Is it safe to have a dog or cat around my baby?

The verdict

You do not have to rehome your pet. The RSPCA's position is that if you are careful to introduce your baby to your pet properly and to supervise their interaction, there is no reason to feel you need to rehome them.

The two conditions attached to that are non-negotiable. First, supervision: never leave a baby and a dog together unsupervised, which means an adult present and paying attention, not an adult in the next room. Second, infection control: the American Academy of Pediatrics states that pets should not be allowed to lick very young infants.

The supervision rule, stated properly

Parents tend to interpret supervision as being in the house. It means being between the animal and the baby, close enough to intervene before contact rather than after it.

The reason the bar is that high is that a dog does not need to be aggressive to injure a newborn. A friendly dog investigating a moving, squeaking bundle can cause serious harm entirely by accident, and a dog startled awake by a baby's cry can react before anyone has moved.

The RSPCA's practical advice covers the period before the birth as much as after it. Make sure your dog is physically and behaviourally healthy and up to date with vaccinations, worming and external parasite prevention. Work on basic training and calm behaviour before the baby arrives, so the training is not something you are attempting one-handed at three in the morning.

Introducing the animal to the baby

The RSPCA sets out a staged introduction. Before a face-to-face meeting, let the dog become familiar with the newborn's scent using an item of clothing or a blanket, and reward calm interaction with the scent.

Once the dog is comfortable around the scent, move to a carefully supervised face-to-face introduction with the dog on a lead and under effective control. Do it in a quiet, calm environment, let the dog choose whether to approach rather than forcing it, and end the interaction if the dog shows signs of stress or over-excitement. Only progress to supervised off-lead time when the dog is genuinely relaxed in the baby's presence.

The RSPCA also stresses learning to read your dog's body language, because the warning signs - lip licking, turning away, a stiff body, whale eye - come well before anything a person would call a growl.

The infection questions

Pets carry organisms that are harmless to adults and are not harmless to a newborn immune system.

The AAP notes that Pasteurella bacteria live in the mouths of most cats and a significant number of dogs, and that if a child is bitten or scratched by an animal carrying them, the bacteria can enter through the break in the skin and cause a serious skin infection. This is why any bite or scratch to a baby needs medical attention rather than a plaster, and why licking of a young infant's face and hands is off the table.

Cats raise a specific question because of toxoplasmosis. The NHS explains that toxoplasmosis is a common infection usually caught from infected meat or from cat faeces, and that it rarely causes symptoms in people with healthy immune systems. The pregnancy concern - a first infection during pregnancy passing to the baby - is a different matter from a cat living in a house with a baby who has already been born. The everyday precautions remain sensible: someone else empties the litter tray if possible, gloves if not, hands washed afterwards, and the tray kept well away from where the baby plays.

Worming and flea treatment matter more once a baby is on the floor. Keep both up to date and keep the treatment schedule going rather than letting it lapse in the newborn fog.

Allergies

Parents often ask whether having a pet will give the baby allergies. The AAP's guidance on pet allergies explains that the trigger is proteins in dander, saliva and urine, and that traces persist in a home for weeks or months even after an animal is gone.

The evidence on whether early pet exposure causes or protects against allergy is not settled, and no national body recommends removing a pet from a household to prevent allergy in a baby who does not have one. If your baby does develop symptoms that look allergic - persistent congestion, wheeze, or eczema that flares around the animal - that is a conversation with your GP rather than a reason to act unilaterally.

The practical changes worth making

Keep the pet's routine as close to normal as you can. Walks, feeding times and attention that suddenly collapse when a baby arrives are what turns a settled animal into an anxious one.

Create a place the animal can go that the baby cannot. A crate, a room, a stair gate. Both parties benefit from somewhere to be that does not require anyone to negotiate.

Keep pet food, water bowls and litter trays away from crawling routes. Dog food is a choking hazard and a litter tray is a hygiene problem the moment a baby is mobile.

And keep the animal out of the room where the baby sleeps. This is standard safer-sleep advice across every jurisdiction and it costs nothing to implement.

Where guidance differs

There is very little genuine divergence here. What differs is emphasis and who does the publishing.

In Australia, the RSPCA knowledgebase is the most detailed public source, and it is written from the animal-behaviour side: how to prepare the dog, how to read the dog, how to stage the introduction. In the United States the AAP writes from the paediatric infection side: bites and scratches, Pasteurella, licking, allergy. The UK has no single equivalent national page; NHS guidance addresses the specific infections such as toxoplasmosis rather than the household arrangement.

Put the two halves together and you get the whole answer, which is why this page cites both. Nobody disagrees about the supervision rule.