Baby Bathtubs

[melissabel]

Help! My first baby is due next week and I'm terrible at making decisions, especially with all the baby products out there. I'm currently trying to decide on a baby bathtub. I've heard wonderful things about the Eurotub but we live in a small apartment and space is a major issue. I was hoping to find a tub that I can use in the kitchen sink to save my back. I've heard good things about the Safety 1st Comfy Duck Bath but I can only find it at my local Buy Buy Baby (for over $20, which seems like alot to me). I wanted to buy the tub at BRU since I have a ton of store credit there from my baby shower. My local BRU only has the regular Safety 1st Comfy Bath Center. Is the duck sling worth the extra money? It seems it would be easier and safer to have a sling when bathing a newborn.
I also saw the Summer Infant Baby Bather, does anyone have info. on that product?
Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!
Melissa
EDD: 1/29/05

[mama2galpals]

hi melissa,

i've had three kids and bought three different bathtubs (plus another for grandma's house. one that i do *not* suggest is the folding one. i found that to be terrible. i had one with a sling for babies two and three and that helps so much for an infant.

i looked on that bru site and the safety 1st four in one bath station looked pretty good. hth and good luck!



rita
mommy to
olivia 2/7/97
stella 9/24/00
emma 1/23/03

[alkagift]

Melissa,
My son grew rather quickly and out of the small tub that would sit in the kitchen sink. The problem with that was of course he couldn't sit up well enough for the regular tub but was too long and active for the kitchen sink-sized one.

So, we ended up with two--one for the early months and the Eurotub. For the early months (the kitchen sink era!) I got something by The First Years, very similar to the one you see on the Babies R Us website, "Sure Comfort Deluxe Newborn-to-Toddler Tub." It worked well, was simple, fit in the sink, didn't have any foam stuff to get mildewy, etc. I would recommend it. Avoid those "four in one" or "staged" tubs, they have had problems and are pretty small. If your baby stays on the average height curve you ought to be able to use it for a while! Couldn't you use your BRU credit online? I would think they'd give you a card that you could use and that way you wouldn't have to worry about what your local one carries. If there's more than one BRU near you and it's worth saving the shipping for you, I would call around since in our case some BRU's carried different tubs than the one closest to me.

The Eurotub is fabulous, but certainly not for the first couple of months. We still use it and my son is 36" tall. We store it with a suction cup system we devised (with some help from the Container Store) on the tiled wall of our (adult) bathtub.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[new_mommy25]

Wal mart sells the duck tub.
Here is the link http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2403123
Hth,

[ILoveLT]

I have the First Years Sure Comfort Deluxe tub and have been using it everyday for almost a year now. I never felt comfortable putting the baby high up so I put her in the tub on the floor. This tub came with a newborn sling that was extremely useful until the baby started sitting up. Now that she's 11 months old and splashes the water with her hands, I just put it in our tub in the bathroom. I love this tub and highly recommend it. We were looking at the Eurotub but decided it was too big. The First Years tub is great! You won't regret buying it!

Rita

[mamarazzo]

I'd also recommend The First Years Newborn-to-Toddler tub. We've been very happy with it and it sounds like it has the features you're looking for.

MR

[amp]

Sorry - double post.

[amp]

This may not be what you want to hear, but we didn't even buy a baby bathtub. We padded the sink with towels and just bathed him in there. Sure, I had to support him until he could sit up on his own, but they are short baths at that age anyway. When he got to be too big for the sink, we either bathed him in the tub or took him in the shower with us. We had no room to store a baby bathtub, so I was glad when we managed without one.

[mommytotwo]

We've used the Eurotub for both kids and it has worked from birth to 2+ years. Definately one of our best purchases -- thanks for all of the recommendations from folks here!

