Bathroom safety - Child friendly bathroom designs

Ask any kid, and bathing will probably be up there on their list of most loathsome tasks. With a bit of careful planning and creativity, however, you can incorporate bathroom safety with a kid friendly design that will have the little ones lining up for their daily scrub.

According to Dianne, design consultant at Melbourne Bathroom Centre, the most important thing to remember when designing a kids' bathroom is that kids won't always be kids.

"For children, your design features should be mostly transient because they'll eventually grow up.

"This means good bathroom fittings and finishes that can be easily adapted to suit adult requirements and tastes."

Bathroom safety - Choosing the right size bath tub for child and parent alike

"With young children, Mum or Dad don't want to be breaking their backs bending over to bathe them," Dianne says. "So choose a shallow bath, but make sure it's one that will be equally comfortable for adults."

Also remember that baths are trouble spots for slips and falls so, where possible, choose one with a non-slip surface, or better still, apply a temporary non-slip sticker to the base. These are available in a wide range of colourful kiddie themes and will make bathtime fun as well as safe.

Bathroom safety - When a bath becomes a shower

There will, of course, come that dreaded day when your child graduates from the bath to the shower. Yes, there'll be tears and tantrums, but you can make the transition a lot less traumatic by installing a hand shower on an adjustable slide rail.

"Slide rails are very versatile," says Dianne. "You can take the rose off to gently rinse a child's hair, and you can adjust them to suit different heights, from the wee small folk up to the adults." 

Choosing the right kids theme for your bathroom

If you've got the cash to splash and don't mind being locked into a kid-themed colour scheme for the next 10 years, then by all means go to town on permanent finishes like hand-painted tiles and borders. But if you prefer to play it safe, then limit the kiddie stuff to accessories like towels and temporary art.

Bathroom safety - Bathroom floor tiles for the kids

When choosing floor tiles don't go for anything glossy – these surfaces are extremely slippery when wet. Instead, choose matte porcelain or natural stone finishes like marble, and go for benchtops with rounded edges to prevent nasty bumps on soft little heads!

Bathroom safety - Prevent bathroom injuries

Finally, a word on scalds. According to Kidsafe Australia, every year around 1200 kids under the age of five end up in hospital emergency departments because of scalds. In 80 per cent of cases, these scalds occur in the bathroom.

"The more serious, life-threatening burns happen in the bath or shower where full-body burns occur," says Kidsafe's Robyn Allen. "To prevent this, we suggest limiting the temperature of your hot water to 50 degrees, using either a tempering valve or thermostatically controlled hot water service."

Contact a bathroom designer in your area to find out what bathroom safety products you'll need to make it child friendly: