When can baby learn to pet a cat?

My little boy is 19 months and still tries to grab 🫣 has been a few nice stroking moments though recently... they don't understand that their actions can hurt for a while, so just have to keep showing them how and encourage them to be gentle... My cats give my son a wideeee berth 😂

My 11 and a half month old pet a cat with an open hand for the first time yesterday, usually he grabs a fist full of fur 😂

My 10.5 month grabbed the first few times with our dog. He would see me/my partner scratching/playing with the dog and would be rough. Now we gently stroke the dog when he is around and when he goes to the dog we always say “be nice” or “gentle” and he’s so sweet with the dog now

I think from now you should tell her gentle and flat hands she won’t understand but it will help. We did that from 6months ish and My daughter could stroke the cat sometimes at 12 months but would sometimes grab, she’s 22 months now and does always stroke now but we supervise it at all times as I couldn’t trust her not to grab the cat if we weren’t watching xx

My son is 4 & 1/2 months old. I have 3 dogs & 2 cats. I’ve been teaching my son ‘soft hands’. When he grabs their fur I open his hand, say soft hands & take his arm to show him the stroking motion. 9/10 he carries on touching them with an open hand🙈

My boy is 7 months and I’ve always tried to get him to stroke my cat. My cat puts up with the grabbing and so on but he is learning😂 whenever he grabs I tell him not to and let him try again nicely.

My baby is 3.5 months and sort of pets my cat, she just places her hand on the cat. However she did try and put the cats ear in her mouth last night 🙃

Son is 18 months, as soon as he was able to reach for the cats we’ve told him gentle hands and opened his hand up, he’s now really good with stroking them. The sooner you start the sooner they’ll start understanding through habit

Oh man this is a tough one 😭 they learn from seeing so just keep petting kitty in front of them and eventually they’ll get the hang of it. If you see baby slapping or grabbing kitty just correct them with a no and take their hand away while showing them how to do it properly, just repetitively do it ove and over again.

We've been teaching gentle gentle open hand petting of our cats and dogs since our baby was really young. We put our hand over hers and pet the animals holding her hand. She's 11 months now and is quite good at petting them gently on her own. We are obviously still super close and stope her immediately if she does happen to grab. I think the younger you start modeling the better. We also try teach her to pet them with the back of her hand to stop grabbing as well, but she's still not quite getting that.

We start working on it from the first time baby is interested in the cat. If they grab we take their hand and pet the cat gently with it, I usually say something like "we use gentle hands on the kitty, these are gentle hands." We got a new kitten when my oldest was 11 months old and he already had it down probably 80% of the time by then and would correct if you reminded him. My youngest is 8 months and getting there

As soon as my LO started to show an interest I would show him how to stroke gently . I would stroke the cat myself and then kind of take control of LOs hand and show him how to do it, and just say ‘use very gentle hands’, ‘no grabbing’ etc. He’s 15 months now & is really good with the cats :)

I’ve got 5 cats and 2 dogs and an 11 month old baby girl. Totally get the whole clasping I’ve just always exaggerated the word stroke with her and held her wrist and done the action to show her and then show her with my own hand too. I can honestly say she’s not grabbed any of the animals in months and will wave at them and pat them palm open. She doesn’t hit them and they don’t run away they will always sit with her now. Worked for me x

My daughter is 10m old and few months ago started hardly grab my face as well as cats (got 3) so whenever we were eating/playing and she was grabbing my face roughly I would take her hand and pet myself saying "my mummy, my mummy" and now she is mainly gentle with me and with cats but obviously testing her boundaries so it's not 100% sometimes she pulls cats hair but other than that she's not rough anymore

My 11 month old has learnt to scratch our dog. With an open hand, but she scratches her fingers instead of grabbing as that’s what taught her to do. She hasn’t grabbed in a while now, and she knows to do it gently as whenever she does it we go “awww gently” so now she stratches and says “ ahhhh” and puts her head on our dog 🤣

My nearly 2 year old can gently stroke our cat, but she also chases him round the house screaming his name, tries to pick him up by his neck and tries to cuddle him which is basically her squishing him 🤣 poor cat he just wants a chill life 🥹🥺 (they are always supervised and I obviously stop this when she does it)

About 5.5 months my boy was petting the cat with open hands. He's always been super gentle. We always modelled first how to fuss and always said "gentle hands"

@Katie Is that a Russian Blue? We have one, and they are the sweetest with our LO!

As soon as our LO could sit up, we would pet our cat. Just have to keep repeating and showing baby the how to gentle touch, and all will be fine!

@Lily Yeah it is! She is so patient with my daughter 🥰

My daughter love loves my cat now. She’s almost 2. I still guide her to make sure she strokes nicely. She likes to crawl and chase after her for kisses 🥰😂

My cat is amazing with babies literally so non reactive too anything I have always welcomed my lo to touch the cat and the cat to have contact and always reiterated every time 'kind hands' 'awww' . My cat sleeps in our room anyway. He loves just looking to he gets so excited . (Ik you may not all agree with my cat sleeping in the room but she is 14 and this is her 3rd baby in her lifetime. I can safely bet my life on it she would never jump in his cot )

My cat doesnt sleep in her room but I’m not to judge. Depends what kind of cat you got I guess! 🥰