I'm expecting my first child in April. Any tips on how to introduce his presence to 2 kitties?

[Godhumor]

I've read about bringing home some clothes from the hospital to get them used to his scent. Anything else from people who have gone through intro'ing a baby to pets?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We never did anything formal with our cats when our girls were born.

That was many years ago, though...

I never thought about it. Maybe things are different now. I do recall my oldest cat being a bit out of joint for a while after baby #1 arrived, but she got over it.

We had no problems.

Good luck!

:hi:

[hyphenate]

2. Some suggestions

At the beginning, don't leave the baby and kitties in the same room without supervision. It's not that a kitty is going to do something terrible, but babies sometimes grab, and if the kitty goes too close, they might strike out without knowing the source of the perceived threat. This is as much a caution for the kitties as the baby.

Babies do have odd scents, what with diapers, blankets, drool, etc., so yes, some sort of odor introduction is in order.

You might want to refer to the baby in the same manner you talk to the kits. This attempts to place the kits on the same level as the baby--this allieves some of the potential jealousy that cats can get when there is a new baby around. And you might also include the kitties' names when you are talking about different things, like outings or such, because the cats feel left out when there is something or someone getting all the attention suddenly.

Here are some sites with more good information:

http://cats.about.com/cs/catmanagement101/a/newbabyandcat.htm

http://www.cat-world.com.au/how-to-introduce-your-new-baby-to-the-cat

http://www.suite101.com/content/introducing-your-cat-to-your-new-baby-a132400

http://www.thecradle.com/bringingbabyhome/gettingyourpetreadyforbaby

Good luck!

[meow2u3]

9. You're absolutely right

Cats + baby - supervision = disaster, for both baby and kitties.

I've seen moms cuddling with both their babies and their pets on the sofa. When my younger sister was a baby, the dogs cuddled up along with both of them.

[May Hamm]

3. Bring home baby. Take cats to pound. (just kidding) I love and own cats

Most hospitals release 24 hours after birth. That doesn't leave much time for introducing smells to cats. Cats aren't dogs. They aren't going to spend any time sniffing baby clothes. How long would you let the baby wear the clothes to get that baby smell? And how long do you think anyone could hold your cats close enough to the clothes to get used to the smell?

Giving birth, enjoying the immense delight of a newborn person, stripping off a diaper and rushing it home. Grabbing cats and convincing them to what...? Sniff? I don't think it's realistic.

When my grandson was born my son spent hours - all day and all night just holding his baby. Holding him. Looking at him. Hours. Sure glad his wife didn't start insisting he leave because of cats. Wives always seem to thing anything "for the good of the baby" is more important than anything dad might believe important, might need. Hours... holding... looking... loving...

[jobycom]

4. The first thing is to make sure you protect your child and yourself from

all those people who will warn you about cats stealing a baby's breath! :rofl: On the other hand, it's not a bad idea to keep kitty out of the baby's room altogether. Even people who aren't allergic to cats can develop trouble breathing around too much cat hair, and kitty will want to sleep exactly where baby does.

Second thing is to be sure to warn your SO that cleaning the litter box is dangerous for you at this time. There is a bacteria in cat nasties that can cause miscarriages, so the box should be cleaned often and never by you. Whether there really is such a bacteria and exactly how likely you are to catch it should not be your concern, just use it to get out of cat box cleaning.

Other than that, some smelly one-day old clothes are NOT going to prepare kitties for the screaming, crying, snuffling, clenching, grabbing, unstoppable force you are about to unleash on them. Kitties adjust nicely, though. When they see how much attention and affection you give the new creature, they will be both jealous of your time, and watchful of the new beastie. My cat used to lay a few feet away and watch, and if baby moved, Mister would glance up at me with concern. It was sweet to see. (Yeah, I'm a guy, and yeah, I'm the one who stayed home with baby. Grad school. It's a great job if you can live through it.)

[Godhumor]

5. I meant expecting as in becoming a proud parent (I'm a dude, too)

Wife hasn't touched the litter box in years but thanks for the reminder.

It should be interesting, we're going into the third trimester now, and I keep waiting for one of the cats to notice the kicks or punches from the baby while hanging out on my wife (Our smaller cat appears to currently be using my wife as her own personal space heater.).

I am not looking so much at trying to make things perfect for the cats before the baby comes home but to at least take the edge off. We'll have to see how it works out.

