MSNBC:
[Janis] McKellar – who was joined in Studio 1A by her husband, Brent – was expecting her fourth child in November 2007 when she first set about finding a better way to bathe a baby than the standard tubs she had been using. What she discovered not only filled her requirements – it filled up her basement, too
She found the Tummy Tub, an infant’s bath that looks like a see-through cross between a bucket and a flowerpot. Invented in the Netherlands, it holds an infant in the fetal position, just like in mommy’s tummy.
Strangely enough, she found that this trendy infant-care product was not sold in the United States.
“They’ve been used in Europe since 1996,” McKellar told TODAY. “They’re used in most countries around the world. The United States is one of the last countries to hear about the Tummy Tub.”
McKellar found the product by doing an online search for baby bathtubs. She bought hers from a dealer in Canada. She liked it so much, she decided to get more to give to friends with infants and as gifts at baby showers. But the Canadian source went out of business and she found herself forced to buy 20 at a time from the manufacturer in Germany.
If she was going to have to buy that many, she decided, she’d buy a lot and become the sole distributor in the United States. That’s how her basement came to be filled with Tummy Tubs and other infant-care products.
Photo from Bathed With Love