Perhaps I shouldn't have called this feature all you really need for baby bathtime. Because the truth is you don't need anything other than somewhere clean to pop them - and the basin in your bathroom or the sink in the kitchen will do. Until they're on solids, you really don't need to use anything other than water to clean babies.

However, in the real world, we all kind of like to have a little bit more. A proper bath so you don't have to clear out the crocker first is quite nice. Again, you could use a bathtub. When my son was a couple of months old and I was visiting relatives, I just stuck a towel on the bottom of the bath, put in a little bit of water, and then supported him with one hand while I cleaned with the other.

That said, you really don't want to be doing that in the long term. It is a killer on your back. And while it was nice to have a bath with baby, it wasn't always terribly convenient to have to strip and hop in the bath myself.

So what's out there for baby bathtime? Here's the basics, and enough information to let you decide for yourself if you'll need the kit - or not.

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I suspect that I am the target market for the FlexiBath Baby Bath Tub. It came as quite a surprise to me to find that I turned germ-phobic when my son was born. And chemical-phobic. He was well over a year old before I was able to brave the local soft play centre. It seems weird to me now but then there's a lot of reactions that aren't exactly rational when you're a first time mother.

When on maternity leave I did a lot of travelling, and while I could find a travel alternative for just about everything (see the Samsonite Pop-Up Travel Cot for example), there was nothing at the time to take the place of a baby bath. Instead I travelled with a spray bottle of cleaner (natural of course) and used a towel to keep some distance between baby and the bath tub in hotels, and the bottom of the shower cubicle in the RV we rented the other side of the Atlantic!

The FlexiBath baby bath tub is foldable. So handy for small bathrooms, for throwing in the boot for a weekend at the in-laws/parents, and for taking when travelling in some situations. Although at 1.3kg it might be too heavy for air travel.

Sadly I don't have a baby to try this bath out on anymore. So I gave it to PlayPennies mum Emma to test instead.

First impressions

Emma wasn't quite sure what she was in for.  "I had imagined a plastic contraption which might possibly leak. But when I opened up the flexi-bath, it IS plastic sheets but the seams are all made of some rubber material, so there's no chance of leakage at all. I was pleasantly surprised at the excellent design that has gone into this product. It was flat-packed, and popped open when I poked at it."

According to the manufacturer's website, the FlexiBath is made from Polypropylene (PP) and Thermoplastic Elastomeric (TPE). It claims that both types of raw materials are free from PVC, phthalates, heavy metals and other harmful or hazardous materials.

The FlexiBath can be folded together and stored flat against the wall, or in a cupboard, under a bed - you get the picture. The bath tub has a non-slip surface. It comes in a wide range of colours, including transparent.

Bathtime

The specifications on the website don't really give an idea of the capacity of the bath. Just the size of the bath - 66.5cm long, 38.9cm wide and 23.8cm high.

"When we first tried out the flexi-bath at baby's bedtime", Emma explains, "I had to put about six kettles of water in it to get it to a decent level for my little one. Baby got in, splashed around a bit, and found the bath pretty comfortable, or so I assume. She's 2 months old, and she could easily stretch out to her full length in the bath."

Emptying the bath provides a slight logistical problem. "For emptying, I carried the bath over to the sink, and easily removed the stopper from the bottom, and watched all the water wash away into oblivion." she said.

Read the manual

"I decided to read the instructions after I had used the bath for the first time." Emma confessed, although she didn't really miss out on anything.

"They say all the usual things, such as don't leave your child unattended, don't heat the water in the bath itself... etc. Most are just common sense. If you don't actually possess any common sense, you'd be better off reading the instructions!"

And finally

Emma wasn't sure though when you might need the FlexiBath. Personally I agree. In a tiny bathroom in a small flat, surely the basin would do until baby was big enough to go in the bath comfortably? And in hotels, there's always the towel on the floor of the bath tub option.

Emma commented that "I was trying to think of where and when this product would be useful. My partner said it would be handy if you were going on holidays, or even just off to a hotel for the weekend. You could pop the flexi-bath in your car for whenever you need it."

But then there's people like me who are far more comfortable using the same bath that's solely for their baby's use. And if you can't be a little bit irrational when in charge of a new baby, when can you?