child (18m) hitting cat

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At first I want to apologize if my english is not good - I'm self taught

I'm asking here for a mother of child (18m) with autism. Before the child was born, they adopted a cat - they love her and obviously they don't want to let her go.
But as their child is crawling around, cat has rough life now - child is aggresive towards her and is hitting her whenever she's around.
Is there a solution for this? How to stop this aggresivity? Any advice is appreciated

Keep the child distracted. Give him/her a toy. Play with the child. Pet the cat so your child can see you do it.

If the child hits the cat, tell him no firmly, and take him/her away from the cat.

This is normal 18 month old behavior.

He might be jealous on the cat or the cat may have scratched him once. Show him how to pet the cat nice while holding and moving his hand. Stop him as soon as he tries to hit the cat.

_________________
I am as I am. Life has to be an adventure!

Cats can have fairly sharp nails. So make sure you periodically clip the cats nails. The cat will not like it but it must be done to prevent the toddler from harm. The cat will defend itself.

Teach the child to touch the cat with two fingers only. Teach child to look at cat's ears and tail for cues and identify together how the cat feels. Leave the cat alone when ears are back and tail swishes because it's upset.

Read together nonfiction books about cats like
https://www.amazon.com/Kittens-That-Rea ... CHAX3TSW00

or https://www.amazon.com/National-Geograp ... CHAX3TSW00.

Also, give the cat comfy and easily accessible hideaways up high on top of cabinets and bookshelves.

Might be easier to teach the cat to stay away from the baby. Cats can be trained like that, depending on the breed. I'm surprised that it would put up with a baby being rough with it, though - it's pretty easy for a cat to move out of reach of a toddler (perhaps get it a perch if there aren't easily accessible places for it to go). Is it being aggressive back, or is it just tolerating it? My younger brother had some behavioral issues and used to be rough with my dog, but she never retaliated. If it got too bad she'd give him an annoyed, high-pitched growl to warn him off just as she does to a misbehaving puppy. She's a very tolerant dog, and my brother grew out of those behaviors before either of them ever hurt each other. Animals are pretty tough. If the cat doesn't seem to mind it, maybe it isn't something to worry about.

Toddlers, even when they're NT, aren't able to understand that cats are living creatures with feelings. Cats usually learn to to avoid them by running off and hiding the second the kid enters the room and not trusting anyone under 3 feet tall.