Kitchen safety

Kitchensafety
Quiz for parents and carers
Kitchens are at the heart of most family homes.
But they can be dangerous places for young
children – who may be burnt, poisoned or
suffer nasty falls.
Make your kitchen a family-friendly place by
taking time to spot the dangers. If you can, get
down on your hands and knees to look at the
world through a young child’s eyes – and see
what might harm crawling babies, curious
toddlers or growing bundles of energy.
Take a look at our safety tips. Then test your
knowledge in our quiz.
www.istockphoto.com/Petro Feketa
credit

Kitchen safety
Quiz for parents and carers
Safety tips
Young children are hugely curious – and
one of the ways they learn is by putting
things in their mouths. While childresistant
caps are helpful as they slow
young children down, they are not
completely child-proof. Some three and
four-year-olds can open them in
seconds. So keep all cleaning products
on a high shelf or in a cupboard with
child-resistant locks.
Young children can mistake tablets for
sweets, so take care not to leave them
out on work surfaces or in unlocked
kitchen drawers. And try to avoid taking
them when young children are watching
– as they may want to copy you.
Most medicines that need to be stored in
a cool place don’t need to be kept in the
fridge. Check the label. If it does need to
be stored in the fridge, keep it as high up
and hidden as possible.
A young child’s skin is much thinner
than an adult’s, so they burn much
more easily. Little hands can grab at
hanging leads, so use a kettle with a
short or curly flex. And keep it pushed
to the back of your work surface.
A mug of tea or coffee can still scald a
young child 15 minutes after it’s been
made. So keep hot drinks well out of
young children’s reach. And don’t hold a
baby on your lap when you’ve a hot
drink in your hand – in case they grab at
the mug, and end up badly scalded.
Pan handles can look intriguing from a
toddler’s point of view. So use the rings
at the back of the cooker, with the
handles turned towards the back, so
little fingers can’t grab them. And keep
children away from the oven door to
prevent nasty burns.
If chip pans catch fire, they can cause
horrific injuries and even start house
fires. It’s safer to replace your chip pan
with an electric deep-fat fryer. Oven
chips are also a safer alternative. If you
can’t do this, don’t fill your chip pan
more than one-third full with oil.
If you have young children around, it
may be safer to keep them out of the
kitchen until you have finished
preparing the meal. You can use a
safety gate across the kitchen door to
keep small children out of harm’s way.
If you have room, a playpen in the
corner of the kitchen can also provide a
safe haven.
Small children's throats are much
narrower than adults, so they choke
much more easily. Cut food into small
pieces and teach children to sit down
when they are eating. Remember that
even soft things like grapes may be too
big for a small child’s throat – so put
safety first by cutting them up.
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see next page for quiz

Kitchen safety
Quiz for parents and carers
Test your safety knowledge by walking around our imaginary
kitchen and deciding how to keep your family safe. Choose from
A, B or C below. Then check how well you did against the
answers at the next page.
1
2
3
4
The door to the cupboard under the sink is open. You can see a bottle of bleach,
with its child-resistant top fastened. Is this:
(a) dangerous, because small children can open and drink cleaning products
(b) OK because young children can’t open child-resistant tops
(c) fine because you’ll remember to move the bottle later
You decide to make a meal for your family. While you are cooking, the most
important thing is to:
(a) use every pan in the house
(b) cook as quickly as possible
(c) use the back rings on the cooker and keep pan handles turned towards the back
You want to cook some chips for the family. What’s the safest way of doing this?
(a) in a chip pan filled with hot oil
(b) in an electric deep-fat fryer or using oven chips
(c) under the grill
You go over to the fruit bowl and see a bunch of grapes.
You know that fruit is good for children so you:
(a) hand the bunch of grapes to your toddler
(b) eat the grapes yourself
(c) cut the grapes into pieces so your toddler won’t choke
5
You decide to take a break and make a mug of coffee. You put your baby in the
playpen while you drink this because:
(a) babies don’t like the smell of coffee
(b) a baby’s skin is 15 times thinner than an adult’s. They might reach for
the mug and get badly scalded
(c) you don’t want your baby to spill coffee on your crossword puzzle
So how safe would your family be in our imaginary kitchen?
See the next page for the answers.
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Kitchen safety
Quiz for parents and carers
Answers
1: a.
Child-resistant tops aren’t completely childproof.
Some young children can open them in seconds – just
at the moment your back is turned! So move cleaning
products onto a high shelf out of reach. Or put them in
a cupboard with child-resistant locks.
2: c.
It’s important to use the back rings on the cooker and
to keep pan handles turned away, so that small hands
can’t grab them.
3: b.
If you have to use a chip pan, then make sure it is only
a third full with oil. And never leave chip pans
unsupervised because they can catch fire very quickly.
4: c.
Small children choke much more easily than adults,
as their throats are much narrower. They can even
choke on soft things like grapes. So cut food up into
small pieces.
5: b.
Make sure you only relax with a hot drink when there
is no chance you might scald your baby. It’s a
surprising fact that a mug of tea or coffee can still
scald a baby 15 minutes after it’s been made because
their skin is so much thinner than an adult’s.
www.istockphoto.com/Silvia Jansen
The Scottish Government is a proud sponsor of Child Safety Week 2008.
To find out more visit www.scotland.gov.uk
For more information about keeping children safe, visit the Child Accident
Prevention Trust’s website www.capt.org.uk
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