Tips to make your kitchen safe for kids

Spending time with your children in the kitchen can be a wonderful experience. Teaching them skills they will use for the for the rest of their life, allowing them to experiment and become interested in food and perhaps developing an interest in an area which could become a career can all take place in the kitchen. With this being said, as any parent will know, the kitchen can also be a place where accidents can have serious consequences. To any new parents who might be reading this, we decided to put together a few tips to make your kitchen safe for kids so that you don't have to worry about them getting hurt.

Carefully placed equipment

As we all know, even as adults, there is lots of cooking equipment that can cause serious harm. Knives are the most obvious and when you have young children in your kitchen, making sure knives are well out of reach and stored on high shelves where only adults can reach is a must. Other kitchen equipment which needs to be stored carefully are things like blenders. You should never leave a blender plugged in with a long cable. Not only could a child pull this off a bench, but they could then turn it on, which could cause serious harm. It is also worth remembering that when using oven burners to prioritise those at the back, or if you have to use those at the front, never to leave pan handles sticking over the edge where children could pull them down.

Locks on necessary doors

Depending on the layout of your kitchen, you may have more cupboards at ground level than fitted up on your walls. With this comes another set of challenges. Children are naturally curious, and they learn quickly by watching adults open and close cupboards what is possible and that things are kept inside. If you store cleaning products in the kitchen, these should either be moved to somewhere more secure in your home or have a childproof lock fitted to the cupboard to stop children being able to open the door and access what's inside. The same can be said for cabinets which store alcohol or anything else made of glass which could smash and cause them harm.

Softer floors

The flooring in your kitchen needs to be easy to clean to keep your children safe from bacteria and germs. With that being said, some flooring is easy to clean but very hard underfoot. Ceramic tile flooring or laminate wood, for example, can be very hard to walk on and as your children grow and start standing on their own two feet, having a floor which will cushion the occasional trip or tumble is essential. For a combination of cushioned underfoot and easy to clean and maintain, vinyl flooring is an excellent option.

Take magnets off the fridge

Putting magnets on your fridge can be a great way of adding a more personal touch to what can otherwise be a bland surface. While they can be fun, they also pose a risk to children. Fridge magnets are sometimes small enough to be swallowed by children, which is extremely dangerous. Removing this risk to children while they're young is a sensible decision and one which, as with other safety measures, you can relax once they grow up and learn about using the kitchen safely.

Overall making your kitchen a safe and enjoyable environment for kids allows them to be with you and learn about food and cooking. Even with these safety tips, and others, you still need to ensure you pay close attention to children when they're in the kitchen and particularly when they start using it.

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