As our kids start to move out of babyhood, I feel the need to tell someone about the best baby gear we came across while helping them survive to toddlerhood. I also have a pair of friends about to have a baby (Hi Denny, Hi Aprille!), who probably already have all their gear lined up, but you never know.

First up is the best baby bathtub ever. It has no temperature sensor, no cushy foam pad, no fold and pack features. It is just one, huge piece of molded plastic, but it is still the best baby tub. The Eurobath by Primo. We started our babies in it when they were the barest of infants, with this behemoth of a bath on the counter in our kitchen. The bath contours are molded such that infants can lay in it, safely cradled. Even our squirmiest baby did not manage to upend himself and drown, even while splashing and playing and giggling.

As the kids got older, we first moved the bath to our regular tub (mostly because of the copious splashing going on, the kitchen was getting too wet), then we turned the kids around, so instead of laying down at one end of the Eurobath, they were sitting up at the other end. A word of warning, the splashing only gets more impressive when they can sit up. When you’re done, it has a drain feature (though we just dumped the whole thing out, but it can get heavy if you fill it a lot), and you can hang it on a hook to dry out.

You won’t go wrong with this thing. Most places are selling it for about $25. BabyCenter users rate it 5/5 stars with 245 comments. Amazon users rate it 4.5/5 stars with 581 comments. BabiesRUs users rate it 5/5 stars on 116 comments.

The manufacturer says it is for birth to 2 years, but we found our boys did better in the tub proper by about a year. We finally gave ours away to friends here in Lawrence. I do wish they’d named it something else though, it feels like I’m endorsing some kind of European singing competition.