[jobycom]

14. Being a parent is especially great for us dads.

We have fun creating the kid, we get to enjoy the most intense and beautiful emotions we will ever feel, and we don't have to give birth. Win-win-win!

The cats will be more troubled by all the changes, including your changed actions and stress level before the birth, than by the baby her/himself. Baby will be boring the first couple of months, except when hungry, gassy, or sleepy. You've probably already heard all that, but I just mean the baby won't bother the cat for a little while, except maybe the screaming. Your changed behavior and your attention to the baby will. So be sure to give kitties some love so they don't get jealous.

And sorry about the gender assumption. Used to drive me crazy, and here I am doing it to someone else. :rofl:

[PassingFair]

6. If your baby starts to have a lot of "colds" and ear infections...get the baby tested....

for allergies.

My oldest daughter is horribly allergic to
cats, and we had 2 cats when she was little.

She was ALWAY in the Dr's or the emergency
room for sinus problems and ear infection.

Not ONE doctor ever asked us if we had cats.

Finally one of my doctors (we had an HMO at
the time) referred us to an Allergist who
tested my daughter....came up positive for cats in a BIG way.

After the 2nd cat died my daughter ceased
to have ear infections.

Don't wait to have your kid tested if
she/he has excessive mucus or "colds"
and ear infections....

[HopeHoops]

7. Most cats will just be curious and will quickly adapt. One SERIOUS piece of advice...

Although rare, there have been cases of cats crawling in to a crib to cuddle up with a baby and the baby suffocating. Baby blankets and such are also rather attractive to cats as sources of bedding and even without the crib issue you don't need the cat hair in the nursery.

We got an inexpensive wooden screen door and mounted it to the baby room door so it would swing outward. A simple hook latch at the top served well to keep the cat out of the room. The door had a spring to help it shut on its own. In our case, there was a wall on the hinge side so I was able to mount a second screw eye on the wall so the door could be latched into the open position when needed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. I latched my kids' nursery door too for the same reason. Pickles had jumped in there a few times to

to tuck ElderGreenKid. It was cute enough, but given how she likes to sleep on my own head and face, that would have been disastrous with a newborn.

[meow2u3]

8. I have even some more ideas

1. Let your cats explore the baby's crib and/or room. This way, they won't freak out when the baby arrives. Kitties are known to get used to baby when they have a chance to check out changes beforehand. To put a new twist on the old proverb: Curiosity didn't kill the cat--it killed the OWNER!

2. Bring some clothes with the cats' scent on it to the hospital when you go into labor. Make sure the clothes are very soft, like a T-shirt, and use the shirt on the baby when you arrive home. You'll have both the baby's and the cats' scents on the shirt. Kitties should think baby makes new family member.

On a side note: my younger niece, who's now 16, must have smelled cat on me when I got to see her the day she was born. Her first word was "kitty." She's loved animals since. :)

[Arugula Latte]

12. "Kitty" was both of my kids' first word. (Well, more like " 'itty")

When #2 (my daughter) was a bun in the oven I'd talk to her and tell her: "You are going to looooove kitties." When she was a baby I'd take her hand and pet the kitties and say: "We looooooove kitties. Kitties are soft and nice." Boy, did all that work in a big way. She is almost a bigger cat freak than I am, and that is saying something. :)

[cbdo2007]

10. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Cats are pretty easily adaptable...

and you'll spend the first few months being overprotective of your new kid anyways.

Like another poster said, just don't leave them in the same room together alone where the cat can get the kid, for safety reasons.

But during the first few months when your baby can hardly do anything but open it's eyes and eat and coo, your cats will have plenty of time to get use to it.

We had a baby last june and have a big scary dog. We were kind of worried about them because our dog is a cat killer (if they come in our back yard they're toast), but we realized after we got home exactly what I described above. Just don't leave them alone, and we were CONSTANTLY holding our little girl, so our dog would just come up and smell her and stuff and really didn't pay much attention to her at first at all.

Now, our little girl is 7.5 months old and her and our dog are great friends. They're still going to have a lot of bonding to do before they can play together and stuff, cause dog is a little jealous still, but she understands that the new baby is part of the family now and takes precedent over the dog on the food chain.

Good luck and congrats!

[Silver Swan]

13. When each of my children were brought into our home

The cats would approach and sniff a little bit, then seemed to decide it was just another human, and went about their day.