are their any risk of a cat being around an infant child?

Answer 1

Be wary of your baby allergies.

The fur may cause it. And your baby may have asthma.

Answer 2

There is always a risk of having an animal around an infant, but if you take precautions everything should be okay. My mom had a cat when I was born and the cat was actually very protective of me. My mom would have to lock the cat up when people would come to see me, the new baby, because the cat would attack anyone who would get too close to me.

The biggest concern you should have is handling the litter box, but you should have the same concern with handling raw meat. You can get toxoplasmosis and it can pass on to your baby. My husband was born with it and he is blind in his left eye. He had multiple surgeries when he was a baby and has never been able to see out of that eye. To this day nothing can be done because of retinal damage.

Answer 3

You have to prepare your cat for the new baby. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I bought a Litter-Maid, It's a bit pricey but well worth the money. Pregnant and/or nursing women should never handle cat litter. I kept my cats nails trimmed short and just watched them closely when I brought my baby home. I also kept his door closed while he was sleeping so my cat couldn't get in there. I've read a few studies that say that having babies and children around animals lessens allergies to them. But who really knows. Use common sense and your maternal instinct, they're usually right on! Below is a great site for infromation on pet allergies. Type PETS AND INFANTS into their search engine, more helpful pages. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Surprisingly there are more than a handful of dideases that can be passed from a cat to a human. Besides the smothering issue there are many known bacterias under their claws. My son got Cat Scratch Fever at 2 yrs from our cat's scratch. I had no idea it was a real disease. Children will grab and pull on the cat out of curiosity and the risk of being scratched is greater for them. I would just be careful and supervise their contact.

Answer 5

Yep... Baby humans have that unpleasant tendency to tighten their fingers around whatever touches their palm.... which can on occasion include feline limbs and / or tails.
The grand feline masters can often be forgiving of such behaviour (they know full well that infants are ignorant of such things as proper behaviour around a cat).... but if done too often it can aggravate them enough that they will punish the infant with a quick smack.... Unfortunately, the masters tend not to be familiar with the sheer volume that human infants are capable of... and the resulting noise can deafen the poor cat's ears.

My advice is to try and keep your offspring away from the feline masters to stop it inadvertantly hurting and / or annoying them.

Also remember though that we are their servants first.... and although instinct will leave you wanting to spend more time tending to your offspring.... duty to the cats should NOT be shirked. They may forgive you a little... but spend too much time ignoring them and they will be quite seriously irked.

Remember... Cats first, then babies.

Answer 6

they can smother a child- i don't think on purpose, just by laying down next to their face.... we have a cat... we keep her out of our son's room-put a gate up, so she knows she isn't allowed in there- has been that way since I became pregnant. Other than that, we just watched when he was small, and she does really well with him- they are like best friends!!! when he started crawling, he would almost pull all her hair out, and she would just sit there! lol Now that he's a little older, she will wiggle her tail, and he will start giggling. It's a lot of fun to watch those two.

I'd keep the cat! Just keep an eye on it. Also- our cat is NOT jealous at all! When I came home from the hospital, I walked in the door first and picked her up and held her and kissed her, like nothing was wrong... then she went right up to my son and kissed him! lol No jealousy whatsoever!

Answer 7

As long as the baby is not allergic and the cat is healthy and flea-free then everything is fine.
Cats sucking the breath of infants is an old wives tale. Which is where the fear of cats around babies came from.

Answer 8

Old wives tales said that cats would smother a child by trying to drink the milk from their mouths. I personally have never heard of anyone having an issue with their cats and their babies. I would say, when your baby is sleeping, just keep the cat out of the room so they don't climb in the bed with them. You wouldn't want your cat sleeping in the crib anyway.

Answer 9

Cats can often carry a nasty bug called toxaplasmosis without showing any outward signs. I allowed my cats around all three of my babies but never allowed him to sit/lay on anything of there, as there is also the risk that the cat may try to curl up around the baby and could suffocate him/her. Please don't be overly worried though, it's all about taking sensible precautions!!

Answer 10

I think you should use your intution as a mum a cat will be jealous like any other member of the animal world that their ranking has changed in the house and they are known to try and curl up on the infant not to necessarily smother but more likely for warmth and to sleep

Answer 11

I wouldnt let the cat in the babies face or anything. Cats stool have ALOT of bacteria in it as does all stool, but it is dangerous for pregnant woman to change litter boxes while they are pregnant it could cause you to get toxemia so I would imagine this bacteria could not be healthy for a baby either. But i dont believe there is any reason to quaranteen your cat. Just dont let it lay next to or be all up in the baby's face.