Help with Keeping Cat Out of the Basinet!!!!

Just wanted to throw an opinion in here... I cannot believe the people telling you to get rid of the cat before you even see how it goes. If you research it, it is a myth that infants are suffocated by cats- has never actually happened. I do animal rescue & this is a main reason we get in homeless ones... people get pregnant & all the sudden the poor animal that has been their LOYAL baby for so long is out in the cold wondering where mommy is. At least see if it will work out- my cat & all my dogs LOVE my 3 sons... one of whom is 8 weeks old... it can be done.

Don't get rid of you kitty...all you need is a cat net and some aluminum foil. Put the foil in the bassinet before baby comes home. CATS HATE FOIL!

:) Good luck.

You can buy a cradle net to keep the cat out. By the way. My cat was in the crib, carseat and bassinet with my oldest son and she never smothered him. She just loved him.

You can nip it in the bud by getting rid of the cat. Honestly, I think that would be the only way. And don't worry about the cat smothering the baby. That is an old wives tale. Chances are, the cat will stop after the baby comes anyway. I have two kids, 17 and 12 and we had cats before they were born. Can't imagine our lives without them. (the cats or the kids, lol) Don't worry N., everything will be fine. Enjoy this time. No matter how many kids you have, you will never have a first baby again. :o) Congratulations and blessings.

It must be quite a nice set up. Kudos.

Once there is a real, live, screaming infant in the basinet chances are little Muffin will find another place to sleep. Cats typically don't like the wriggly little babies and will find a quieter place to hang out.

I would say to just calm down a bit, but if this is your first, I get it. Try putting a layer of tin foil down, cats won't lay on it and its not as toxic as something that emits odors.

Happy birthing!

I have heard that if you put foil down on the matress then the cat will jump onto it and hate the sound and feel of the foil crinkling and learn not to jump on there anymore. I used to have a cat when my first baby was born and she did well, seh learned very quickly to leave the baby alone and stay out of the crib, bassinet and bouncy seat just from me or my husband (forcefully) removing her from those places once or twice, she knew we were mad at her so she didn't go back to those spots. Good luck!

This might be terrible, but....

Before our first child came, we set up the nursery, with the rocking bassinet in there. One day my husband found the cat sitting in it, all snuggled up and peaceful. He rocked it hard, scared the tar out of the cat and it was never a problem again! Good luck!

J.

I had the same problem a few years back and just ended up keeping a baby gate on the door to the bedrooms to keep the cats out. It was sort of annoying to walk over but worth it. My cats are funny so it never occured to them to jump the gate ;) They stayed out and never got in so that worked for me.

Throw cat out of house. Sorry i know this seams mean but we also had to do this to our two cats. It is the only safe thing to do. Which do you love more, your child or the cat?

You'd want to wash everything before baby came, but maybe moth balls would help. They kept our cats from eating the African Violets.

Well if you cat is like ours it will find the furthest place in the house from the baby. Our cat loved sleeping in our daughter's crib but once our daughter was in the bed she wouldn't go near it.
Don't worry about the cat smothering the baby. That's really just an old tale to scare people. Don't even worry about allergies as if your child has always been with your cat it is very unlikely there will be a problem.

Go get a spray bottle, fill it with water and everytime the cat gets that "Hey, I'd like to get in there" look, spritz him with the mist. If, for some reason that doesn't work, add just a little vinegar to the bottle. Had my cousin do this with a cat that liked to help herself to the food as it was being prepared. Plain water didn't work, but with the vinegar, the cat refused to get close to the counter!

Hi there! first i want to say congrates! its awesum and dont stop at just one, 2 is good!
anyway try putting a tray of water in it, something that will get the cat wet and freak it out and the cat will never jump up there again for fear it will get wet. i have 9 cats (only 2 in the house!) and went through 2 babies and they never bothered the babies, you will be amazed how the cat will react to the baby. its really cool very pertective and gentle!
well good luck and i hope this works!

