4moms Infant Tub review: The 4moms Infant Tub makes bath time manageable

If you’ve had a baby, one of the gifts you probably got at the shower was an infant tub. They’re bulky, usually colorful, plastic bins that might feature netting to cradle the baby, or a foam pad to keep them from slipping around. And if you’ve tried to use one of these before, you probably know it doesn’t make baby baths much easier. Once you’re a few weeks into parenting, with sleep running low and stress running high, you’re probably as likely to just use the sink as a bathtub as you are to pull out one of these tubs.

Enter 4moms, the maker of MamaRoo, with a $50 (£35 or AU$68) smart Infant Tub. This device is as bulky as competitors, and it costs about twice as much, but it benefits from really clever design and simple but well implemented smarts.

How it works

First, you start the faucet over the thermometer.

Once the screen turns green, indicating a comfortable temperature for your child, you can plug the bottom of the first pool. This will redirect the water into the tub where your baby sits.

Finally, with your baby secure on the foam pad that keeps them from slipping, you can use the included cup to pour water over any body parts that need cleaning and aren’t submerged.

I like the basic design of the Infant Tub — it keeps your baby in place pretty well, and it keeps the water at the perfect temperature, taking that extra concern off your mind while you try to hold a wiggling baby. The screen and temperature sensing are also helpful. For the future, though, including some sort of tool to clean harder-to-access places like clenched fists could help the $50 price tag feel like a better deal. And reducing its size would make storage much easier.

Although some of its shortcomings mean the 4moms Infant Tub isn’t quite a must-buy product yet, for anyone who needs assistance washing their baby, the 4moms Infant Tub is a solid investment.