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The Children's Institute Safety Tip of the Month
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Safety Tip of the month:
Lorelli Moser, Director of Occupation Therapy
Cooking with kids: how to stay safe in the kitchen
The kitchen can be the most dangerous room in the house, but if watched carefully, children of all ages can be safe while helping in the kitchen.
Making sure your child is doing age-appropriate tasks is the key ingredient to staying safe.
Two-Year-Olds: Children of the age of two have very short attention spans, so some appropriate kitchen task may include:
• Cleaning vegetables with brushes
• Cleaning tables
• Tearing, breaking and snapping foods
• Dipping foods into sauces and dips
Three-Year-Olds: The following activities can help the development of hand muscles:
• Wrapping food in foil
• Wrapping dough around meat or vegetable fillings
• Pressing dough into baking pans
• Pouring from small plastic pitchers – you may want to practice at the sink
• Mixing with hands or a wooden spoon – be sure to use a container that is twice the size of the amount of the mixture
• Shaking small jars of food
• Spreading foods using dull table knives or small spatulas
Four-Year-Olds: The following activities can help the development of fine motor coordination:
• Using fingers to peel eggs, oranges, corn, etc.
• Rolling and flattening food
• Mashing foods
Five-Year-Olds: These activities also can help the development of fine motor coordination:
• Measuring ingredients
• Cutting soft foods.
• Teaching knife safety – be sure to always supervise this activity
- You can use a cutting board, a knife that fits your child’s hands and a plastic serrated knife to cut soft foods.
- Show your child how to hold a knife and cut safely, keeping fingers away from the blade and cutting away from the body.
• Turning a grinder
• Grating food
• Beating with an egg beater
And even when your amazing kid isn’t helping with dinner or working in the kitchen with you, there are other safety precautions you should take.
1. Properly install a fire extinguisher and fire alarms. Have a fire exit plan discussed with your family incase a fire occurs.
2. Teach your child the different dangers of the kitchen early on – explain what is sharp, hot, etc. and let them know that the kitchen is no place for horseplay.
3. At the appropriate age, demonstrate how each piece of equipment and appliance works and the different safety measures that should be applied with each.
4. Have children learn first on non-electrical equipment, like a hand beater, before they move on to electrical equipment.
5. Have children use metal or plastic utensils, measuring cups and bowls that will not break if they are dropped.
You can learn move about keeping kids safe in the kitchen by visiting
http://wellnessways.aces.illinois.edu/pdf/Feeding%20Young%20Children/Kitchen%20Safety%20for%20Kids-Teacher's%20Guide.pdf
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Lorelli Moser
Director of Occupation Therapy
at The Children’s Institute
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