Make giant two sided tape strips- you how you make a circle with the sticky on the outside? Cover the bottom of the bassinet (doesn't have to cover every inch, but just enough that when the cat jumps in he/she is sure to get some stuck to his/her feet). I have three cats. Two of them jumped in and never went back. The third, well, she is a special case and decided she'd liked to eat the tape. In the end it never was a problem, though, because they were so annoyed at how loud the baby was that they avoided him and would never have gotten in the crib with him, though I always checked to make sure they weren't in the room when I put Junior down.

Hi, N.. Being a long-time cat lover, it was extremely disheartening to be at war with our cat when I brought my baby girl home. It became downright vengeful that I wouldn't let it near my baby and began peeing all along the edges of the livingroom, even after it had been perfectly house-trained. It even urinated on our bed! I say get rid of it now and avoid that scene. Good luck with that. J.

I accidentally came up with a perfect cat-proofing method when my daughter was born. We were living abroad at the time in a country where mosquito nets were an absolute must. Try hanging up one of those over-the-bed white mosquito nets that many people here use for decoration, then fit it all around the basinet instead of tying it back. You can find these in crib sizes (don't know how much now - I got mine some yeas ago for $19.99). Our cat only had to get tangled in it once to scare him off the crib for good!

Sorry, but I have to giggle. I was having a moment of deja vu--I read the books and they all said keep the cat away!!!! I soon learned that the cat was a dear friend of my little one. When he would cry, our cat paced and paced and walked up and down the hall until we took care of him. He was very patient with our little one and when he passed it was very sad for our son. He is now 15 and still has a picture of the cat on his nightstand. We ended up letting the cat sleep in the crib and honestly never worried for a moment. Play it by ear when you get your little one home and hopefully you won't create any undue stress for yourself or the cat. It's a new spot and just the right size--it will be too crowded very shortly....Good Luck

Go online and find out if the bassinet has a net tent that you can purchase for it. If not, sell the bassinet on Craigslist and get an Arm's Reach mini co-sleeper. You can purchase an extremely sturdy net tent that goes with it. I have 2 cats and this worked perfectly. You will love it.

I have a 4 month old and the tinfoil worked for us until the baby arrived. Our cat hasn't even been in our room, let alone the bassinet since we brought the baby home from the hospital.

P.S. You might want to avoid moth balls (or use as a last resort) in the house as they can be very toxic to humans - plus they really stink!

Hi N.,

Congrats on the pending parenthood! When my daughter was born, I had TWO cats, so I know how you feel! The best solution I found was a spray bottle with water. Luckily you have time to ''train'' the cat to stay out of and away from anything for the new baby. (My cats actually hated the baby once I brought her home and stayed well away from her!) Everytime you see the cat heading towards the baby things, spritz 'em and tell 'em NO...Won't take many times before the cat gets the hint! Good luck!!

I don't know if you've already received this advice already, but you should get a cat net to put over the bassinet. If you continue to have this problem in other areas, get a spray water bottle and give hime/her a squirt to let him know that the behavior is not acceptable

What worked for us was the sticky paws tape. You can find it at Petsmart. I'm sure it will stop the cat from jumping in there altogether. It's inexpensive and it really does work.

Due to cat haters, there is a rumor that cats smother babies, they don't. Cats normally don't like babies, so won't go that close to them, which means, they won't snuggle with the baby.
However, a cat getting the idea that the bassinet is theirs, isn't the best idea either.
Our cat took over our bassinet, as we put the baby in the crib at about 1 mos.
I didn't mind, due to the baby being in her own bed.
Spray bottles, double sided sticky tape work wonders.
Also, covering the bassinet right now with a blanket, or filling it with pillows so the cat can't get in it. Make the pillows as unstable as possible.

two words for you: squirt bottle. Try to catch him in there over and over and over and every time you do squirt him with the squirt bottle. just make sure that you make it an unpleasant place for him to nap. good luck!

You have an intelligent cat, who finds the kind of semi-enclosed space cats love and thinks, "Isn't that nice of my people, setting this up for me!"

You don't need to worry about the cat smothering the baby - that old wives' tale has been around since before I was born, and I'm a grandma - but you don't want them cuddling up together yet. So change the cat's mind about the bassinet before your son arrives. Try lining the inside with aluminum foil, or with loops of masking tape fastened so that the sticky side is up. Either or both of those may be distasteful enough for kitty to decide, "Thanks but no thanks."

