I contemplated replacing the solid nursery door with a screen door during the infant stage - allows noise and air to circulate unimpeded but blocks pesky cats. What I ended up doing was buying a Babyhood - a sort of domed mosquito net that went over the cot. I loved the way it looked, and it seems to work (I’ve only caught the cat in the cot once, and that was when baby wasn’t in it - I’d forgotten to zip up the door). Babyhood is an Australian company, but surely there’s a similar product available in the US.
Actually, he’s still mostly in a bassinet in our room, but I bought a hooded bassinet and same deal - I’ve only caught the cat in it when I’ve taken him out and forgotten to zip it up.
Mosquitos and cats, who knew they could be repelled with the same product?
It probably won’t happen but the cat does still have teeth. It’s still an animal. A pit bull probably isn’t going to maul a baby either but it’s still a good rule to keep animals and young kids apart unless they’re supervised.
For what it’s worth, I never thought the cats would kill or injure my babies. I just don’t want my babies sleeping in more cat hair than is strictly necessary. My cats look at the soft, warm, quiet cot and think “Wow, a bed designed especially for me!”.
Don’t count on any kind of barrier that can be jumped over. My former Maine Coon could jump over anything. Also . . . he was an extremely gentle cat, and a baby would probably be totally safe with him . . . but accidents could happen.
When my daughter was born I had four inside cats and I too went with the simplest solution. Close the door and use a monitor. I’m really not sure why you would be against this as what does having the door open accomplish if you’re not standing there constantly watching the baby? It’s the least stressful solution for the poor cat as well.
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.
Seriously, it’s a human newborn infant. It is completely helpless at birth and the cat is probably able to get away from the kid for at least 3 full years. It isn’t really until adulthood that humans become the most dangerous predators on the planet larger than a mosquitoe. Your cat is perfectly safe.
My cat could and did jump into a standard crib as linked above.
I scatted him out whenever I found him in there. No water bottle or fancy stuff, just a hearty “Oi!” and lifting him out. He wasn’t going into the crib at all by the time the kid arrived.
She could hunt him down and poke him by 8 months (cruising the furniture) and he just kept moving upwards to higher perches until I got her trained to treat him gently.
Damn, he was a great cat.
Just before his final illness, I built a twisty tunnel out of foam tiles and they were ‘chasing’ each other through it.
We felt trying to keep the cats permanently out of either the nursery or our room (baby slept in a bassinette in our room for 6 months) was going to be too difficult and upsetting to their routine.
We had enormous success with a cot cover like this one - 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.
ETA this is the same exact thing that Cazzle mentioned - so that’s 4 votes for the success of this as a solution!
Well, it could still depend on the cat. I’ve got a Maine Coon, and while he’s very gentle, he’s also 20+ pounds and can be very demanding when he wants attention. Considering the trouble I can have with him, I’d be a little cautious about him in an enclosed area with an unattended infant.
Our curious cat, from a standing start on the ground, easily got into the empty crib when we first set it up. She’s a cat! Their first priority in life is to sit in new things I think. We let her nap in it until our newborn daughter came home. Never found the cat in the crib again. Apparently our daughter had anti-cat powers of her own. Then again, it would not have bothered me if our cats snuggled in there. Perhaps our cats (we have two, but one is vertically challenged) sensed that I didn’t care and thus felt no need to rebel.
The Siamese cats I grew up with could jump into a crib when they were old and arthritic! They would jump to the top of a half-opened door and sit there on top, a crib would be no problem. I like the babyhood thing, I’d never seen it before.
One solution I have seen before is to put a screen door in the inside of the baby’s room doorway with a latch. The parents can see in and hear the baby and the baby can hear them.
I never worried about the cats with my babies, the cats often slept in the crib with them.
Given the suggestions already made, the weight / breed of cat in question, and the replies on the jumping ability of cats I find I cannot help imagining fitting out a crib-hood type cover with some sort of super springy trampoline-like fabric.
2 of the cats have never shown the slightest interest in the baby (in fact, one she got grabby they actively avoid her).
The third likes the baby, and when she was a newborn did like to sit in the crib. We used to shoo him out until one ay he jumped in there when the baby was also in there. Se started crying, he jumped out, and NEVER went inthere again.
I would take precautions, but don’t freak out if they go in there once and a while.
I kind of like this idea. If Mom and Dad can’t bear to shut baby’s door for whatever reason, this could be a good compromise.
I keep our Maine Coon out of my room with a spare window screen since it’s easier to deal with than a babygate, but that’s with me in the room, so he has less of an opportunity to make a running start, which I know he could if he wanted to. I’m amused by the idea of a cat not being likely to jump 4’ - we’ve had multiple cats that could jump from the floor to the top of the fridge, and that’s a hell of a lot higher than a crib rail.
Perhaps, but at 18months one of my nephews seemed to be in training as a ‘kitty proctologist’
I agree with other posters, my granddaughter (new 2.5) has had a cat around her since birth. Cats have had thousand years of selective breeding at work to weed out the genes that messed with human babies…
What? No they won’t. A cat can easily clear a safety gate at a standing jump, and that’s IF it’s a solid-panel one. If it’s got any sort of gaps in it, the cat will just walk through.
