Bath time has always been a favourite play time in our house, and I’m not convinced that it plays part in the ‘bed time routine’ as it seems to be massively invigorating if anything! We also have more bath toys in the bath than toiletries, and we’ve recently added to them with the Natural Rubber Bath Toys from Hevea.

The Pond is a set consisting of a duck, fish and frog, and they’ve been great fun at bath time as we’ve talked about the animals they represent, had great fun splashing as the frog leaps and made bizarre noises that I’m sure the critters themselves would be proud of.

I was initially unconvinced that these would go down well. They have only natural rubber colouring, don’t squeak ad don’t spray water. I just didn’t see them being much entertainment. My two year old saw it differently though. In fact for the first week of having them in the bath, none of the other toys even got a look in.

Personally, I love that they are PVC and phthalate free, and have no nasties leaching into the water and it’s fine if they go in her mouth.

They’re made from sustainable rubber trees and produced in Spain,  and they won’t be in landfill decades after we’re gone – in fact as a natural product they probably won’t outlive us.

As a mum, I love that they have no hole in the bottom, so they don’t suck up water, meaning if they’re left unplayed with for a few weeks, I’m not going to find gross green water in them.

The packaging is recyclable, and can even be used to make cut outs, so there’s another activity in the box itself.

I’m really pleased with the Hevea Natural Rubber Bath Toys. They have a nice smell, are natural, good for the environment, and have no negatives for my child.

We were given the Waterslide Playset as a gift because my daughter loves bath time and has a bath full of toys, but nothing with slides and gadgets, so we were thrilled to receive it. The person who bought it had clearly not read any of the reviews on it, and I’m afraid I’m in full agreement with the reviewers – it’s the worst toy we’ve ever had.

On paper is sounds great: “Watch the bath time friends whizz down the slide and make a splash in the tub. Pour water in the wheel and watch it spin. It comes with suction cups that attach firmly to the bath.”

What I can say for it is that it looks like it’s going to be fun, and that the suction cups do attach firmly to the bath.

Unfortunately that’s about it.  The whole thing comes apart really easily, but isn’t as easy to put back together.

Every time one of the ‘bath time friends’ comes through the flap at the bottom, it falls off, needing to be reattached. (Can you say annoying??) And that’s if the friends get that far. There’s little to no whizzing as they  pretty much get stuck all the way down.  It’s clearly a design flaw as the most important part of the toy is the fact that the ‘friends’ slide down it.

The waterwheel works well, and if you pour water into it, it tips out and the water runs down the slide, but that’s not enough to make the hippos on tubes slide down.

Overall, this is a very disappointing bath toy and I wouldn’t bother with it at all. If it worked it would still be pricy for what it is (at £14) but without working it’s an absolute waste and definitely not the quality you expect from ELC.

I don’t really ‘get’ this, if I’m honest. It’s a bath time teddy bear. Which is great for the kids, but I’m worried about the stuffing going all rotten. It hasn’t but the concept perplexes me.

Never the less, the Winnie the Pooh Splash Mates, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet set has proven to be a great bath time companion. This particular set seems to be quite hard to find at the moment, but none the less, it features Winnie the Pooh wearing a red lifejacket,  and Piglet all decked out for a swim in his life raft.

Winnie the Pooh is made out of some sort of quick drying, water safe material – a little bit like an umbrella in texture – and without ripping him open to check, I think he’s stuffed with Styrofoam or something similar. Although he lives in the bath, he’s seemed to handle being wet most days like a trooper.

The real talking point for this set, for me, is Piglet and his raft. The raft is a sprinkler – you scoop water in and it comes out the bottom like an upturned watering can with a sprinkler nozzle. That’s fine, but what’s super, duper, ultra – cool is that despite the holes in the bottom it actually floats. Its survives bubbles and waves and knocks and floats, and I was seriously impressed with not having to fish it and Piglet – who, by the way, is a squirting toy himself – out of the bottom of the bath every five minutes.

It’s bath time fun, and it’s different and unusual, I guess, and my toddler enjoys her bath time Pooh bear. (This is also available, and more commonly found it seems, as a Tigger and Roo combo, or a Darby and Buster combo.)