Angelcare Bath Support vs Summer Infant My Bath Seat (2026): Which One Does Your Baby Need?

Two bath-aisle staples that get cross-shopped constantly, bought for the same reason — you cannot wash a baby who cannot hold themselves up while also holding them up — and they are not actually alternatives. One is a reclining mesh support for a baby who cannot sit at all; the other is an upright seat with suction cups for a baby who has just learned to. We read 42,669 verified parent reviews across the Angelcare Baby Bath Support and the Summer Infant My Bath Seat to work out which one your baby needs right now, and where each one runs out of road.

Quick verdict at a glance

Who each one is actually for

🚰 Angelcare Bath Support — the newborn one

This is the higher-rated of the two and the highest-rated product in our whole Baby Bath category — 4.7★ across 25,957 reviews, with 82% of buyers leaving five stars and the one- and two-star bands at 2% and 1%. It is a soft-touch mesh cradle that sits directly in your empty adult tub and holds a newborn at a slight recline, so their head and shoulders stay clear of the water without you having to hold them there. The mesh drains rather than holds water, it weighs 454 g, and there is a loop at the top so it hangs to dry instead of sitting in a puddle. It is also, unusually for this aisle, made in Canada.

The line that comes up again and again in its reviews is from first-time parents who were frightened of the first few baths: it turns a two-person job into a one-person job. Several describe using it well past the newborn stage simply because their baby was happy lying in it and splashing. Pick this if: your baby cannot sit up unaided yet. That is the whole test.

🧸 Summer Infant My Bath Seat — the sit-up one

A rigid upright seat with a high backrest and three suction arms that lock it to the floor and wall of a standard rectangular tub. At 4.4★ across 16,712 reviews, the praise is overwhelmingly about stability: reviewers describe tugging hard on it to test it and finding it does not budge, which is what lets them wash a wriggling six-month-old with both hands. It is JPMA certified to ASTM F1967, the consumer safety standard for infant bath seats, and the manufacturer puts its window at five to ten months.

Its most enthusiastic reviewers are parents of babies who had outgrown lying down but could not yet be trusted upright in a slippery tub — and, in one recurring case, parents of twins, who report fitting two seats in one tub and finally bathing both babies at once. Pick this if: your baby sits unaided and your tub is a standard rectangle. Both halves of that sentence matter, and the second one is where the disappointed reviews come from.

The decision is your baby’s stage, not the product

Almost every unhappy review of either product is really a stage mismatch. Buy the Angelcare for a baby who has started sitting up and they will fight it, because it wants them lying back. Buy the Summer Infant seat for a baby who cannot yet sit and it does not work at all — it is a chair, and it needs an occupant who can hold a torso upright.

The two windows meet at roughly the point your baby sits unaided, which is why a lot of parents in these reviews own both across the first year and hand the first one on. Worth knowing before you spend on either: both are capped at 20 lb, and the Angelcare’s own safety warning says to stop the moment your baby starts trying to sit up. These are stage products, not year-one products, and the pricing should be read that way — roughly $95 covers birth to about ten months if you buy both.

Verdict by use case

You have a newborn

Angelcare Bath Support. $34.97 CAD, and the only one of the two that works at all before your baby can sit. It is also the cheaper of the two, which is a rare case of the right answer being the affordable one.

Your baby has just started sitting up

Summer Infant My Bath Seat. This is precisely its window, and the stability its reviewers describe is what makes the sit-up stage manageable rather than nerve-wracking. Check your tub is a standard rectangle 21–24 inches wide first.

You have a claw-foot, curved or sloped tub

Angelcare, and it is not close. Owners of angled and claw-foot tubs report the Summer Infant’s rear suction arm will not grip — it still holds on the two side arms, but you are giving up the feature you paid for. The Angelcare only asks for a flat floor.

You are bathing twins

Two Summer Infant seats, once both babies can sit. This is a specific and repeated point in its reviews: two fit in one standard tub, which ends the routine of bathing one baby while the other cries.

You are short on storage, or you travel

Angelcare. At 454 g with a hanging loop it goes on a hook or in a bag; reviewers mention taking it to grandparents’ houses and on road trips. The Summer Infant seat is 1.58 kg of rigid plastic with arms sticking out and is awkward to store.

You want one purchase to cover the whole first year

Neither, honestly. Both cap at 20 lb and each covers roughly half of the first ten months. If a single long-lived purchase is the priority, a full baby bathtub that converts between reclining and sitting positions is a better shape of product than either of these — see our bath roundup below.

The honest weaknesses we won’t hide

We have an aggregation rule: if a complaint shows up in helpful-vote-weighted critical reviews, it goes in our writeup. Buyers trust sites that show the downsides.

Read the full reviews

• Full Angelcare Baby Bath Support review — 25,957 parents, 4.7★, and what the floating complaint actually means
• Full Summer Infant My Bath Seat review — 16,712 parents, and the tub-fit and leg-hole issues in depth

Buy on Amazon Canada

Still working out what the tub actually needs? See our best baby bath essentials roundup and our best baby bath tubs, seats and towels roundup.

FAQ

Should I buy the Angelcare Bath Support or the Summer Infant My Bath Seat?

Whichever matches your baby’s stage — they are not really competitors. If your baby cannot sit up unaided, the Angelcare Bath Support is the only one of the two that works: it holds a newborn at a recline from birth to around six months, and it costs $34.97 CAD. Once your baby sits unaided, at roughly five to ten months, the Summer Infant My Bath Seat takes over with an upright seat and suction cups, at $59.79 CAD. Both stop at 20 lb. Plenty of parents in these reviews buy the first, then the second.

When can your baby move from a bath support to a sit-up bath seat?

The trigger is sitting unaided, not a birthday. Summer Infant puts its seat’s window at five to ten months, and Angelcare’s safety warning says to stop using the bath support as soon as your baby starts trying to sit up or reaches 20 lb — so in practice the same milestone ends one and begins the other. Babies reach it at different times, and reviewers of both products describe the handover happening anywhere from about five to about eight months.

Does the Summer Infant My Bath Seat fit every bathtub?

No, and this is the most common cause of its one-star reviews. The listing specifies standard rectangular tubs 21 to 24 inches wide. Buyers with claw-foot or sloped-wall tubs report the rear suction arm cannot grip, though most say the seat still feels secure on the two side arms alone. Buyers trying to use it inside a moulded or folding baby tub report it does not fit at all. Measure before you order. The Angelcare Bath Support has no such constraint — it only needs a flat tub floor to sit level on.

Is it safe to leave your baby in a bath seat or bath support?

No. Neither of these is a safety device that lets you step away, and the Angelcare listing carries an explicit drowning and fall warning to that effect: stay within arm’s reach, use it only in an empty adult tub or sink, keep the drain open, and never lift or carry your baby while they are in it. What these products actually do is free up your hands while you are still right there — which is what their reviewers consistently describe valuing. Babies have drowned in infant bathers, and the warning exists because of it.

Why do some babies float in the Angelcare Bath Support?

Because a very light newborn does not weigh enough to settle into the mesh, so they lift slightly with the water instead of resting in the contour. It is the most common four-star note on the listing, and reviewers who raise it almost always add that it resolved on its own as their baby put on weight. The practical answer from those reviews is to run less water in the early weeks, which also matches the manufacturer’s instruction to keep the water shallow. It is not a defect in the support so much as a mismatch between a very small baby and a product sized for the first six months.