Things to Teach Children about Kitchen Safety

1. One great starter way for children to help in the kitchen is helping with the dishes.  This could be loading and unloading the dishwasher, or even washing or drying dishes.  (Young children may really enjoy the “water play” aspect of that.)

You’ll need to help children to learn to do these safely, taking special care to work on appropriate water temperature.  It will also be important to teach your child what you want them to do about sharp utensils.  (In our house, they can help with dishes, but when they first started helping, they weren’t allowed to wash or put away things like knives.)

2. Never walk away from items that you are cooking on the stove top.  Items can easily burn, boil over, or even cause a fire.  (Angie’s Note: This is my top item because I have two pans of water on to boil while I’m writing this.  Tsk, tsk.)

3. Don’t leave cooking utensils in a pan or pot while you’re cooking.  If they’re plastic, they may melt.  If they’re metal, they will become way too hot.

4. Even after you are done using a burner on the stove top, it can stay hot for quite some time.  Don’t touch a burner if you aren’t sure about its temperature.

(Another Angie’s Note: Dinner is now done and I’m back from cooking.  However, I used three of my four stove top burners, and when I was using the last of them, I set my finger down on one that I had just finished using.  Why do ouchie things on your hand always seem to have to happen to your knuckles?)

5. Avoid rushing around while you’re cooking or baking.  It always seems to be those times when kitchen accidents happen.  (Yes, as a matter of fact, I was rushing around when I just burnt my finger.)

6. Be sure to show your child where you keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen.  (Hang on — if you say, “Um…I don’t have one.”  Then for the sake of your family’s safety, go get a small fire extinguisher for your kitchen.)

7. Close cabinet and pantry doors after you are done using them.  Nothing is worse than hitting your head on a cabinet.  Ouch!

8. Always use a hot pad or oven mitt to remove items from the oven.  For young children, this should be a Mom or Dad job.  (Make sure they understand this and don’t try to do some baking while you’re not around.)

9. Speaking of the oven, teach them to make a habit of opening the oven door to make sure it’s empty before preheating it.  This is especially important with younger children in the house who have figured out how to open the oven.  (One plastic army man melted in the oven is one too many.)

10.  This is not one to teach them (per se), but for your child’s kitchen safety, if they are small, provide them with a non-slip stool or even a special stand, like Kitchen Helper.  They will be safer if they are at an appropriate level for helping in the kitchen.