bath seat It can seem like a great solution to a common problem: A bath seat, something to hold your baby up while you splash his slippery body in an attempt to get the pureed peas out of the deep crevice that is his neck. But according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, there are standards these seats must adhere to in order to be safe – and of the bath seats on the market, none live up to these standards.

I’m going to repeat that: There are no safe bath seats. Here’s why.

In-home drownings are a major cause of infant deaths, and while safety products like bath seats might seem, at first glance, to be something that would prevent this kind of thing, the sad reality is that for many parents, the seats create a false sense of security. Even if your kid seems secure in his bath seat, he can never be left alone in one.

Even if you’re there, a review of the bath seats on the market found that they weren’t safe enough from tipping over, the leg openings were too wide to prevent babies from slipping through, and the warnings on these seats weren't large enough. There were 174 reported in-home drownings that had to do with bath seats, and another 300 were near-misses.

The industry was alerted in 2010 about the latest requirements for safety, but I’m just going to say it again: None of the bath seats on the market live up to the current safety standards.

Of course, I know we all use shortcuts when we can. And I know we’re all as careful as can be when bathing our little dolphins. But it can’t hurt to remind you, again and again, to keep your hand on bathing babies, and not to trust a safety device on its own – especially one that hasn’t been approved to do the job.

Do you use a bath seat? Do you think it makes things safer, or just easier? 


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