We Asked 1,000 Parents To Tell Us What Baby Bathtub to Buy, and 3 Tubs Came Highly Recommended
Parenting is hard, but discovering what baby essentials to buy shouldn’t be. If you’re looking for nursery ideas, you may be focused on pinning all the baby boy nursery ideas or baby girl nursery ideas you can find. But we know you’ve also got baby gear on the mind, like a baby bathtub. We asked 1,000 parents to tell us what baby bathtub to add to our baby registry, and three baby bathtubs had the most recommendations!
Table of Contents
The Best Baby Bathtub for Apartments: The OXO Splash and Store Bathtub
The Best Baby Bathtub for Infants: The Angelcare Baby Bath Support
The Best Budget Baby Bathtub: Fisher-Price Baby to Toddler Bath 4-In-1 Sling ’n Seat Tub
Why You Should Trust Us
This is a best list that comes with real chops. Cubby is helmed by a small yet vibrant team of design-savvy parents who are unusually invested in finding the best products for life at home with kids, beginning with the nursery. Faith Durand (SVP of content at Apartment Therapy Media, two kids, pro pinner of all the things), Cambria Bold (executive editor of Cubby, two kids, hobby designer, avid product researcher), and Laura Schocker (chief content officer at Apartment Therapy Media, one kid and one on the way, small space / city living expert) have 40 years of digital editorial experience among them. They’ve already read about, researched, and purchased many of the baby products that you, as a soon-to-be parent, are wondering about right now. They’ll tell you exactly what you need to know about what to get.
If they don’t know the answer, they know plenty of people to ask — fellow editors, parenting experts, designers, and Cubby readers — so you can be sure that these recommendations come from real-life experiences.
Most importantly, we don’t just “office test” these products (read: Order a bunch and shake ’em around in our office “lab” with a fake baby doll) because that is helpful to approximately no one. The products we recommend here are ones we or fellow parents have actually purchased ourselves for our nursery and used for at least a few months (and sometimes way longer). The rave reviews are real.
How We Chose These Products
We asked readers (and parents!) of Apartment Therapy Media, which includes Cubby, Apartment Therapy, and The Kitchn, to tell us what baby bathtub they used (if any) with their baby, and why or why not they’d recommend it to other parents. We received over 1,000 responses.
We took the top three recommended baby bathtubs from this survey and then assessed our own firsthand experiences with the product. If the product was strongly recommended by our survey parents and/or personally used for a significant period of time (with positive results!) by one of our editors, it made it to this list!
The Best Baby Bathtub for Apartments: The OXO Splash and Store Bathtub
You don’t have to live in an apartment to appreciate the OXO Splash and Store Baby Bathtub, but if you do, even better! The tub collapses for quick and easy storage, which makes it a major space-saving steal. Our survey parents loved that it was collapsible, had a hook for hanging, and was easy to clean.
Splash & Store Bathtub
What Parents Said About the Oxo Baby Tub In Our Survey
“Highly recommend especially for small apartments because you can fold it up and tuck it away.”
“Collapsible, easy to clean, takes little space, has a hook to hang up.”
“Received as a hand-me-down. We are the third family to use it, and it’s in great shape. It flattens and hangs on the back of a door. Pretty spacious for baby as they grow.”
“It is fairly simple and basic, but it could be moved around the house and then folds down for storage and can hang from a towel rack. This was especially useful for us as we initially lived in a one-bedroom apartment and had almost no space.”
“Our bathroom is small. We were able to collapse this and hang in our shower when not in use. That was the seller for me when looking!”
“It’s amazing to be able to collapse it and just hang it from the shower bar. We live in a small NYC apartment, and this is the perfect tub if you don’t have much space.”
What Cubby Editors Say about the OXO Baby Tub
Apartment Therapy’s chief content officer, Laura Shocker, owns the OXO baby tub and says this about it: “I got lots of recommendations for great baby baths, but ended up choosing this one because it folds up. It’s seriously space saving, and hangs on our shower curtain rod. It works great for us!”
The Best Baby Bathtub for Infants: The Angelcare Baby Bath Support
If you have more storage space and are looking specifically for an infant tub, then the Angelcare Baby Bath Support Tub is the baby bathtub for you. Our survey parents love its simple, sturdy design, how easy it is to clean, and that it fits in most kitchen sinks. (You should measure your sink just to be sure, though!)
Angelcare Baby Bath Support
What Parents Said About the Angelcare Baby Bathtub in Our Survey
“Loved this one the most after trying the hard plastic ones with the hammock, the inflatable ones, etc. This one was great because you could fill the tub with some water to keep your baby warm, and then use a handheld shower wand to wash them. If you only have a spigot or a fixed showerhead, this one would be tricky, but, with a shower wand, it was great because we could keep warm water on our babies without them getting cold.”
“We used this until the baby could sit independently. It’s small, easy to store, easy to clean, and we were able to pass it forward to a new family because it remained in perfect condition.”
“It’s perfect for newborns and infants as it allows for shower-like bath, particularly in stages where baths are less ideal than running water (umbilical cord still attached, post-circumcision).”
“While a little bulky to store, it is a very simple design, which was easy to use (even with a 5th percentile baby!) and even easier to keep clean. A great value if you can find somewhere to store it.”
“It fits in the kitchen sink for ease of use, and I like the angle at which my baby sits in it.”
The Best Budget Baby Bathtub: Fisher-Price Baby to Toddler Bath 4-In-1 Sling ’n Seat Tub
To get the most bang for your buck for as long as possible, look no further than the 4-in-1 Baby Bathtub from Fisher-Price. At $40, this baby bathtub will take you from the infant stage all the way through toddlerhood. Our survey parents loved that it grows with the baby so, if properly cared for, you should get many bubble baths out of this thing.
Fisher-Price Baby to Toddler Bath 4-In-1 Sling ‘N Seat Tub
What Parents Said About the Fisher-Price 4-in-1 Sling ’n Seat Tub
“This tub is great. It has a sling for a newborn and can be used up through toddler age. I loved that it had a hook to hang the bathtub up on the towel rack to dry. Baby loved both the reclined seat as well as the upright seat.”
“It’s great. I love that it can fit over the kitchen sink or sit in the bathtub. I like that you can hang it for storage. It cleans up well and I’m using it now for my second baby.”
“The conversion from infant to older sitting baby was handy and uses less water than a full bathtub.”
“I liked how versatile it was, from infant through toddler. We used it way longer than we needed to!”
“It’s been nice. I’ve used it with both of my babies now and they seem to enjoy the support sling and still being able to float/kick their feet around. The footprint is a bit big though.”
The Only Downsides
While you are getting a lot with this tub, some parents noted it was still a bit bulky to store, while other parents didn’t think the sling was supportive enough for a newborn. Also, a few parents noted the tendency for the sling to mildew if it wasn’t dried properly.