[nashsmommy]

We have the Eurotub, which I now really like, but it was big for the first few months (DS was 7 1/2 lbs. at birth), and I found it hard to keep him positioned. We got a Safer Bather pillow at BRU a few weeks after he was born to help with that, and I LOVE it and still use it. It kept DS from slipping down in the Eurotub when he was smaller and now he still likes to lie back on it (DS is 6 1/2 months).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JIVI/qid%3D1107019772/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-2314212-6111216

We live in a small house with small bathrooms, but we do have 2 baths. I store the Eurotub in the tub in the 2nd bathroom.

[booda]

Melissa, I just had to chime in after reading post #29401. I'm expecting in April, and have been told NEVER EVER to take the baby in the shower with you. It has led to a number of fatal accidents. Good luck! :-)

[carolines mommy]

We had a cheapie tub from BRU (can't remember what kind) that fit in the kitchen sink and it was terrible. DD slipped all over the place, she seemed cold no matter what we did. I even bought a foam pad for the inside, but she still hated it. We started bathing her in the big tub with us when she was about 7 weeks old and she loved it. Since then she has always bathed with us. Now that I am very pg with a sore back, I will take her into the shower with me. We have a large shower and I put a vinyl bathmat in one corner with some of her toys. She happily plays in the corner while I soap her up and rinse her either with a cup or the showerhead. As with anything, you need to use care when bathing your child no matter how old they are. More babies have died being left unattended in a bathtub than in the shower with mom or dad. For this new baby, we bought a "Safer Bather" from One Step Ahead and will bathe her in the kitchen sink (new house, remodeled kitchen with BIG sink.

Erika
Mommy to Caroline Nov 03 and Chelsea due April 05

[Jen841]

We had a Safety First tub that was too big, so in the beginning I used a Munchkin insert that someone gave us that I found to be priceless. They bought it at Target. Part of it inflates with water, and the rest with air. It was perfect for the tiny ones, then we moved up to the tub later, then the ring... and now just the tub.

[sdjeppa]

I have the 4-in-1 tub, and we have liked it - it has the sling for when they are little, and I just recently moved my 16 mo old to the bathtub - I used the ring end of the tub until then.

Jenny, Mommy to Zachary 9-27-03

[jawilli4]

Hi Melissa,

I third the use of the "Safer Bather" in the kitchen sink. We were able to use ours until this weekend, when our son graduated to the "Tubside Bath Seat" which was a gift. At the very end of its use, it did get a bit stinky. DH wants to throw it out but I am still hoping to keep it for use with another baby. I'm somewhat of a packrat, though.

Good luck!

Jan

Mom to Ian
Born August 2004

[loveofmylife]

Hi Melissa,

I would suggest the first years sure comfort deluxe newborn to toddler tub from babies r us. We went through both the safer bather and cradle and comfort tub before graduating to that tub. I really hated having to dry the safer bather after each bath, to me it's an extra burden to keep clean, plus my ds pooped during his bath on a few occasions, gross, huh. I so loved the idea of a bath tub so around 5 months we got the eurotub which I love love love, but it was too big for a newborn. Hope this helps.

[bluhimmy]

I originally registered for the Eurotub, but never did get it. I ended up borrowing an infant tub and used it on the counter. I bought a sponge liner for the bottom of the tub, but it was still somewhat awkard. It still took 2 of us to bath DS; one to hold him & the other to wash.

Once DS discovered how much fun it was to splash, we stopped using the infant tub since I was really sick of being soaked and/or peed on. I got the Safer Bather and use it in our regular tub. I can bathe him by myself and no longer get drenched. It has worked wonderfully for us; I wished I had gotten this sooner.

HTH,
Diana

[brittone2]

We have a Eurotub and love it. We don't have a large bathroom (we only have 1 1/2 baths), so we store it on a hook on the wall in the laundry room. You may be able to come up w/ some place to store it if you are creative. If not, there are some other good smaller tubs, but I don't have experience w/ those. We loved the Eurotub though. I started putting DS in the regular tub with 2-3 inches of water when he was sitting up well on his own.

[baby]

I would HIGHLY recommend "the first years newborn to toddler tub"