infant bath time - product reviews

I find that my little one really benefits from her evening bath after a long grueling day at daycare.  It's hard work being overstimulated by all the sights and sounds that occur in the infant room at daycare.  Add to that the apparent fight to stay awake at daycare so she doesn't miss anything happening around her, she is flat out exhausted when I pick her up.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

The evening bath has become an important ritual at our house and like most baby rituals (at least the ones not involving livestock) it requires lots of supplies.  I suppose that I shouldn't complain about this.  Bathing an infant is probably a lot easier than bathing a toddler.  With babies there's no chasing them through the house or having them get upset when you tell them to take a bath just so they can turn around and get upset again when you tell them it's time to get out of the bath.  Bath time in my house, for now, is a calm little bonding moment.

My mother had a special infant bath tub for me and my brother.  She just bathed us in the kitchen sink.  I just couldn't see myself doing this - especially in the first few months where your baby can't sit up on their own. We have Fisher-Price's Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bath Center.

This bath tub has 3 main features that I think every bath tub should have (whether you choose to go with this brand or not):  

1. An infant net.  This is for when your baby can't sit up on their own.  Instead they can lounge in this net, which also makes handling a wet and soapy baby a lot easier.
2. Grows from newborn to toddler.  Not only does it come with the infant net, but it comes with an insert that supports your little one until they are ready to sit in the tub without it.
3. Drying/storage hook.  This my seem like a simple item - but its a lot easier to just hang the tub out of the way.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

Another item that we find makes bath time easier is a water temperature tester.  We have the Summer Infant Digital Temperature Tester.  It's a cute turtle that tells you the temperature of the water and has an indicator light to tell you if the temperature is too cold, hot or just right.  We got this as a gift and love it.  We've had no problems with it, but after recently reading some reviews online, it appears that the batteries, once dead, are irreplaceable (oops!).  We will most likely replace it when it dies with the highly recommended Aquatopia Safety Bath Thermometer.  Also a cute turtle, but with replaceable batteries.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

Sometimes you also run into a product that has such a simply ingenious design, that you can't help but recommend it to friends.  The Method Baby Squeaky Green Hair + Body Wash is such a product.  They actually thought to make the lid a cup!  It doesn't foam up a lot like other brands, but it has a nice clean scent and they get an "A" for just being smart.  I'm sure we could use any good smelling baby wash on her and she would be happy, the cup is just so convenient to switch.

Our bath time ends with a good massage with some lotion (I prefer Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Baby Butter Massage Lotion), put on some fresh clean pjs, fill up the tummy and off to bed!

I don't think there is anything better than a clean smelling baby that's in what we call "milk coma" and is ready for bed.  In fact, last night I could not resist and went back in the nursery and picked my little sleeping angel up, held her to my chest and rocked her for a bit before I had to go to bed myself.  I swear, being a working mom makes you feel like you don't get enough of your little one during the week.