Newborns Are Like Cats
By: Amanda Garland
Tags: Cats, Baby, Family, Science, Parenting

Newborns Are Like Cats

No, seriously, there is some science behind this.

Photo by Manja Vitolic on Unsplash

I think it was the second week home from the hospital, as my husband attempted to lay the baby down for the 3rd time that night, that upon seeing baby’s eyes pop open when he was laid down in his cradle, my husband shook his head and said: “he’s like the cat.” At first, I laughed at the ridiculous comparison. But later that night, or rather the next morning before the sun had risen, as I sat in the rocking chair attempting to soothe a freshly fed baby back to sleep, I heard the cat feeder go off. At that point, I began seriously considering that our newborn, was in fact, a lot like a cat.

I mean they are both small, cute, and soft. They both like to pass out on our laps and throw a tantrum when you move them. They spend frequent hours asleep and require you to handle their poop and pee. Then there is the whole being fed on their schedule, not yours, thing. They even both have sharp nails. I mean sure, one (the cat) will stay small and fuzzy and cute for his entire life while the other (the baby) will grow, develop, and likely go through an awkward teenage phase before hitting adulthood. That said, there really are some striking similarities between cats and infants, aren’t there?

That or perhaps the sleep deprivation has finally driven me insane…

Size

When my son was born, he weighed 7lbs 7oz, which is just a tiny bit larger than the average male birth weight of 7lbs 6oz. After dropping some initial weight because he was breastfed, by 3 weeks of age he was just shy of 8lbs. According to growth charts, the average baby weight by 1 month is just over 9lbs and close to 11lbs (depending on gender) by month 2. In comparison, the average house cat should weight around 10lbs, though this varies based on frame size, breed, and gender. My cat, who at 12lbs is slightly overweight per his last vet visit, will be outpaced by baby weight-wise in another month or two.

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Newborns and cats also have similar lengths. For a full-term newborn, the normal length range is between 18 to 22 inches. For the average cat, length ranges between 15–20 inches. Sure, baby will eventually learn to walk (and run) turning that length into height but for right now my baby and my cat are roughly the same size.

Sleep

Newborns sleep, a lot. According to the experts, the average newborn sleeps anywhere from 14 to 17 hours every day. Of course, as every sleep-deprived parent knows, this is unfortunately not in long stretches. Baby catches his or her Zzzz’s in blocks of time that range from 1.5 to 4 hours. On top of that, it is not really predictable, baby does not adhere to a schedule at this young of an age. My baby’s last nap was a 1.5 hour one, fingers crossed that his current one is longer.

If you are a cat owner, these sleeping habits may sound familiar. Cats sleep an average of 15 hours a day. That is smack in the middle of the newborn sleep hours range. Cats also nap in an unpredictable fashion, seeming to get up and explore when it suits them. The exception to this is the fact that cats are what is called crepuscular. This means that like their wilder relatives (lions, tigers, etc.) they are most active during the dawn and dusk hours.

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For newborn parents, there is what is called the witching hour. This is a period of time (hours) when baby is simply awake and fussy. This period of time often takes place between the early afternoon and late evening. Wait, isn’t that when dusk occurs? My baby in particular has decided he wants to be more like a cat. In addition to adhering to the classic witching hours, he is pretty much fussy from 8 pm to midnight, he is also an early riser waking up at roughly 7 am every morning. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to wake up to a hangry crying baby and a cat rampaging through the house.

Eyesight

Newborns cannot see very well in their first few weeks of life. Aside from being able to identify Mom and Dad’s faces, a baby’s vision is lacking. They are born nearsighted with a visual acuity around 20/200 to 20/400 and their color perception is not that great. It is for this reason that toys for babies often feature bright colors and distinct patterns.

A cat’s vision is similarly limited. Their visual acuity ranges between 20/100 to 20/200. While a cat’s vision allows them to view the same core colors as humans can (red, blue, and green), their ability to distinguish between similar shades is limited. So basically, the same limitations that baby has with their vision, cats also have. I wonder if I’ll be able to dual-purpose old baby toys as cat toys, hmmm?

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Cats do however have some benefits in the vision department that neither babies nor their adult counterparts possess. Benefits like improved low-light vision, a wider field of view, and advanced peripheral vision.

Pulse & Respiration

It is probably a well-known fact that a baby’s heart beats much faster than that of an adult. A newborn’s heart rate ranges between 120 to 160 beats per minute, while the average adult heart rate ranges between 60 to 100 beats per minute. This knowledge did not in any way prepare me when hearing the baby’s heartbeat at that first ultrasound. I still had that “whoa, isn’t that too fast,” moment of panic.

A newborn’s respiration or breathing rate is also elevated when compared to that of an adult at 40 to 60 breaths a minute versus 12 to 16 breaths a minute.

On the feline side of things, the pulse and respiration rates skew much more towards the elevated stats like that of a newborn versus an adult. The average cat heart rate ranges between 140 to 220 beats per minute with the respiration rate ranging between 20 to 30 breaths a minute. While this isn’t an exact match between babies and cats, there is definitely some overlap. Consider this, a resting heart rate of 160 beats per minute would be perfectly acceptable for a cat or baby but would be an indication of health problems in an adult human.

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Communication

Crying. This is the way babies communicate. When they are hungry, they cry. When the need a diaper change, they cry. When the just want to be cuddled, they cry. These cries can be subtly different with some cries louder than others and some with additional cues like sucking on their fists when they are hungry. Until baby can form words, the only way they can communicate their needs is with crying and body language.

Cats meow. They meow when they want to be fed. They meow when they want to go outside. They meow when they want to be petted, or so I’ve heard, as my cat doesn’t solicit petting. And just like baby cries, these meows can be subtly different from one another and usually involve different body language, i.e. tail movement.

On the surface, these similarities don’t seem like much, I mean all species of animals communicate with sounds and/or movements. But cat meows and baby cries have one more thing in common; they both trigger the same involuntary reaction in the adult human brain. Neither adult human cries nor say dogs barking/whining produce this reaction in the brain. Considering adult cats only meow like this to communicate with their human owners, cats may be unintentionally or intentionally mimicking the sound of babies to better garner their human’s attention.

Maybe next time my cat cries I’ll pick him up and smother him with kisses like I do the baby. On second thought, I rather like my skin un-flayed.

Photo by Tim Bish on Unsplash

See, science says there is concrete evidence and stats to prove that cats and babies are alike. I am not crazy, at least not on this, though I am definitely sleep deprived.

Now you might have read this and noticed that l left out an affinity for milk in my list of similarities. This because adult cats actually can’t digest milk, only their young (kittens) can consume milk. So please don’t give your adult cat milk unless you want their poops to look like baby poops; trust me, you do not want this.

For now, I think I’ll rename the “newborn phase” to the “cat phase” at least until baby gets bigger and starts sleeping better. Fingers crossed that the next ‘phase’ of baby’s growth is a less stressful one.