When selecting a faucet for a child's bathroom, safety and function are key.

The main concern is preventing children from being scalded. Typically this happens when a child turns on the hot water faucet handle instead of the cold or turns the faucet to a high temperature.

The Solution

One way to prevent burns is to use a faucet with a device that limits the water temperature that flows through it. These "temperature limit stop" devices can be adjusted by removing the handle. A good quality faucet with this feature costs the consumer $70 or more. It only is available on faucets with single handles.

How Many Handles?

The number of handles and their style also are important considerations.

• With small children, buy a single handle faucet, as they are easier for a child to use
• Avoid faucets with knobs with several edges to grasp or handles that are difficult to turn?

A chrome faucet with a single acrylic handle is a popular item and can be found at home improvement stores and plumbing supply houses. You tilt it forward for on and off and sideways for hot and cold.

What About Design?

By selecting single instead of double handle faucets consumers will lose some design options, however. Single handle faucets aren't as aesthetically pleasing as double handled faucets. In a kid's bathroom, however, it shouldn't always matter.

Single handle faucets are made with a round handle, a "blade" handle, which looks like a rectangle with rounded edges, or a loop, which is a blade handle with a section cut out of the middle of it. The loop has more style to it -- it is like a cake knife and you put a whole in the middle of it.

The loop and blade are designed to meet requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and are, thus, easy for children to operate, he said. The round handle is more difficult for a child to use, as they must grip it and turn it before the water will flow.

The Finishing Touch

Avoid shiny finishes, such as polished brass as it will be difficult to keep clean in a child's bathroom. Other popular finishes such as brushed or satin nickel have less shine than polished surfaces and will hide dirt and fingerprints more easily. They cost more than the traditional chrome and brass finishes, however.