Keep Your Little Splashers Safe (Safety 1st Bath Seat)

Member Name: xjemloux

Product:	Safety 1st Bath Seat
Date:	15/07/09 (61 review reads)
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Being on my own with twin boys it has been difficult but I have tried my best to find things which could help me with my daily routines. One thing I really needed help with was bath times, especially as my boys got older. I didn't want to keep asking for help from my mum as they are my kids and I needed to learn how to cope on my own. My safest option in the long run was to bath both my boys together, I was trying to think ahead and knew I wouldnt be able to watch one in the bath and the other rolling or crawling around the floor. I searched on the internet for my solution and came up with Safety First bath seats. I read no reviews about them and just purchased two hoping that they would be my miracle problem solvers.

You can buy these in many places I bought both of mine on Ebay to try save a bit of money as I was buying two but I have also seen them in Asda and Mothercare.

These seats come in a variety of colours mainly yellow, green and blue and are quite a sturdy plastic with 4 suckers on the bottom. You can either buy the ones which swivel which didn't appeal to me at all or the ones which just sit still - the ones which sat still like obedient seats are the ones I bought as I thought they would be safer I was using them from when my boys were quite young.

These suckers on the bottom are what keeps the seat secure in the bath for your child to sit in. Once wet slightly they you can feel the pull as they try to attach themselves to the bottom of your bath. Instead of yanking with all your might to remove the seat from the bath you have two tabs on either side of the base - when you pull these tabs the suckers loosen their grip allowing you to lift them out of the bath with ease and prevent the suckers from breaking too.

Being plastic though I did find that when wet the bottom of the seat became slippery so until my twins were sturdy enough sat up on there own without having to lean slightly on the backrest I had to lay a flannel on the bottom to prevent them from slipping and hurting themselves.

These can only really be used once your child can sit up unaided, even though the back of the seat and the front comes quite high up it is quite wide and does not give enough support to hold your child securely in one place. Usually when children first begin to sit up on their own they are a little wobbly and unstable so it is best to hold them in the seat and support their back to stop them from slipping as it could leave them in a panic and in even more of a mess.

Once my boys were able to sit up properly unaided and I knew they were confident doing so I was able to sit them both in their seats knowing they could sit without me having to help support both of them which made things a whole lot easier. The seats are wide enough to allow your child to sit comfortably but not quite wide enough to allow them to stand up and slide out so easy which I will come to shortly. There is quite a bit of leg space too but again my twins couldn't retrieve their legs from them either.

On the front bar of the seats which comes up near the waist of your child when they are a buit bigger has three turning plastic toys which are attached so you can't remove them. They don't do much except add a bit of colour and they turn, they are probably more fascinating to a younger baby being so brightly coloured and different to the colour of the seat itself. For an older baby they would be a little boring as all they do is turn around slowly.

The seats at first were secure and sturdy enough to allow me to bath my boys comfortably and with confidence knowing that they couldn't fall, slip or end up under the water which was my biggest fear. They could move their legs freely and kick and splash in the water as well as reach for bath toys around them to keep them occupied. Not once though did I leave them unoccupied. These seats were an absolute godsend for me when they could both sit up properly.

As my boys grew though they soon got bored of just sitting in one place and gradually learnt how to pull themselves up on the side of the bath. They must have had some extreme strength just for 8/9 month old babies at the time as the suckers soon lost their grip and within around 10 minutes both my boys were standing up with a plastic seat hanging off their backside grinning at me with glee! They had done it once and were not about to stop their. Once they had done it they knew they could do it and everytime they had a bath they kept pulling themselves up with the suckers losing grip and again a seat hanging off their bodies. It was a funny sight but now I had more troubles.

To be honest for the time I used them I found them to be an amazing help .. they enabled me to bath my boys the same time and even leave one in a seat sitting comfortably playing with toys while I got the other out of the bath. Unfortunately though they didn't last that long and I'm glad I bought them secondhand and not for full price - which I think is roughly £10 a seat. Even though we all know our children grow up quick sometimes we just don't realise just how time flies and once they both stood up that first time I knew my boys were getting that little bit older and that little bit more independant too. What I liked about them though is not only did they enable me to bath both my boys at the same time with ease and peace of mind they also allowed my boys to have a little independance in the bath, getting them used to being in the water without scaring them half to death and although they were just sitting there they could discover new things such as their toys, pouring water in and out of stacking cups and even the fact that they could kick their legs freely and splash as they pleased. Just sitting in these chairs I feel gained them confidence whilst being in water and now they love sitting in the baths, they don't panic when water splashes and of course with me sitting nearby keeping an eye they will play about in the bath now and enjoy every second of it. Even though they only lasted me around 2 to 3 months I can't reccomend these seats enough.

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