How do I make sure my cat doesn't hurt my DS?

[Miss E]

My DS has started crawling just over a week ago. But this now means that he can approach (and chase, all be it slowly at the moment, but he is getting faster) our 16 year old cat.

My dear old cat has always been really good with children, but since we brought DS home his tolerance for visitors kids has been much lower. He's actually scratched a child on a couple of occassions, they were kids of 3 and 5 who had not left him alone but that is not the point. Over the last month or so he has started to take an interest in DS who is also interested in him. At times he will even go over to DS and let him touch him.

BUT, last week when the cat went over to DS he bit him on the arm. Luckily DS was wearing a thick hoodie so didn't get hurt (or even really feel it). It wasn't like DS had pulled his tail or anything, he'd just touched his paw. Then today DS approached the cat and touched his paw and he swiped at him (thankfully he missed). On both occassions I've whacked the cat (not hard, but so he gets the message) and yelled at him. I had hoped that he would just learn to get out of DS's way, but it seems this isn't happening. Before we had DS he was great with kids, he'd never scratched or bitten a child even if they'd pulled his tail or done something horrible to him.

So, I guess I'm looking for some advice on how others may have dealt with a similar situation. Unfortunately he is an inside cat so I can't put him outside for the day.

I hate to say it, but I am thinking that if there is another incident like this we may have to do something drastic (which I hate even thinking, but at the end of the day our cat is upredicatable and has been quite vicious with me in the past when I accidently stepped on him). I doubt he would, but there is the potential as an animal for him to do serious harm to DS and I couldn't live with myself if he got hurt.

[ss_storm]

Can you create a safe place for your cat to go to get out of your DS's way? 16 is pretty old for a cat so he might just be feeling a bit vulnerable now that DS is on the move and needs to be on the 'offensive' so to speak.

A lot of pets get a little snappy as they get older too so he may just be feeling his age a little more?
I'm sure others will have some better ideas, we only have a dog!

[Miss E]

See that's the problem, I would think that if he didn't want to be disturbed by DS then he would go upstairs or get up on the couch or something, but he doesn't And I suppose what concerns me the most is that it happened when he had approached DS, I kind of think it is one thing when DS comes over to him and interupts his sleep or something, but when he goes to him for attention he should be prepared iykwim?