After infancy, I can probably count on one hand how many baths Ryan has taken in his life. I found it too hard to hold him up while leaning over the tub and clean him at the same time. He was too chubby or too weak for some normal bath seats. I thought about using a laundry basket (and still think that’s a good idea) and putting pool noodles on the edges to fashion a homemade “container” of sorts for Ryan in the bath as I do think he’d enjoy the water play and sensory experience of a bath. But we’ve taken swim lessons and done water therapy to let him play in the water.

The shower is easiest. Or it was until he hit about 25 pounds and got a little more wriggly. When we were in the process of buying Ryan’s medical stroller for school, our DME (durable medical equipment) sales rep told us about shower chairs. So we got the Rifton Wave Chair (thank goodness for Medicaid coverage) and it has been AMAZING. We strap Ryan in for safety, and can shower him without our arms tiring or worrying about him slipping out of our grip. The top part of this chair can also come off of the base to be used in the bathtub if that’s your preference.

Our Rifton Wave Shower Chair

And to make the shower even more fun, we bought this LED color-changing showerhead. It makes it very easy to shower Ryan and he loves looking at the lights. Plus, the lights tell us how hot the water is (green is warm, whereas blue is cold and red is hot) since Ryan can’t warn us if it gets too hot without our realizing.