Making a bathroom child friendly

[minipie]

I'm planning to refurbish a bathroom which will mainly be used by small DCs (currently have one toddler and another planned). So, I'm looking for ideas to make it safe and work well for children.

So far on my list:

• lock that can be unlocked from the outside

• some LED lighting that can be left on at night (maybe even on a timer or motion sensor)

• Exofil instead of taps to avoid knocks

• non slippy flooring

• wall hung sink to allow step stool to live underneath

• lockable and/or high cupboard for bleach etc.

• hand held shower for hair washing

Any more tips to add to my list? For example are there particular types of taps that toddlers find easier (as we haven't got to that stage yet)? Any magic solution to stop the bathroom getting soaked ?

Thank you in advance.

MisForMumNotMaid - I'm curious now about your tiny bathroom but managing to fit in twin sinks. Are the sinks small too?

They're not big but not tiny either.

Most noisey fans have the motor part near the intake above the shower, you can get them where the motor is nearer the outlet and so further away. We has one installed in our en suite 3 years ago and even in there it's not much more than a hum, and in the bedroom you can't hear it at all. It's on a seperate switch so only goes on when needed. I imagine the effectiveness depends in the design for the pipe work but worth exploring.

Double end bath is a definite. You can get a tilting plug so no probs with click clack standing on it or pop up ones breaking

I like the fan on a separate switch to the light so you can have a long soak in silence. But it also means you need to manually turn it on/ off or wire it with a timer still independent of the light.

Hey thanks for all the replies!

Don't think we have space for twin sinks sadly - the room is in the attic so not much head height space. We'll build storage in under the eaves/low head height space.

Tilting plug for the bath, will have a look at those thanks.

Built in child loo seat possibly.

Sounds like a humidity controlled fan with an override switch is the way to go. I will ask about positioning the motor further away (I recall PigletJohn had some tips on another thread about putting the motor in the loft).

Bath - we can't have double ended as need to be able to shower in it so one end will have to be straight.

I'm interested in the idea of setting the bath lower so children can get in and out more easily. The bath I like (Bette Ocean) actually comes in a lower sided version. Does this sound like a good idea? Would increase splash risk, but make it easier for DC to get in.

It's good to have mirror that is nearly full length- at least low enough that dc can see themselves. This means that as they get older they can see to brush their own teeth, check if their face is washed etc. One if out bathrooms doesn't have one and it's a pain to add afterwards- drilling into tiles walls. This means we have a wonky loo seat because The dc climb up on it a lot to lean over the sink to see the mirror. Such a little thing but really annoying!

MisForMumNotMaid - thank you :) Yes, looks surprisingly doable, love all the storage underneath.

this is the sink vanity unit set £239 off ebay

They're 1.25m wide.

Check your toilet flush. There are some air pressure ones which are really hard to press (my children can't flush our downstairs loo). A lot of toilet flushes are hard for small children.

I hate cleaning round taps and the kids always knocked themselves on them so we went for a waste filler. Good to see peoples faces when they realise there are no taps

like www.victoriaplumb.com/Taps/Bath-Taps/Bath-Filler-Valve-Outlets/Bath-Filler-Waste-Overflow_912.html?mvt=1

This with a choose bath or shower switch at normal shower height keeps the kids out of trouble. You can also set the one we had so that you can't turn it over a certain temperature without pressing an extra button.

www.victoriaplumb.com/Showers/Thermostatic-Shower-Valves/Twin-Valves-with-Diverter/Matrix-Square-Twin-Valve-with-Diverter_900.html?mvt=1

PS These aren't the ones we went for (don't want to be seen recommending the above people as we didn't use them!) as I didn't want a waste that pops up when stood on. You can also get triple valve to have a separate hand held shower head as well as a fixed one.