Once baby arrives, you won't be using aluminum foil or masking tape in the bed, of course, so your cat may still give it a try. So keep both babies and cats under supervision. Sometimes giving the cat a new blanket of its own - liberally sprinkled with catnip - can be a good distraction from the bassinet.

My cats were always curious about my babies, and that was fine, but they had to learn to leave the bassinet and crib alone. (Once the baby grew old enough to be wiggly and cat-grabbing, there was no problem with the crib.) I gave the cats (and dogs) other attention to help them feel secure, and my children and pets always enjoyed one another.

By the way, you're letting somebody else take care of the litter box, right?

I would suggest you make a bed area for your cat; with cat nip and praise and treats for sleeping/ hanging out where you want the cat to be.
We have 3 cats and when the baby comes (or daycare baby) the cats have never had any intrest in being near a baby.

Tinfoil (be generous) helped me in the very same situation; also plastic bags (like grocery bags) as long as your cats don't take a liking to hiding in them. When the baby arrives, the cat probably won't be used to sleeping in the bassinet and will leave him/her alone. Mine did.

Just relax about your cat. I had four cats when my son was born 3 years ago and none of them ever smothered him in his sleep. Most of the time they don't want to have anything to do with that noisy thing when it arrives and when one did end up sleeping with him, she didn't sleep on his head. If you have enjoyed having your cat up until now, chances are it will all work out. You could try to put some tin foil down now to scare the cat from getting in there, or double sided tape; they don't tend to like that. But I wouldn't stress out about your cat.

They make mesh tents that go over cribs. I just simply put our crib one over our bassinet. Well we used a Pack N Play with the bassinet insert, but we put it over that.
I would imagine you can put it over a traditional as well. At least for now to see if it stops him from getting in.
My two cats weren't allowed in our bedroom for 2 months when we brought our daughter home. I didn't want to deal with the net every two hours at night. Then when she went to her room at 2 months we just closed the door. So the tent wasn't necessary after all, but before she came home it was nice to put over to train the cats.
I do find them sleeping in her things from time to time. They are apart of the family and unless you want to get rid of your cat, you might have to just deal or find ways of keeping him at bay.
It is hard- I know :)
Good luck. Good thing is I have never found out cat smothering our baby.... Not sure how true that myth is...

I put a piece of aluminum foil in the crib. Our cat hated it and didn't get in after a few times. If your cat is intrigued by the shininess, put it under a blanket. Hope that works. Unless your cat is a glutton for punishment and doesn't mind lots of squirming and crying, once the baby comes I doubt the cat will try to be in the bed with the baby. Good luck on your new adventure. Get ready to run. I have 2 boys 4 and 6 and they keep me running!

put tin foil or tape sticky side up in the bassinet.

My friend put mosquito netting above it. HobbyLobby has those nets w/a circular ring to make an instant canopy. Or make a shelf above it or use eye-hooks/velco on the wall. Our cats are scared of the baby- it's too spastic and unpredictable to them. They don't like any little kids (just not affectionate to them, they don't hunt them or anything). Since it's your 1st your cat may be the same way & it'll be a non-issue. I kept a big pillow in it when not in use, to be uninviting.

My boy is 6 mos and they still keep their distance from him and his bed. Works for me. I feel responsible for them and wouldn't kick them out to the curb. I'd sooner spray water at them to shoo em from his space. Again, it may work itself out. Good luck.

I don't know if this is possible, having never had an indoor cat. But maybe you could keep the cat in one part of the house while your baby is young. This way, you always know where your cat is and you're definitely sure that its no where near your sleeping baby. Then you don't have to spend valuable time worrying about whether the cat managed to sneak into the baby's room.
Or maybe even send the cat to live at a relative or friends home for a few months. I recall reading something about cats being dangerous to babies. Something about them digging in their litter box, I think. I'm not sure what the issue was, but it's worth looking into.
Congrats on the baby; I have three boys and boys are wonderful:)