Introducing Your Pet To Your New Baby: Simple Tips To Create A Life-Long Bond

Becoming a parent can be an exciting, if stressful, time. A leading cause of anxiety in new parents can often be introducing a new baby to a pet. A pet may feel territorial of your home, and a noisy baby could cause them anxiety. Preparing your pet for the new arrival could make all the difference to them getting along. The first meeting may also be crucial to ensuring a lasting and healthy bond is created between your baby and your pet.

It may help to begin getting your pet used to the idea of a baby early in your pregnancy. The type of pet you have may also impact how you prepare them for a baby’s arrival. Dogs and cats may require more preparation than animals that live in their own habitats, like lizards, snakes or hamsters.

Let Your Pet Explore The Baby’s Room

For pets that are often given free rein to roam the house, a good first step could be to allow them into the nursery. Keeping a room off limits to a pet may increase their curiosity and make them keener to enter the space. Allowing them to sniff out the baby’s room and remove the mystery can be a good step. It can also help them get used to the new baby’s belongings they will see around the house.

Use A Doll To Get Them Used To Sharing Your Attention

If this is your first baby, a pet may need to get used to sharing your attention. Using a doll could be an excellent way to get a pet used to having a baby in the house. You could introduce your pet to a baby doll in the same way as you would a newborn. First, you could let them sniff the doll and reward good, calm behaviour with treats and other positive reinforcements.

It may help most to carry the baby around like you would a newborn, holding it in your arms, rocking it and pretending to feed it either by bottle or breastfeeding. This might feel a bit silly at first, but it might be a valuable tool to help your pet acclimate to a baby’s presence.

Play Recordings Of A Baby Crying

While this might not be much fun for you or your pet, getting them used to the sounds they could expect when a baby is in the house can be beneficial. The more your pet hears the sound of a baby crying, the more desensitised they might become, so the arrival of a crying newborn might be less jarring for them. You could consider investing in a CD of newborn sounds or search for some audio or video online that could help them get used to the sounds they will soon be hearing more often. You could also make a habit of giving your pet a treat whenever you put on the sounds of a newborn crying so they associate the sounds with positive experiences.

Create A Quiet Place For Your Pet

A new baby may mean significant change for your pet, and this could make them anxious. While this may be a natural reaction to a big change, your response to this could be helpful. You could consider creating a quiet, peaceful place for your pet to retreat to if the baby becomes too stressful for them to handle. This may be relatively simple for pets with enclosures or tanks.

For pets that normally roam the house, you may need to find a suitable place away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the family. You could invest in a large pet carrier, which you could cover in blankets, both outside and inside, to keep sound out and make a cosy, dark space for your pet to relax. It may help to ensure that your baby stays away from this area, so your pet understands that this is a place they can go if they feel overwhelmed.

Take Precautions In Case Of Mishaps

Even with the best preparation, a meeting between a pet and a baby might not go to plan. Keeping both baby and pet safe and healthy is important, so it may help to take precautions in the case of a mishap. Babies may injure a pet without intending to, particularly smaller or more delicate animals or breeds. It could help to have your vet’s contact and emergency information on hand and consider taking out insurance to ensure your pet gets the best care. Insurance can give excellent peace of mind to pet owners, so looking for comprehensive cover may be beneficial. To learn more about pet insurance and its benefits, visit www.purelypetsinsurance.co.uk.

Get Your Pet Used To The Smell Of The Baby

Many animals rely heavily on their sense of smell to understand new things in their lives. A baby can bring with it plenty of new smells and sounds that your pet needs to get used to. They may cause concern, alarm or even anxiety at first, so it could help to get your pet used to the smell of the baby as soon as possible. You could consider bringing home things that will smell like the baby before you bring the baby themselves back from the hospital. You can bring baby-scented items to your pet to let them have a good sniff and get accustomed to the scent.

Supervise All Contact

No matter how you think your pet may react to your new baby, it can still be beneficial to supervise all contact between the two. Even the sweetest-natured pets may react unexpectedly to major upheaval, so you could ensure that one parent or other adult is always in the room with the baby until the pet has gotten used to the new arrival. It may also help to keep this up until the baby is old enough to know how to behave around the pet.

Make Time For Your Pet

A newborn baby might take up a significant amount of your time, which may be confusing or upsetting for your pet. This could even lead to jealousy of your baby in your pet, so it could help to ensure that you set aside time to spend with your pet. It may be best to ensure that someone else is taking care of the baby while you spend quality time with your pet so that they can have your undivided attention. This could help ensure your pet doesn’t feel distressed or neglected after the arrival of your new baby.

Remain Calm And In Control

Many pets, particularly animals like dogs and cats, might pick up on your own emotions. Therefore, if you are anxious, worried or nervous about introducing your pet to your baby, the pet may pick up on this. Likewise, babies might also feel the emotional tenor coming from their parents and other adults. This means that your baby and your pet may mirror the emotions you’re feeling, meaning keeping calm, relaxed and in control could be crucial to ensure a good first meeting between the two.

Teach Your Baby To Respect Your Pet

Once your baby is old enough to start crawling and getting around on their own, it may help to teach them how to interact with your pet. Where before this stage, much of the emphasis might be on the pet’s behaviour, now you could start teaching the baby to pet the animal correctly and discourage behaviour the pet might not like. This could include teaching them not to pull at fur or tails, to stoke them in the direction of the fur growth and other tips that could prevent a baby from aggravating a pet.

Keep The Baby And Pet Toys Separate

If a pet is used to all the toys in the home being theirs, it may help to keep the baby toys separated from the pet toys. Many pets can be territorial about their toys, so having a clear distinction may be helpful. You could reward your pet each time they choose their own toys and leave the baby’s toys alone so that they will associate the correct toys with positive experiences.

Give Your Pet Plenty Of Exercise

For the first introduction to a baby, it could help to ensure your pet has exercised out their excitable energy. If your pet is tired when they meet your baby, they could be less likely to get too excitable around the newborn. It may help to ask a friend or relative to take your pet for a long walk or come over to play energetically with them for a couple of hours before the first introduction takes place. Exercise can also help keep a pet’s stress levels low, which may ensure the introduction goes smoothly.

Conclusion

First, introductions can be vital to ensure a happy and life-bond relationship between your pet and your baby. The safety of your baby and your pet should be your number one priority when they meet. Preparing your pet ahead of the arrival of the baby could be vital in ensuring the transition goes well. Once the baby gets old enough to move around by themselves, you could start teaching them about how to interact with the pet themselves. Helping both your pet and your baby learn to respect the other can be crucial to having a happy and harmonious family home.

*This is a collaborative post