Safety 1st Slip-Resistant Bath Mats; I'm Stuck On Them - Not In A Good Way
Written: Jun 30 '04 (Updated Jul 05 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cute; textured surface to prevent slipping; easy to install.
Cons: Don't stick to the tub!
The Bottom Line: They may be cute, but they just don't work.
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| krissingene's Full Review: Slip Resistant Bath Mats |
I'm not living in reality any more - I'm firmly planted in Mommy-time, where three months, or even five, flash by in the blink of an eye. You see, just yesterday I was bringing my tiny newborn daughter home from the hospital, a helpless and immobile lump of pure cuteness. And now, all of a sudden, she can roll over, push up on her arms and knees, and it will surely be no time at all until she's crawling. The time has come to babyproof.
About the same time I came to this realization, I noticed that the baby who once slid pitifully around in her infant tub was now outgrowing it - at 25 1/2", there's no room at all between the top of her head and the top of the tub, and I'm getting tired of flooding the bathroom every time I wash her hair. The time has also come to move her into the bathtub.
The first thing that had to be done, then, was a thorough scrubbing with Clorox of the tub - bottom, sides and walls - so that no speck of dirt would touch my daughter's precious posterior. That accomplished, I set out to find slip-resistant stickies for the bottom of the tub to replace the ones I had just pried up, deeming them unfit for my daughter to sit upon.
~* Cuteness First *~
Heading to Lowe's with my husband's credit card one day while he was at work, I began filling the cart with babyproofing items, including those I would need to make the bathroom a safer place. Hanging with the other home safety items were packages of Safety 1st Slip-Resistant Bath Mats, 10 brightly colored vinyl animal shapes on a blue and white cardboard backing for only $4.97. At first, I wasn't sure about these - after all, our house isn't of such a magnitude that my daughter has her own bathroom, so us grown-ups would rely on whatever tub stickies I purchased as well. A quick perusal of the other mats available, though, came up with nothing. Either I go with plain, boring white strips across the bottom of the tub, or I bought the animals.
So of course, I bought the animals.
~* My Bathtub The Zoo *~
Once home with my ton of new gadgets promising to make my home a safe haven for the littlest member of my family, I opened our new tub stickies and prepared to place them in the tub. I even followed the directions, which are as follows:
1. Clean tub surface and then wipe with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol to remove any residue. Allow to dry thoroughly.
Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I would normally skip an instruction like the alcohol thing. It just seems so...pointless. But, being the concerned new Mommy that I am, I had sat down and read several Epinions by other users about other Safety 1st products, and had read more than once that skipping this step often resulted in the adhesive on various products not sticking. I didn't want that, of course, so I tackled my sparkling clean bathtub with a bottle of alcohol. And then I let it dry, thoroughly.
2. Arrange Bath Mats on the tub bottom in your own pattern. (Keep them 1 to 2 inches apart.)
This was the fun part, although I still didn't manage to make my layout look as cute as the one on the product package. Oh well, function over form I suppose. Even with my haphazard arranging abilities, the large (about 4" across) blue seals, white polar bears and yellow otters were nothing but cute lying in the bottom of my tub.
(For those concerned with matching decor, an inflatable faucet cover for the bathtub is also available from Safety 1st with the same animals on it - but that's an upcoming review!)
3. Peel back protective paper and individually apply Bath Mats by pressing down firmly and rubbing.
MAN, that is some strong adhesive! The paper backing came off of each bath mat fairly easily, but just in placing the critter on the floor, pressing down and rubbing it into to place, my fingertips quickly became a sticky mess. I had to stop twice during application to wash the gunk off of my hands before I could continue. Surely with that kind of adhesion, these things would be stuck for life. Right.
~* Bathtime! *~
As she's not quite sitting on her own yet, my little girl's first bath in the big tub was from the vantage point of her familiar infant tub - yes, the one she's nearly outgrown, just to get her familiar with her new bathtime surroundings. While the infant tub has suction cups on the legs to help hold it steady, I never have quite trusted them - and so carefully placed them on the textured slip-resistant animal decals before lifting my daughter inside. Be it due to the suction cups or the new bath mats, the tub never moved despite all her wiggling. I thought we were set.
But then I took a shower. Not on freshly placed mats, mind you - they had been sitting in a perfectly dry tub for half a day before water ever hit them - but I had a less than wonderful surprise waiting for me on the bottom of my tub. I stepped carefully into the tub, walking gingerly on the newest additions to my shower environment, sure that they would hold fast but gentle nonetheless. The first half of my shower was uneventful, everything in it's place and so on. And then I noticed that the polar bear had moved.
What the? Where did he think he was going? I reached down to where the polar bear had perched, some two inches from his originally delegated spot, and slid him back into position. Well, dragged is more like it - see, he was quite content in his new spot (nose to nose with his buddy the seal) and didn't take kindly to being moved back. And we all know how much good it will do to try and force a polar bear to stay somewhere he doesn't want to be - not much at all. In no time at all, he was back over there with the seal.
Then an otter got in on the action, figuring that if the polar bear could move around with no consequences, then why couldn't he? And off he went. Obviously these zoo creatures were somewhat less than reliable.
To make matters even worse, they saw fit to leave reminders of where they'd been in the form of sticky bits of adhesive where they had originally been applied. Not visible adhesive, either - the kind you only notice when you try and turn around but can't because your foot has become stuck to the floor of the shower. And now I'm confused... The adhesive was strong enough to stick my fingers together during application and now held my foot firmly against the bottom of the tub while under water - so why couldn't it hold the animals in place? I'm still stumped.
~* Off To The Glue Factory *~
I love these animals, their cuteness brightened my entire bathroom (if clashing somewhat with the decor) - but I can no longer trust them. Very soon, before one makes an actual escape attempt, they will be pried up from whatever corner of the tub they've decided to occupied and be sent the way of their predecessors. I've resigned myself to the fact that the boring white strips await. But for my daughter's safety - and my own as well - it's a step I'll have to take.
~* WARNING *~
NEVER leave your child unattended in the bath - a child can drown in only one inch of water! Always keep your child within arm's reach. This product is not a substitute for proper adult supervision. Do not use these mats on textured surfaces.
~* Contact Information *~
Visit Safety 1st online at www.safety1st.com, call 1-800-544-1108 (7 AM - 6 PM EST Monday through Thursday, 7 AM - 4:30 PM EST on Fridays) or write to:
Dorel Juvenile Group
Consumer Relations Department
P.O. Box 2609
Columbus, IN 47202-2609
~* Also By Safety 1st *~
Safety 1st Fold-Up Nail Clippers
Safety 1st Inflatable Sof' Spout Cover
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
krissingene
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Member: Kristin
Location: Southern VA
Reviews written: 267
Trusted by: 120 members
About Me:
The strength of Motherhood is greater than Natural Laws. -Barbara Kingsolver
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