Our daughter is a year old now and she and the cats get along well.