Anything wrong with babies and cats sleeping together?

Hi Sozobe,

I am no expert on babies, but I do know cats since I run a homeless cat shelter.

The only problem I have ever found with cats sleeping with humans of any kind is the tiny kittens some people sleep with. It's all too easy to roll over on them and smother them.

I can honestly say I have never heard any horror stories about cats sleeping with babies and causing them harm.

my concern would be the cat leaning against the babies face.. smothering it.

I have heard of weasels biting babies because they smell milk on thier face. I haven't heard anything like that with cats but if the cat still has claws I'd be careful.

shewolfnm,

I can understand that. I find that most of the cats that like to sleep in the bed with me don't really like to hang around my face too much. There are some that like to sleep on the top of my head though.

I wonder if Cowdoc would have an answer on this?

of course, it depends on the age of the baby too.
a child of about 1-2 or older? i wouldnt see a problem.
but a new born up to around age ..7 mos?
yeah.. that would be a danger I think

shewolfnm,

Excellent point! As a matter of fact, I wonder why people that have very young children want the smallest kitten they can find for their children? I try to get people with toddlers to adopt a cat at least 4-6 months old because kids love to hug the kitties so much they sometimes smother them.

I think it's all a matter of assessing the situation.

Sozobe, you have the most beautiful child!

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/catsuck.htm



In 1791 a jury at a coroner's inquest in England rendered a verdict to the effect that a Plymouth child had met his death by a cat sucking out its breath. The superstition itself is older, with print sightings of it recorded from 1607 and 1708, so that 1791 verdict should be viewed with the realization that the jury was probably influenced by a snippet of "everybody knows" lore when it came time to explain a death for which there was no apparent cause.

It is possible a cat might lie across the face of a sleeping child and thus upon extremely rare instances accidentally cause a death, but that is not the old wives' tale at hand wherein the cat does so with malice aforethought. A news story emerging in December 2000 appeared at first blush to be an instance of this sort of accident when a woman said she found her six-week-old son dead in his crib with the family cat laying on the baby's face. Further examination by pathologists laid this theory to rest -- they attributed the 21 December 2000 death of 6-week-old Keiron Payne to sudden infant death syndrome.

Sleeping with parents seems to be more dangerous. lol

Thanks, Momma Angel! She's five now tho! :-) This was just something that came up and I was curious (we have neither a cat nor a baby just now).

It seems like toxoplasmosis is the most legitimate concern, but avoidable.

Sozobe,

Yes, toxoplasmosis is a legitimate concern, especially for those that are pregnant. However, if precautions are taken, especially with the cat litter, it can be easily avoided.

Whenever I get a cat scratch, bite, nip, whatever, I immediately wash it with soap and water, douse it good with peroxide and put on antibiotic ointment. Cat's claws and teeth carry so many germs.

I always have a scratch or something so I keep a pretty good supply of stuff around. But, I have had no major problems since starting my shelter a little over five years ago.

I bet she is an adorable 5 year old! I would love to see a picture of her!

We have cats. One sometimes sleeps with the kids but always on their legs or next to them on top of the blanket. I don't see any problem.

Yeah, like has been said, with a kid over 2 or so, fine.

A baby, no way. I can imagine a cat leaning on the babies face, and the baby not being able to roll over yet.

Plus, the claws, not saying the cat would intentionally claw, but we've all had the experience of having a cat walk across our lap and getting a poke or prick as they are balancing.

Oh, just thought of something. Dr. Abramowitz was a great cat, but she had this awful habit of when standing on me when I would be reclining on the couch.

She would ALWAYS stand with her front paw, 90% of her weight, right on my nipple.....can you say OWWWWWWW!
I move her foot, she'd put it back, not malicious at all, just couldn't understand why she couldn't stand in the place that was obviously perfect.

Could a baby move a cat away from where it wanted to stand?

another thing I thought of..

Alot of people are allergic to cats and dont know it.
Kids / babies same thing.

infants tend to be 'drippy' in the nose naturally, so it would be hard for a parent to distinguish the normal leakyness with allergies.

Some animal allergies can trigger asthma attacks as well. Even if the cat isnt SLEEPING on the babies face, the cats hair may be enough to trigger an allergic reaction that may go unnoticed by a parent.

what if it turns to asthma?
What if the hair from the cat dry out a babies throat and cause difficulty breathing?

the what ifs are endless...

My grandmother spoke about our cats sucking out the babies' breath.

We don't allow the cats in the same room where the baby is sleeping; more concerned about disturbing her than having her breath sucked out....

we just talked about this

a2k link

cats/kids combo : definitely a nervous-making thing for me

When our little guy was born our cat was 3 years old and weighed about 15 lbs. We thought the cat was going to be jealous but he was ok. He actually became very protective of the little guy(or jealous that people were playing with him) because he would pull peoples hands away from the little guy. It was funny when he did it to our oldest dau because she thought the cat was hers.(our dau was 21 at the time)(years not mos). When the little guy got older the fun started because he wanted to play and the kitty didn't. Kitty would hiss at him but he would keep at it. Kitty never broke the little guys skin, but he would put his teeth on him hard enough to let the little guy know that play/annoy time was over.
Kitty met his demise before our little princess came along.

I remember hearing about that cat sucking breath wives tale. I was told it was not so much that they suck the breath from the baby but breath over them and the babies lungs are smaller and a cat could breath faster. Also that a cat likes to rub it's head on things and hair from said cat could fall into babies mouth and tthere for choke. LOL I think my mom was raised on wives tales hehe.

I heard the same "cats taking baby's breath" story, and like some other old wives' tales---(of course, not all), there is something to it.

We had a cat that invariably crawled up on me as I slept and had her face right in mine, her nose next to my mouth.

The smell or warmth of breath may have been the attraction, but the result for a baby can be deadly.

From my experience of cats, I don't think a self-respecting cat would put up with the discontent of a smothering baby--it would interfere with the cat's nap.