Making Your Bathroom Child Friendly – Things to Remember

Making Your Bathroom Child Friendly – Things to Remember

For little kids, bathrooms can be potentially hazardous places. It is all too easy for a young child to have an accident in this room. For this reason, it is important to take a critical look at your bathroom. On a regular basis, you need to check that it is as child friendly as possible. Doing so will help you to recognise potential hazards, and do what you can to reduce the risk.

• Stop kids getting unsupervised access to the bathroom

Of course, when your children are very young you should never leave them alone in a bathroom. A baby or toddler can potentially drown in just an inch of water.

If you have toddlers, make sure that the handle to the bathroom is high enough to stop them from being able to open the door and go in when you are not around. The last thing you want is your child deciding to give dolly a bath, and hitting their head while leaning over the bath, and potentially sliding into the bath.

• Eliminate slip and trip hazards

One of the most common bathroom accidents is people slipping over and banging their head on a hard surface. Children are especially prone to doing this. It is, therefore, especially important to eliminate trip hazards from your bathroom, and install non-slip flooring.

If you have mats or rugs in your bathroom, add non-slip grips to the bottom of them. Keep a mop and bucket behind the door, so you can dry the floor before you leave the bathroom. Always using non-slip mats in the bath and shower will also help to reduce the risk of one of the kids slipping.

It is also worth installing a walk-in shower tray. The type where you have to step over the lip to get in and out are dangerous for everyone, but are especially dangerous for children.

• Remove potentially harmful products

When you have children in the house, it is best not to keep medications in the bathroom. Instead, lock them away in a medicine cabinet. Wherever you fit this cupboard make sure it is impossible for your children to climb up and get into it. You should also put locks on all of your bathroom cupboards, so your child cannot take the shampoo out and drink it.

• The right taps

Scold injuries are a big problem. Because children do not understand how dangerous hot water is, they do not see the danger in turning the tap to hot, and putting their hand under the stream. You can stop this kind of accident from happening by installing thermostatic taps. These control the flow to make sure that the water never reaches dangerous temperatures.

• Where to find out more

Above, I have highlighted the most common bathroom hazards, and given you some ideas of how to reduce those risks. If you want to find out more, you can do so on this page. It details many of the less common bathroom dangers.

This is a collaborative post.