The Kitchen Can Be a Dangerous Place for Your Toddler

When you are young, you do not see any dangers in the world. Even when you are cautious, it is difficult to believe that something could harm you. Of course, you do live and learn – though it often takes a long time for safety to become a thing that you do. But, never is safety more important to a person than when they are caring for a child – especially their child. Suddenly, the world is filled with dangers, and you have to spend some time mitigating those and figuring out how to deal with certain troubling areas in your community. But, you should never feel like your home is a dangerous place for your child to be. Getting to the point where it is completely safe though does require plenty of considered effort. And, a terrific place to begin with your baby proofing plans is the kitchen.

Limiting Access to the Kitchen Although more household accidents occurring in children younger than four happen in the living room, the most serious accidents happen in the kitchen. Now, that is just statistically speaking, but, do you really want to take the chance? This is not really the time to play the odds, is it? And, children are not more likely to injure themselves in this room arbitrarily either. It happens as a result of all the tempting objects in the room that are really dangers in disguise. The best way to stop accidents from happening in this room is to keep your child out of it unless necessary. But, you also do not want to make the room too tempting by forbidding access altogether – nor do you want your child to grow up without understanding how a kitchen works. So, you will need to weigh up when it is right to invite your child in through the clever use of a safety gate. Dealing with Appliances Appliances do look like a lot of fun for your toddler. There are buttons to push and handles to pull yourself up on. There are also new smells and sounds that come with every one of them. While some appliances do have built in child safety locks (and we hope more and more will follow suit), most of them do not. And it is likely that you have at least one major appliance that does not have a built in safety lock. Fortunately, there are appliance locks available, and they truly are worth investing in, especially if you do allow your child to come into the kitchen frequently. Cupboard Doors and Drawers It goes without saying that you want to make the chemicals under the sink completely inaccessible to your children. However, most kitchens are not installed with child safety locks built into the lower cupboard doors. You are going to need to do this yourself. And, considering that they are not terribly expensive, there is no reason for you not to do it. This is important even if you are not keeping dangerous items in your under-counter cupboards. That is because behind doors are often shelves that are mighty tempting to climb. Kitchen drawers must also be secured with child safety latches. Obviously, you will want to do this for the drawers that hide away your cooking knives. But, you will want to add these latches to the rest of your drawers too.

Clear Your Counter Tops Sure, there is some stuff that you will need to keep on the tops of your counters for convenience, but you should pack away as much as you can when your toddler starts to gain more entry into the kitchen. These gadgets and cooking utensils are enticing in the eyes of your toddler, and the last thing that you want is him to climb up to see what it is. Additionally, be careful of all the cables, cords and wires that tend to hang over the edge of your counters. One good tug could send these items flying. Depending on what those cords are attached to, that could be life threatening. Always Monitor Your Child’s Activities in the Kitchen Your toddler will need to be in the kitchen with you from time to time. And, even after you have baby proofed the area, you will want to be extra cautious whenever your baby is in the kitchen with you. Often, if you are preparing food, you forget what you are doing as it is second nature to you. All it takes is a moment with your back turned for your toddler to realise you left a knife on the counter. Ideally, your little one will only join you in the kitchen when you have time to spend with him in this room. Otherwise, a playpen in the adjoining room is really a better choice for both of you. He will be able to play with his toys, and you will actually be able to spend a few moments preparing a delicious meal. Of course, you should never forget about the rest of the house. The kitchen is easily one of the most dangerous areas in your home (with the statistics to back it up), but you cannot neglect the other troubling spots in your home. That includes bathrooms, lounges and stairwells. You child is going to need to use these someday, and she will probably start trying now. For more information please see http://www.lindam.com/child-safety-news/