Can families with babies keep pets?

  Some data have show that in families with pets, the children will be more kind, considerate and warm-hearted, and have less violent tendency. Pets-keeping is beneficial for children’s mentality and behavior. Therefore, as long as parents have made sufficient preparations, it’s good to keep pets for both newborns or toddlers and pets.

Benefits of pets to children

1. They will gain the ability to think and solve problems independently. Children are always eager to be accompanied. If they have pets at home, childrenmay rely less on his mother and father.  Playing with and looking after pets are good activities for children to be independent. In this process children will develop their ability to analyse and solve problems on their own.
2. They will be more confident. With pets around babies and toddlers, they feel accompanied and at the same time, they willregard the pets as their friend and express his feelings to the Pets will show love to their little masters and gradually children will become more confident.
3. They will obtain social and communication competence. Ifthe children have their own pet, they may make more friends with other children who love pets and talk about their habits together, which will gradually strengthen the child's communication skills and social ability at a young age.
4. They will learn to be kind to others. If there are pets around children at home, it may also let the baby develop the quality of kindness from childhood.For example, looking after a pet let children know how to have the same feelings for the weak and learn to take care of their pets, which can also stimulate the baby's inner love to care about others.
5. They will have stronger immune system. According to some researches, children growing up with cats or dogs around them are less likely to have colds or coughs and be caught with respiratory diseases than those who don’t have any contact with animals.

Tips for families with babies to keep pets

1. Beforeyou bring a pet home, you should take your pet to the vet’s for physical examination and get the pet vaccinated. Such vaccinations can protect the pet from certain diseases, such as rabies. More importantly, having the pet vaccinated is also a protection to their owners from such diseases.
2. Pets owners should train their pet to keepbasic living habits. For example, dogs and cats can be trained to find on their own where to eat, where to sleep, where to relieve themselves. Therefore pets will not mess up the house and pose risk to children’s health. Any excrement needs to cleaned in time otherwise the germs will appear to cause diseases.
3. Don't let babiesfeed the pet directly by hand. Parents should teach the baby to put the food in the pet bowls or dishes to let the pet eat it by himself. Pet’s bowls and dishes should be cleaned immediately after they finish the food and disinfected with boiling water to prevent children from being infected by germs. If you got pets at home, you’d better keep the room ventilated.
4. Pay attention to the sanitation and hygiene of your pets. Pet owners with babies need to more careful to keep the petclean. They should bathe the pet frequently, cut their nails and hair regularly and get them vaccinated in time. What’s more, the beds of cats or dogs should be cleaned up frequently to prevent bacterial growth. Moreover, you should keep pets away from dirty places when you take them out. The furniture and touched frequently by pets must be cleaned in time. You can clean such places by soapy water or disinfectant.
5. Parents should guide their children to look after the pet. You need to teach your children be gentle and care about the dogs or cats and let children know how to take their responsibilities, so that children can cultivate their empathy and responsibility in the process of looking after pets. When your children old enough, you can let them take a part in bathing pet and cutting nails and hair for them, so that the children can have stronger manual skills.