Giving your baby a bath can be one of the most special times of your day—or, it can be a source of major stress, especially if your wet and slippery tot doesn’t like the water.
After 25 hours of testing 10 baby bathtubs and bath seats with our own infants, we’ve determined that though you don’t need a specialized tub or seat to bathe your kiddo, having one can make the task a lot easier, more fun, and comfortable for everyone involved. Our favorite baby bathtub is the Fisher-Price 4-in-1 Sling ’n Seat Tub; it’s easy to use, feels safe, and will fit a rapidly growing baby for longer than most.
Our pick
This tub’s generous dimensions make it the easiest to use of the basins we tested. Its design will grow with your baby, and it includes extras that other tubs don’t.
The Fisher-Price 4-in-1 Sling ’n Seat Tub is our favorite basin bath. It’s one of the roomiest tubs we tested, which made it easy to reach and wash all parts of our babies. It’s also the most versatile model we tried—a removable seat allows you to free up even more space once your baby can sit unsupported, which means you’ll be able to use it longer than most tubs. The Fisher-Price’s thoughtful details also make it more convenient to use than most basins we tested: It has a hook to hang it up, a drain plug, and a rinsing bottle. However, its large size means it probably won’t fit in the sink.
Runner-up
This bath is the same versatile style as our main pick in a slightly more manageable size, but babies will outgrow it more quickly.
The First Years Sure Comfort Deluxe is a molded plastic basin like the Fisher-Price tub, but it’s slightly shorter and narrower (and yet is still one of the largest baths we tried). Its smaller size could be a benefit if storage or sink space is a big concern, but it also means that it won’t fit your baby for as long. The First Years is the only bath we found with a soap holder, which, ironically, just creates more hard-to-clean surfaces on the tub.
Also great
This sink insert is the easiest to set up, clean up, lift, and store of all of the models we tested, but you can use it only in a big sink or a tub.
The Angelcare is the best choice if you want to bathe your baby directly in the sink or tub. The molded plastic seat was the easiest to use of its type, with virtually no set up or clean up, and it’s smaller and lighter than basin-style baby bathtubs. But you must have a tub, or a sink that’s large enough to fit its 23-inch length to use this seat, and it’ll take more water to run a bath than to fill a self-contained basin like our other picks.
