This Baby Bath Doesn't Deliver What It Promises
Written: Mar 10 '05 (Updated Jan 10 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Worked well when the baby was ten days to four months
Cons: It broke after five months, hard to wash baby's bottom
The Bottom Line: I would suggest finding a simpler bath tub for less money.
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| modernmarvel's Full Review: The First Years Bath Tub/Bath Seat Combo |
In my experience simple products are best. The more features you pile into a product, the more likely it is that one of the features will fail to work. That is certainly true in this product. This product tries to deliver more for your money by taking a baby bathtub and designing it to convert to a baby bath seat when baby is old enough to sit up. Unfortunately, it only worked for us as a bathtub.
WHAT YOU GET
The baby bath comes assembled all in one piece. The tub part is molded plastic. It rests on a plastic base and part of the plastic base covers the foot of the tub. The tub has two settings. The first setting is designed for a newborn to about five months old. The baby can recline in the tub and the baby's bottom is submerged in the water. When baby is small, the baby's head and back rest on a piece of foam rubber that cushions baby and is a bit sticky so the slippery baby stays in place.
In the other setting, the tub is supposed to become a bath seat. We never got to that point because the tub part separated from the plastic base after about five months of use. Once that happened, we couldn't use it because the tub is not stable without the base. I am not sure why the baby bath broke, we didn't subject it to any harsh treatment. However, it literally fell apart one day as I retrieved it from the bathroom where I had set it out to dry.
I did examine the bath seat without the baby and even before the tub broke, I decided it looked pretty unsafe and uncomfortable. Even if ours hadn't broken, I would never have used the second setting.
There is a small plug at the bottom of the tub to drain the water. Or, you can just pour it out like we did. There is also a little toy on part of the base that baby can play with in the bath seat mode. Baby can't reach the toy when the bath tub is reclined.
There are suction cups at the bottom of the plastic base. The suction cups were not strong enough that I would trust them alone to hold the tub on the counter. I always kept my hand on the baby. However, at times, they were strong enought to be annoying when I tried to remove the tub from the counter and one would grab on tightly.
OUR EXPERIENCE
I liked the idea of a baby bath tub since it was too hard to support and wash a newborn in our sink or to lean over the side of the bathtub. This baby bath fit nicely on our kitchen counter next to the sink tap. I could easily control the temperature of the water in the baby bath and add water gradually, if necessary.
Baby was very well-supported in this baby bathtub and she looked and acted comfortable. Baby sits in this tub in a V shape with her tushie at the bottom of the V. There is a little bump at the bottom of the tub to keep her in place. Since her weight was on her tushie, it made it a little harder to give her tushie a good wash. However, we solved this problem by giving her a little prewash under the sink tap before setting her in the tub. It was very easy to wash baby's hair in the tub and the shape of the tub kept her head in a good position that prevented shampoo and water from running into her eyes.
The tub was great for bathing until baby was about four months old. At that point, her toes were longer than the tub. The base overlaps the tub at this point and she would stick her toes between the tub and base. It made me a little nervous that her toes would get pinched but that didn't happen. By five months, our baby, who is in the 90% for height, was too long for the tub and her head and toes were past the point where the tub would support her well. The other thing I didn't like about this tub is that baby completely filled it at five months. There was no room for her to splash and play. There was also very little water in the tub so I used fresh water from the tap to rinse her hair and rinse the soap off her body.
The other thing I didn't like about the tub is that it was big and bulky to store. It doesn't collapse and we would leave it turned upside down in the regular tub during the day to dry.
The problem for the next stage is that, at five months, baby wasn't sitting up well enough to use a bath seat but she was too big for this tub. Even if it didn't break, we would have had to find a bigger tub for her during the five-seven month time until she was able to sit well enough on her own. To solve the problem, I ended up buying another baby bath that worked much better.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
I like the idea of a baby bathtub and this worked well as an infant bath. I have used others in the past that don't convert and are just molded plastic tubs. Those less expensive tubs are better in my opinion because they are inexpensive and functional. I don't think this tub was worth the extra money for the conversion feature.
NEW BABY? HERE ARE SOME BABY PRODUCTS I HAVE REVIEWED:
STROLLERS: Maclauren Techno Stroller; Graco MetroLite LE Stroller; Cosco Eddie Bauer Lightweight Stroller
GEAR: Skip Hop Diaper Bag; Evenflo Snugli Baby Carrier; Infantino EuroRider Baby Carrier.
SLEEPING: Pali Sabrina Crib; Sozo USA bedding.
SOOTHING: MAM pacifiers; MAM pacifier keeper.
NURSING: Bravado Nursing Bra; Lansinoh lanolin; Lansinoh nursing pads.
FEEDING: Avent Feeding Bottles; Take & Toss Infant Spoons; Nuby Sipper Gripper Cup; Dora the Exporer Insulated Straw Cups; Playtex Sipster Spill-Proof Cup.
BATHING: California Baby Super Sensitive Shampoo & Bodywash.
BABY BOTTOMS: Burt’s Bees Diaper Ointment; Desitin Creamy; Balmex; California Baby Diaper Rash Cream; Weleda Diaper Care.
BABY SKIN: Mustela Hydra-Stick for lips and cheeks; Burt’s Bees Apricot Baby Oil.
TOYS: Tiny Love Symphony In Motion Mobile; Soft Teething Beads; Sassy Teething Wing Butterfly; Lamaze Clutch Cube;
Lamaze Freddie the Firefly.
BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS: Baby’s Here Birth Announcements.
Recommended:
No
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modernmarvel
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