Should A Cat Be Near A Newborn Baby.

[dartagnon]

My daughter is expecting twins - due date 9th May - and she has a 2 year old tabby cat. I told her that she'd better get rid of the cat before the children are born, but she insists that everything will be okay .
Am I being overly cautious or not and I'd appreciate others opinions.
Thanks in anticipation

[ducksie]

I don't think it's silly pastafreak, the child was struggling to breathe, the cats had run of the house,long before baby born, only I got up to the loo that night, the child would have suffocated as murraymints mentioned before, I'm not getting my info from 'google' it happened and I wouldn't have a cat and baby in same house again. I don't know why the cat did it, never will as the father of child kicked cat out 2nd floor window never to be seen again. I hate them ever since

[craft1948]

If it's safe to have cats around babies why can you buy cat nets for cots and prams?

[stewey]

What an asinine question resulting in some completely equally asinine answers such as: " why can you buy cat nets for cots and prams?"

[craft1948]

Why is it asinine stewey, I had a cat net for the daughter's pram when she was left in the garden.............

[stewey]

OK, apart from the Internet, the tabloids, TV spectaculars, the tweets, the Facebook, and "I heard from a friend's second cousin's aunt", how many posters on here have actually known first hand of a baby being killed by a cat?

[joko]

cats steal a babies breath...?
do people actually still believe this nonsense?

sitting on a child's face so it can't breath is not 'stealing the babies breath'!

[stewey]

In order to inject some humour here, craft, perhaps the nets are to protect the cats. I do know of one instance in my family when a toddler suddenly plopped down and crushed a kitten to death...Actually, it's not humorous at all is it?

[Boto]

Daughter's babies, daughter's cat. Her choice.

[KARL]

Predictably pet owners rear up at the suggestion that keeping animals in the same dwelling as an infant is simply a bad idea, and then they proceed to cast aspersions on those who suggest this. My 8 month grandson is being brought up among four dogs, his mother is the proponent and has begun to experience epileptic fits - fits are among the possible symptoms of infection by parasites that use cats, dogs and humans as hosts (although I think humans may not be suitable for onward propagation, but I don't really know). My concern over the child's environment most likely finds no sympathy with anyone who "loves animals".

[B00]

Ahhh, arn't pets wonderfully disposable when they become what is perceived to be a problem?

[ummmm]

B00...it's a disposable world.

[B00]

True ummmm, just terribly sad when a living breathing being becomes part of it.

[hc4361]

Karl, link to evidence that parasites cause epilepsy, please.

[ummmm]

It's sad. I've always had cats and they have never slept on the baby's face.

[B00]

Same here ummmm, and dogs. The only problem I had cat wise was that she peed in the pram!

[jomifl]

There is a lot of advice about this on the web, the concensus seems to be that there is little danger, but just be a bit more careful re. hygiene.

[pastafreak]

Funny that humans and animals have shared the same dwellings for eons....and Surprise!!!...humans are still here to tell the tale. We don't "own" our animals...we live with them.
Its also interesting that when things go wrong, it's the animal that gets the blame,when it's more often human lack of common sense.

[Purple_Popple]

Pets seem to go once a baby is on the scene...makes me fume. Sorry.

[catswhiskas]

Just take sensible precautions , there is no reason to get rid of the poor cat, scare stories do not help, I cant believe some people.