# Cat In Bedroom With Future Newborn: How To Avoid This? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 11, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885 "2011-09-11T00:38:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/41 "2011-09-12T02:54:39Z")
> [@wellanuff](#): > > They could install one of those safety gates that are used to keep toddlers from entering certain rooms. They will obviously keep a cat out as well. ? Are you serious? My lab could hop one of those from a standstill. I think our cat could probably hop two stacked on top of each other and she’s a fat ass. I don’t get the aversion to closing the door. It also helps keep noise out of the babies room and helps them sleep. ---
**Author:** ![TheBori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@TheBori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBori)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/42 "2011-09-12T14:58:15Z")
We installed a cheap wooden screen door on the nursery. This maintained air movemnent (no AC in that house), allowed us to hear the kid(s) and kept the cats out. Being a cheap wooden door, it was light so it did not require massive hardware to insall. We used spring hinges to provide the auto close function. Worked like a charm for 3 boys ofver the course of 7 years. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/43 "2011-09-12T15:12:27Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > We had enormous success with a [cot cover like this one](http://www.pramwarehouse.com.au/cateitem/sp/pname/Babyhood_Cot_Canopy __Boori_Size_White_Pink__ Blue_Colours.html) - and my sister and a cousin have also used them for their recent arrivals. The cover is fairly solid and like a tent so a cat landing on it wouldn’t get in or collapse it, and the front flap zips down really easily. Plus, it offers good insect protection if that’s a factor. We had one of these, you can search for Crib Tent. Not that our cats would deliberately harm an infant, but they have a habit of sleeping on our heads, and that’s not exactly the environment we wanted. You also don’t really know how the cat will act until the two are together, and I’d rather not find out the cat is jealous via nighttime scratching/biting. Plus, if they got in there during the day, it’d just be filled with cat hair, blech. Crib tents are pretty easy to install, the biggest problem we had was the zipping/unzipping sound potentially waking the baby. Once the kid is big enough to fend for himself, and you’re comfortable with them being together unsupervised, remove the tent. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/44 "2011-09-12T15:23:05Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Most cribs are at least 4 feet tall rails included. I would doubt the cat would make the effort, unless it is easy to climb other things to get into the crib. Are you saying that at the moment the cat has the habit of jumping into the crib? Right from the floor? > > If so, just spray the shit out of him with a water bottle whenever you find him there. It’s not about there being a baby in the crib or not (the doll is irelevant) the cat just needs to know not to go there, ever. The crib must be the Sad Wet Place of No! > > But at a more basic level why can’t the door be closed, when the baby is sleeping or whatever? Because they couldn’t hear the baby if it woke up? That’s what baby monitors are for. Our cat Maggie did precisely this. In fact, she somehow managed to get into the crib even with a special cover over the crib top that was supposed to prevent such incursions (as long as the zipper on top wasn’t fully done up). To this day we don’t know how she did it. Of course, Maggie acted as “nanny” to MilliCal as a baby – she saw herself as a caretaker and protectress (She used to alert us when MilliCal was crying, and watched her when she was asleep). ---
**Author:** ![taffygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@taffygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taffygirl)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/45 "2011-09-12T16:26:51Z")
Just for clarification: is the worry about having a cat in a baby’s room, or any free-ranging house pet? Old wives tales aside, are cats supposedly more dangerous to infants than dogs? No experience with cats here, but we had a dog when we brought our baby girl home from the hospital. He was a gentle soul: when we introduced him to the baby so she could see him and he could sniff her, they each got saucer-eyed, and he gave her a wide berth, especially when she got old enough to try to dress him up :rolleyes: But once babies are in that toddler stage, it’s pretty tough to keep an eye on them every second, and there’s a greater chance of harassment on the toddler end–so if there’s a potentially dangerous cat or dog, keeping a cat out of the baby’s _room_ is not going to be the issue once that kid starts crawling. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/46 "2011-09-12T16:35:41Z")
Who knew there were people out there that have some sort of feeling about closing the door of a room with a baby in it. Huh. Most people I have known with cats and babies find that their cats love to jump into and sleep in cribs and bassinets. If they don’t like it they train the cat not to do so, or keep the door to the baby’s room closed. I’ve never seen those crib covers before, that is also a possible solution, but the first two are free. Dogs and babies are one thing. Babies evoke a ‘prey’ response in some dogs, and there have been many cases of dogs biting and even killing infants. I have two dogs who I generally trust to be calm and reasonable, and who have never hurt a human (plus my older dog grew up with babies and little kids and seems to love them even when they hurt her), and yet I would never leave them unsupervised with a baby or younger child. Cats and babies are entirely another issue, and I won’t be worrying about my kitties for a second when I have a baby. I’ve never heard of a single case of a cat injuring an infant. Once they are old enough to pursue and harm a cat, it’s different. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/47 "2011-09-12T17:18:56Z")
