I know ya’ll have seen it all over Instagram and Pinterest: the “fruit bath” photo. Adorable babies sitting in tubs of water or their kitchen sinks, surrounded by colorful fruit. Do we love them or do we hate them? Personally, I wasn’t a fan when the trend first started infiltrating my feed.
- Wasn’t that a huge safety concern – sitting your baby in a tub of water and snapping photos without someone having a hand on them?
- Did they scrub that sink before they sat their baby in it?
- Were the babies wearing swim diapers?
- Had that fruit been cleaned?
As with most things, the trend gained speed and those fruit bath photos were EVERYWHERE. Some were citrus themed – lemons, oranges & limes – while others featured strawberries & blueberries. A good deal were also “milk bath” style – a trend which entails adding milk to the water to create a murky white bath and typically features flowers & greenery as opposed to fruit.
The more I saw these photos, the more I started to fall in love with them. After a few weeks, I was sold & decided to give it a shot. I purchased a $20 galvanized steel tub from Target and brought in the grandparents to assist. I first wiped out the tub with Clorox Free & Clear wipes and lined the bottom with 2 large bath towels. I did this for two reasons: 1) I didn’t want Ethan sitting directly on the steel & 2) I wanted to be able to create a “nest” around his bottom for extra support. We then started filling the tub with warm water, from the sink, which took FOREVER. If you were doing the photos outdoors, you could use a hose – however I’d urge you to let the water warm up before you sat your baby in it. I chose to do the photos indoors, as it was quite hot & sunny outside and I was afraid the steel would get too hot and the light would be too bright to get a good shot. Ethan was placed into a swim diaper and the fruit was washed & sliced. We also removed the seeds – to be safe. Then, it was showtime! We popped Ethan in the middle of the tub and added in the fruit around him. I decided on lemons and oranges because honestly, they’re cheap and I had most of what I needed at home already. While I took the photos, my dad was just out of frame ready to grab Ethan if he should fall over and my mom was on the other side, doing the same while also helping to keep his attention on me.
Was it the photoshoot of my dreams? Absolutely not. The tub was much too large and the fruit too sparse – so if you look closely you can see the towels underneath the water as well as Ethan’s bright blue swim diaper. It also didn’t occur to me that Ethan would equate this activity to bathtime and immediatly start splashing – soaking myself and the floor around us. Did he try to eat the fruit? Of course. That was expected and encouraged, however it probably wasn’t the brightest idea to use lemons – my poor child had quite the shock when he bit down on his first slice.
I plan to try the fruit bath photos again, but with some changes:
- Strawberries instead of lemons & oranges – and LOTS of them;
- Add a small amount of milk – just enough so the water becomes opaque; and
- Take the photos outdoors, on a slightly overcast day.
Have you tried the fruit bath or milk bath trends? I’d love to see your results and hear how your experience was! As for ours, check out a few of my favorites below:
