How To Introduce Your Pets to Your Newborn
Tips on introducing your Newborn to your animals
I have two dogs and an indoor/outdoor cat. To say that I was nervous to bring home my newborn with that many pets was an understatement. This is my third baby but we never had animals when my toes two were born so this was a whole new territory for me.
I did a lot of research before Maxwell was due on how to safely introduce them to each other. And honestly, there was a lot of mixed advice because it really depends on your animal’s personality. For my cat, he really didn’t seem to care at all. He has only just recently shown an interest in Max and that is because Max keeps trying to pull Phoebe’s tail (yes, Phoebe is a boy cat. When we named him as a kitten, we thought he was a girl then a few months later…whoops! It’s a boy!)
I did have to keep Maxwell safe from Phoebe though because cats like to sleep on warm surfaces, especially warm surfaces that might smell like milk. Anytime I would put Max down in the bassinet, I had to make sure the cat was not around because he might think that the baby is something warm to snuggle up against and he could suffocate him (cate will usually try to sleep on the baby’s neck…not good.) My cat also used to sleep on the bed with us but since Max was born, our cat had to be kicked from the bedroom at night. He has the couch and plenty of other nice places to sleep, I just couldn’t risk him trying to lie on Max in our bed or try to climb into his crib at night.
Now as for my dogs, they are insane. They don’t get out a whole lot because they are wild as heck so they don’t know how to react to new situations. (Something we have to work on with them.) I was really nervous to introduce them to the baby because they bark and holler and jump like crazy when anything or anyone new enters the house, so I was scared.
Basically these are the things that I did when expecting our baby.
Let your dog sniff the baby things:
Allowing your dogs to sniff the baby’s things before he or she arrives will get them used to all the strange and scary things like the stroller, high chair, bassinet, blankets, etc. For my dogs, they freak out when we bring anything new into the house, like furniture or larger items (like the stroller and crib) so I needed to let them sniff and be around it all for a while. That’s why setting things up a few weeks prior to baby’s due date is a great idea.
Don’t scold your pet for sniffing, (as long as they aren’t peeing on or eating it. Lol) let them explore and tell them it’s okay. Reassure them.
Train them that certain areas of the house are off limits:
Before the baby came, I needed to make sure that they knew that there were certain places they weren’t allowed in anymore. They used to sleep on the bed all the time, but since I knew that we were going to be having Max in our room, the dogs hair and dirt (gross right?) they would bring into our bed needed to stop. It was an adjustment but they soon figured out that the bed was off limits. They were still allowed in my bedroom just not on the bed.
I also had to make the baby’s room off limits (I did this after he was born because he didn’t have his own room until he was about six months old.) but they know now that Max’s room is a no no zone.
Introducing my dogs to our newborn:
When we came home from the hospital, we knew our dogs would be anxiously waiting. We kept Max in the car seat while we entered the house. I had my husband say hello to the dogs first (since he’s the fun guy and the adore him) to get their craziness out. Then I said hello to them then we introduced them one by one to Maxwell.
We kept him in the car seat and let them sniff his feet and reassure them that it’s okay. When they were calm but still intrigued, I held Max in my arms and had my husband hold the dogs back gently, just to be sure that they wouldn’t jump on us. I let them sniff him all over and of course they licked his face. (Dogs, what can you do right? Lol.) we kept reassuring them that it was okay and they were good dogs.
Every day afterwards we had to keep a close eye on them just to be sure they wouldn’t try to jump on him while he was in the bassinet or swing, etc.
Since my dogs are very wild and jumpy, we purchased a gate (linked here and a smaller version of the one we got liked here) that we used to make a little safe area in the living room for Max. we got foam mats (liked here) for it as well so it was a pet free, danger free area that I could place max in when I wasn’t able to keep my eye on him the entire time. It gave me peace of mind so I knew that my dogs wouldn’t get to him while I wasn’t looking.
So in conclusion…
Don’t:
Don’t scold the dogs for being interested in the baby or the baby’s things.
Don’t ignore your dogs or they may feel replaced.
Don’t let them have free reign around the baby without supervision
Don’t introduce the dogs to the baby right away before they had a chance to get their crazies out.
Don’t scold your dogs for sniffing the baby.
Do:
Let them sniff and be around baby’s things before he or she arrives.
Let them roam the house but limit certain areas of the house where you know baby will be in.
Introduce them to your baby when they are calm and baby is in the car seat.
Let your dogs smell the baby when they want and reassure them that it’s okay and to be “gentle”
Create a dog-free safe space for your baby for when your eyes are not on him or her.
Maxwell absolutely adores our dogs now and snuggles with them all day long. They respect him and are very careful around him. Don’t stress too much about it. Just remain calm and make sure your dogs don’t feel replaced but that they also know that the baby is the boss.
I hope this helps you!
Xoxo,
Abigail.
Here are some pictures on Max and his doggies...they may look terrified but that's just their faces hahah. They actually do like him.
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