My twin boys are bathed daily and in the past I struggled as the word bath was met with screams, cries and shouts. To encourage the boys to go in the bath Mr Lools and I found ourselves buying bath toys to make bath times more enjoyable. Like every other types of children’s toys there are a wealth of bath toys to choose from but the old faithful rubber duck toys seemed to be a popular option in most toy stores. So when browsing ELC we decided to buy the ELC bath Time Baby Ducks.
***ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks***
The ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are basically four traditional rubber duck bath toys. Included in the pack are four small rubber ducks around 8cm long and 5cm tall. Each duck is a different colour and there is a red, yellow, blue and green duck in each pack.
ELC state that the bath time rubber ducks are suitable from birth.
The ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are sold in ELC and Mothercare stores and also online from both retailers’ websites. The RRP for the Bath Time Baby Ducks is £6.00. I do think for four small rubber ducks in comparison to other similar rubber duck toys this is reasonably expensive however these ducks are often part of the regular ELC toy sales. I have purchased two sets of the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks now and have purchased for £3.00 during half-price sale events, making these priced around the same price as other rubber duck bath toys from the likes of Asda and Tesco.
***Our Experience***
The ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are very cute and attractive rubber ducks. The size of the ducks is large enough so that a child cannot choke or put the duck too far in their mouth but also small enough so little hands can hold onto the ducks even using one hand. Each of the different coloured ducks is very bright and vivid which makes the ducks stand out especially to younger babies. Especially when they were under a year old I found my boys always seemed to reach out for these ducks as opposed the slightly duller yellow rubber ducks from other brands that we have in the bath. The ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are probably very slightly more rigid than other brands of rubber ducks that also reside in our bath. The Bath Time Baby Ducks are not too hard to squeeze however and my boys have no difficulty picking up and holding onto the ducks. I think because the ducks are slightly tougher means that the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are less susceptible to teeth marks from the constant chewing that my boys like to subject our collection of rubber ducks to.
My boys were bought these ducks when they were almost a year old and immediately when they were put in the bath they loved playing with the ducks. We had owned traditional yellow ducks however as there are different coloured ducks in the set of four ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks they immediately were a novelty and my boys loved the red, blue and green additions to our collection of ducks. They liked to watch the ducks float on the water which the toys do very well but also enjoyed and took much pleasure picking up the ducks and dropping them from height so that they make a splash as they hit the surface of the water.
ELC state that the ducks are suitable from birth and I would agree with this as they are rounded with no parts that could come detached and although made from quite a hard rubber they are not heavy enough to hurt a young baby. Most importantly as babies and toddlers should be constantly supervised in the bath there are very little risks associated with the ducks. Even when my boys have thrown the ducks at each other’s faces (as siblings do!) there have been no tears because of injury. Interest wise personally I think for young babies once a child is able to sit aided in a bath seat; typically at around 6 months old the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are probably suitable. At this age the bright colours and simply holding and picking up the ducks will keep a child entertained. My boys are now 2 years old and although the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are a very basic bath toy I can see them playing with these and being interested in them for years to come as dunking them in and out of the water and watching them float seems to keep them entertained.
The ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are outlined by ELC to help develop a child’s imagination and I definitely think this is the case for older toddlers and children. My boys love to talk to the ducks and pretend that the ducks are talking to each other. I also feel developmentally for younger children there are a lot of benefits. On a basic level the ducks are a perfect shape and size for small hands to hold which should develop a young baby’s motor skills. With regard to speech and learning I like that the rubber ducks are each a different colour as when in the bath once my boys got to around 18 months old I would ask them to pick up a certain colour duck and slowly by the time they reached around 22 months old they could pick up the correct coloured duck when ask. At two years old I now ask them to name the different coloured ducks and they can clearly say the words “green” , “blue” , “red” and “yellow”. Although not the most educational of bath toys the very basic rubber ducks are fun, very versatile and have some learning benefits associated with them.
The first set of ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks that I bought for my boys lasted in total around 9 months before I replaced them (with the exact same product). The reason I decided to replace them was because inside of the ducks I could see that a black mould had grown due to water getting stuck inside the ducks that could not be entirely squeezed out. With all of our bath toys I am a little fanatical about drying the toys to ensure this does not happen however with the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks there is a very tiny hole in the base of the duck which even if you compress the ducks with force there is no way of getting every last drop of water out of the inside of the rubber duck. As a result over time mould grows. This is actually the case with other rubber ducks from other brands and I have found through personal experience that in comparison the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks last slightly longer before they need throwing out because of mould than the Asda and Tesco rubber ducks do.
The ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are very durable and survived being chewed and gnawed on (quite hard at times) by both my boys. Never noticed any teeth marks or tears in the ducks despite all of this chewing so I would say that these ducks are well made. Aside from the mould that eventually grows on the inside of the ducks I did find that after each bath time it was very easy to dry the ducks off as the duck figure has no nooks and crannies on the outside in which mould can grow.
***Overall***
As I mentioned at the start of my review rubber duck toys are sold by most toy retailers and you can pick up cheaper rubber duck toys than the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks. However I would definitely recommend these ELC products over cheaper alternatives we have been bought as presents from Asda and Tesco. Firstly what I like about the ELC Bath Time Baby Ducks are different colours whereas many other brands of rubber ducks are all yellow. I also find the rubber is slightly softer and more flexible making these ducks easier for younger children to pick up and squeeze.
At £6 the Bath Time Baby Ducks from ELC are not the cheapest rubber duck set but are often in the ELC and Mothercare sales priced at around £3 making them more competitively priced for this type of toy.
My main criticism of the Bath Time Baby Ducks is that water gets trapped inside and eventually goes black and mouldy. Despite my best efforts of keeping our collection of rubber ducks dry and squeezing the water out this has happened to all of the rubber ducks even from other brands. However the small hole on the base of the Bath Time Baby ducks from ELC is a lot smaller than on other brands of ducks which means these ducks actually last around 3-4 months longer before you need to throw them away and replace.
Bright bath times! 
