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My best non-slip baby-in-the-bathtub advice: Take a bath with your little one. I take a bath with my seven month old every night. It's fun, and I feel good knowing that he'll never slip, bump his head, or drown. Those crawlers and pre-crawlers really get around fast, but their coordination is still pretty sketchy.

We do bathe with her some of the time, but some night's there's just not time for that. Thanks though.

So, I can't say it's not garish, but Munchkin has a little inflatable tub shaped like a duck and my kids loved it. When they got to the sitting up stage we used the ducky tub. I would set it in the regular tub and fill it up, and the baby can sit in it and splash away. Plus the beak makes a "quack quack" that my kids were amused by. Also, it's easy to pack for travel. You can usually find it at Target, or maybe Babies R Us.

http://www.target.com/Munchkin-32201-Duck-Bathtub/dp/B002BFTO1S/sr=1-1/qid=1252693331/ref=sr_1_1/185-0055963-6564544?ie=UTF8&search-alias=tgt-index&frombrowse=0&rh=k%3Amunchkin%20duck%20tub&page=1

I totally agree with the ark traveler! that is exactly what me or my hubby did with our child until he was about 3. But to answer your question about a non-geriatric non-kidish non-slip mat. No such thing. Just try to find a plain one and then put it away after you use it so no one will be 'offended' by it.

Just putting a hand towel or bath towel in the bottom of the tub/sink provided enough traction for mine at that age.

If it's big enough, try bathing her in the kitchen sink with one of those rubbery mats in the bottom for washing fine glassware. She won't slip, and you don't have to kneel. We have one of the ducky tubs, and adorable as it is, it's so much easier to bathe my baby in the kitchen sink I keep doing it.

I really like to use a dishpan in the tub for that stage.

I had one of those simple baby bath sponges in the shape of a teddy bear. Instead of laying my son on it, he sat on it for a long time. It was the most slip resistant easy thing I could find. Hope that helps!

We love our Leachco Safer Bather. It is a large
flat sponge that an infant can lay on or a toddler can sit on.

I don't know if this is what you meant by bath chair (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MPMDJ4), but we have something like this that we found at a yard sale that our allows our daughter to sit up completely and splash in the water. She loves it. Our current place does not have a hand-held shower head, but I imagine one could be convenient to use with one of these. We just fill the tub with a bit of water and fill a small basin with clean rinse water to pour over her afterward. These chairs are also small enough to put away when not in use.
The only drawback is that her baths take more water now than when we were using the baby bathtub.

We like the Living Accents bath mat from acehardware.com. I have two to cover the whole tub. They stick on with suction cups and then you roll them up when dry. They have no PVC or phthalates (or latex) and don't smell like stinky plastic.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3181537&kw=bath mat&origkw=bath mat&searchId=43467777434

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I have lots of things to try now. Melissa

Safety 1st has a
these Pebblzones they're made to look like river rocks
Target carries some similar ones

Also, heres a whole bunch of appliques

The first link is supposed to be these Pebblz mats or if you feelin fancy real marble pebbles

sorry for my bad html.

i have a seat that suctions to the bottom of the tub that my older child loved. (my baby doesn't sit up yet, so she has yet to voice her opinion about it) i got mine from a garage sale, but found one online that is pretty similar.
https://www.chelseasroom.com/p-315-aquababy-bath-ring.aspx
i liked the seat because she was able to use it for a long time - probably from about 6 months to almost 2. when she was older, i was even able to get ready in the morning (while in the bathroom 2 feet away from her) while she splashed around in the seat.