How to teach my baby to play well with my cat?

[Mirage]

To those here who are both parents and cat owners, how did you get them to play well together? My cat doesn’t mind my baby, but my son gets so excited around the cat and will be too aggressive sometimes. This has resulted in the cat getting frustrated and he has tried to push the baby away a few times and scratched him in the process (nothing too serious).

Obviously we’ve taken steps to monitor their play time together and make sure both are behaving, but I’d like my son to learn to be gentle with the cat on his own without needing a reminder—for his own good honestly.

Thoughts? I don’t think declawing is right to do (it is cutting off the tip of the cat’s fingers, not just the claws) so we’re not looking at that as an option.

 

[Unity]

I'm not a dad, but I'm a cat owner. My brothers have both had cats while their daughters were babies, as well. I think in most of those cases, the cats just avoided the kids when they were getting too playful. I haven't declawed my cat, either, and remember learning that stoppers are an inexpensive option that you can get at your vet. They go over the ends of the claws and keep them from doing harm, apparently, but new ones do have to be purchased from time to time.

 

[Mirage]

Yeah, we have used glue-on claw cover things but they do fall off from time and then I’d be worried the baby would eat them. It’s a lose/lose, haha.

He will grow out of this stage soon, but it is frustrating for now.

 

[Impaired]

All you can really do is keep showing them how to treat the cat ( I seem to recall saying "Gentle, gentle" over and over again for a year.) The cat will learn quickly. The baby will take some work.

 

[AmericanMusic]

I currently don't know even one child. Neither do we have a cat. However please let me tell you this. My fiancee used to have a husband name Henry. My financee's name is Maria. She once found this cat on the porch. After helping this cat the cat would not leave her house. So Maria decided to keep this orange cat. . She thought the cat was a male at first for which he had a male name. His name was Garfield. His name was changed to fluffy puffy because it turned out to be female. . But usually just called fluffy.

The cat got older and she found her way around. . . She got along with her dog Prince. But his name sometimes was spelled printz as in dog printz. The cat and dog would hang out. She also took them to walk on a leash. Fluffy was an amazing cat. .

Well Henry used to come home from work and sit down on the couch to watch TV. . The next thing you know Fluffy is taking a nap on the rug by the fireplace or anywhere she wanted to be. She had several sleeping places. Well Henry would go over to the cat while she sleeping. . The cat would become angry at him for waking her up out of her sleep. .

One time one time Fluffy let Henry have it. . She put a big gash in his hand. Maria said to Henry, “That's what you get. I told you to leave her alone when she's sleeping. But you keep bothering her anyway”. . You know it's like the cat is saying, “Please give me some space and let me rest”. . So it's kind of similar as s a child. . I mean Henry was acting like one and fluffy puffy is just an animal. Something surprising that takes place she will be instinctively snap ..