Elevating the crib won’t work - cats jump ver well. There are mesh “tents” that can be placed over the top of the crib, which would keep a cat out. While I think it’s rare to unheard-of for a cat to actually suffocate a baby, I would probably prefer to avoid the cat lounging in the crib in general. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/48 "2011-09-12T17:19:25Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > Babies evoke a ‘prey’ response in some dogs, and there have been many cases of dogs biting and even killing infants. I had a Lab that was obsessed with herding toddlers. He would bulldoze them into a corner and keep them there. He’d lick at their face rather than nipping at them. Odd thing was this was the ONLY time he ever displayed the slightest herding behavior. Weird. Back to the OP, one of my mom’s favorite stories was about hearing the baby giggling, and finding the cat in my brother’s crib repeatedly stroking my brother’s foot to evoke a tickle response. If she had just been able to wait 30 years for the invention of the camcorder she might have made out on the TV show with that. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/49 "2011-09-12T17:25:02Z")
Oh - and googling “mesh tent crib”, the first hit is a link to one on Amazon, and the second one is a link to a site discussing safety issues with it. I certainly wouldn’t leave it up past the time the baby starts pulling himself up. On reread, others have made the same suggestion :). ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/50 "2011-09-12T17:27:02Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > … > > If so, just spray the shit out of him with a water bottle whenever you find him there. It’s not about there being a baby in the crib or not (the doll is irelevant) the cat just needs to know not to go there, ever. The crib must be the Sad Wet Place of No!.. The “Hand of God” never taught our cats “don’t do that”, all they learned was “don’t do that when the slaves are around”. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/51 "2011-09-12T18:02:34Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > The “Hand of God” never taught our cats “don’t do that”, all they learned was “don’t do that when the slaves are around”. That’s the beauty of using a scat mat instead of a water bottle. Plus if you use crib bumpers, the cat can’t see whether the mat is in there until it’s too late to abort, so they’re less likely to jump up in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/52 "2011-09-12T18:40:47Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/53 "2011-09-12T18:46:31Z")
Going with the Scat Mat, **ENugent** , thanks! Husband wanted to use the screen door as the new bottom of his fishing boat after sealing it with that spray rubber stuff. Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![TheBori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@TheBori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBori)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/54 "2011-09-13T00:57:58Z")
We installed a cheap wooden screen door. Worked like a charm. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/55 "2011-09-13T02:10:11Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > As far as the dangers to babies, I was always under the impression that cats, being cats, love to curl up in warm places. So the danger wasn’t so much the cat scratching or biting the baby (or stealing their breath), but that they might curl up in the crib beside or ON the baby. And depending on their age, if the child can’t breath they won’t be able to remove the cat or move their head to get air. Exactly. That’s why we trained our cats not to go in our babies’ cribs, even though they’re both sweet and gentle. I’ve also read that the cats are sometimes attracted to babies because of the smell of milk. Our furbabies are Maine Coons, btw, and one of them made the jump into the crib easily. Never caught the other one even trying. The way we trained them was to keep the door to that room shut at all times, from the moment it started becoming “the nursery.” Of course, things happen and the door would occasionally be left open by accident and we found Max in there a couple of times. A few squirts of the spray bottle seemed to do the trick. Our “closed door” policy for the nursery had two purposes: 1) kept the cats out, and 2) kept us from having to tiptoe around the house whenever the baby was asleep. Now my son is a toddler and we still keep his door shut when he’s sleeping to keep the cats out, not for safety’s sake, but to keep them from waking him up! ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/56 "2011-09-13T10:58:05Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > What is going to happen between a declawed house cat and a newborn baby? > > We never had a problem with our cats trying to hurt our babies. We’re not talking about a pit bull here. [Toxoplasmosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/57 "2011-09-13T11:36:34Z")
Back claws are still there. Q ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/58 "2011-09-13T11:43:03Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Back claws are still there. > > Q Cats can’t swipe with back claws. They are used defensively. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/59 "2011-09-13T11:48:19Z")
> [@antechinus](#): > > [Toxoplasmosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis) Interesting alarmist article. Even more when all the parts that lessen the risk (which is very low, btw) say “citation needed” or are embedded in between alarmist sentences. :rolleyes: If the house cats are indoor only cats that have been all their lives in the same environment, don’t go out, don’t hunt, eat commercial cat food (no raw meat), and have their litter boxes cleaned daily (really, how can someone NOT clean out debris in the litter boxes daily?)… well, there is no reason to think _Toxoplasma gondii_ is lurking around. How would they even had the chance to get a parasite? The mom is at more risk of getting it if she gardens. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885/60 "2011-09-13T14:01:12Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I know you can’t talk to new parents, though. They think they’re supposed to be afraid of anything and everything. This is the problem, not the kitty. And that’s not a slam on anybody, struggled with it myownself. Nevertheless I think it’s still true. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cat-in-bedroom-with-future-newborn-how-to-avoid-this/595885.md?page=4)