A kitchen is a wonderful gathering place in the home. We buy white kitchen cabinets online and when the kitchen is ready, magic can happen. We all love our kitchens. One of the most valuable things parents can teach children is the basics of cooking. Cooking is a skill that a person uses for the entirety of their lives. However, in the midst of teaching your child how to cook, ensure that you establish some kitchen safety rules to minimize the chance that your child sustains an injury while in the kitchen. In this post, we take a look at five golden rules to teach children when it comes to kitchen safety.
1) Food Safety
The first rule you should teach children is food safety. This entails ensuring that their hands are clean and that they do not lick their hands while preparing food. Additionally, they should learn the importance of separating cooked foods from raw foods, as well as the importance of ensuring that raw meat is not left on the counter for extended periods of time. They should also learn the specifics of cross-contamination and the ways to avoid it. You want them to know that people can get sick if you are not careful with this. Lastly, children should be taught the reasons why it’s important to wash utensils once they have been used.
2) Fire Safety
According to the NFPA, fire departments respond yearly to approximately 170,000 home-based fires which started in the kitchen. In addition to that, an average of 550 people die per year as a result of a kitchen-related fire. Therefore, it’s very important that you include fire safety in the conversation you have with your kids in regards to kitchen safety.
Children should be taught the importance of turning off appliances when they’re not in use, the importance of keeping items away from the stove while it’s in use, and the importance of not leaving a running appliance unattended. In the eyes of a child, the flames of a fire can be extremely attractive. Therefore, this is a critical conversation that needs to be conducted.
3) Importance of Food Temperature
Children have a good idea of the importance of keeping things in the refrigerator, but they are unaware of the specifics on the temperature ranges that are acceptable for raw foods. As such, they can easily leave raw food exposed to room temperature for extended periods, falsely believing that as long as they put it back into the fridge it will be fine. Therefore, parents need to teach children that raw foods need to be stored in the fridge, between 0 °C and 5 °C so that bacteria doesn’t have a chance to grow. Children need to also understand that once raw meat becomes exposed to warmer temperatures, it operates like a magnet for bacterial growth which can lead to the manifestation of various health conditions like diarrhea, vomiting, and food poisoning.
4) Never Use the Kitchen Without Adult Supervision
Children need to be supervised while in the kitchen at all times. From sharp knives to brittle glasses and hazardous chemicals, the kitchen is one of the dangerous rooms in a house for children. Therefore, it’s beneficial for parents to let children know how important it is that they don’t attempt to do anything in the kitchen without adult supervision.
Before starting any recipe, children should get permission from an adult first. This is especially true when it comes to using things such as a knife, blender, stove, or any other kitchen appliance. While it may seem like common sense at first glance, children tend to believe that kitchen appliances are easy to operate because of the fact that they watch how adults easily use various kitchen appliances.
5) Knife Use Safety
A study which was conducted between 1990 and 2008 showed that approximately 33% of all knife injuries came from kitchen knives. Additionally, data also suggests that children are more likely to sustain knife-related injuries at home than adults. Therefore, teaching your child the specifics on knife safety is an essential kitchen rule that they need to understand. For instance, one of the things you can highlight is the fact that they need to focus while handling a knife. This is because a lack of focus can lead to injuries. Additionally, they should also be taught that they should always cut away from themselves because cutting towards themselves is a recipe for a serious knife injury.
If you take the time to teach your children, they will have the knowledge they need to stay safe. A kitchen is an amazing place for kids. When they are informed about kitchen safety, they will enjoy it even more.
