Considering how to keep your baby safe in the kitchen is an important issue when you are thinking about having a baby. Kitchens, by their very nature, can create hazards for babies and young children – and some of them are hazards that can have serious consequences.

It can be tricky for parents, as their babies grow up, to be able to both protect their babies, but also teach them about risks as they get older and expose them to the realities of kitchen life. Both are important, and as a parent, you should be teaching your children from as young as possible about how ovens are hot, how to cut with a sharp knife, or not to drink substances that they don’t know what they are, for example, to keep your baby safe.

Kitchens can present risks for babies of all ages, especially when they are mobile but unable to understand what the hazards are. In this blog, we are going to cover childproofing and babyproofing ideas, as well as give you some baby safety ideas to help your little one be safe in the kitchen.

Keep Your Baby Safe According to Age

Making sure that you have put in measures to keep your baby safe in the kitchen is essential both for baby protection, but also for your own peace of mind. The baby safety measures that you use will depend on factors such as your baby’s ability to understand the kitchen risks, age, mobility, and the set-up of your kitchen. No kitchen will ever be 100% baby safe, but it is good to be able to mitigate as many baby hazards as possible.

When your baby begins to crawl and pull themselves up, you should be thinking about what you need to do to keep your baby safe in the kitchen. This would start by ensuring that hot or dangerous items aren’t in your baby’s reach. As they grow, they will be able to reach higher, be stronger, more inquisitive, and want to get involved. This is perhaps the right time to start teaching your child about baby hazards while keeping baby protection at the front of your mind.

Storage of Hazardous Items

One of the most important ways that you can keep your baby safe in the kitchen is to make sure that you store baby hazards away from little fingers. This might mean babyproofing your kitchen by storing certain items high up, at the back of shelves, or in cupboards with a magnetic safety lock or adjustable safety straps such as those we have here at babyproofme, keeping your baby safe.

Some of the items that you should store out of their reach to keep your baby safe include glass and ceramics, knives, heavy items such as pans, and hot items such as boiling pots or kettles. Making sure that your kitchen is childproof is essential, especially when your baby is very young and has no concept of what is a baby hazard and what is not.

Another important baby safety idea for babyproofing is to ensure that any hazardous substances such as bleach or other cleaning products are stored out of your baby’s reach. It is also safest not to keep them in food or drink containers, so your child does not get confused as they get older.

Babyproofing Your Kitchen to Keep Your Baby Safe

When it comes to childproofing your kitchen, ensuring that anything harmful is out of the way of small children is essential, whether it is the place that you put baby hazardous objects or substances, or putting them into cupboards that are fitted with babyproofing products such as safety straps or magnetic locks.

You could also consider, to keep your baby safe, creating a cupboard that is full of baby safe kitchen items for them to play with. You could include a plastic mixing bowl, plastic cups, and a wooden spoon, for example. Choose a cupboard that is away from hot ovens and let them explore the cupboard (and distract them from the hazardous items).

If you are concerned about corners on cupboards or tables, one way to keep your baby safe is through the use of corner protectors – protecting your baby from sharp corners.

Keep Your Baby Safe While Cooking

One of the biggest issues in the kitchen for baby safety is to ensure that they are safe while you are cooking. Keeping your baby safe when you are also concentrating on cooking is difficult but can also present some of the biggest risks to baby safety in the kitchen.

Some baby safety ideas for while you are cooking include:

1. Keep your baby safe by ensuring that knives are always kept at the back of the preparation area when you are not using them.
2. Keep your baby safe by teaching your baby as early as possible about hobs and ovens being hot and not touching them.
3. Keep your baby safe by keeping glasses, ceramics, pans, and plates out of reach.
4. Keep your baby safe by avoiding using placemats or tablecloths as these can easily be tugged and hot food or drink spilled.
5. Keep your baby safe by cooking on the back rings of the hob if possible.
6. Keep your baby safe by turning pan handles inwards, and not letting them hang over the edge where they can be easily reached.
7. Keep your baby safe by turning off hobs and ovens as soon as you have finished using them.
8. Keep your baby safe by making sure that you are aware of where your baby is when you are carrying hot food or drinks so that you don’t trip over them to keep your baby safe as well as yourself!
9. Keep your baby safe by ensuring that you have adequate fire safety equipment such as a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher.

Kitchen Appliances and How to Keep Your Baby Safe

When it comes to baby safety, kitchen appliances such as kettles and coffee machines can be huge potential hazards. These are a risk to baby safety because they not only often heat food, but they also use electricity and often have power cables.

For keeping your baby safe in the kitchen, several baby safety ideas, include:

1. Improve baby safety by turning appliances and ovens off at the plug.
2. Improve baby safety by using appliance safety catches on appliance doors such as the microwave.
3. Improve baby safety by keeping appliances turned off when not being used.
4. Improve baby safety by choosing cordless appliances if possible.
5. Improve baby safety by ensuring that appliance power cords are tucked out of reach.
6. Improve baby safety by getting gas knob covers.
7. Improve baby safety by buying appliances that don’t heat up on the outside when used.
8. Improve baby safety by unplugging appliances when not in use and consider protecting little fingers with electrical outlet plugs.

Other Baby Safety Ideas

There are many ways that you should be childproofing your kitchen and making it baby safe. In addition to the baby safety ideas that have been discussed above, there are many others – with perhaps the most important one being about guiding them so that they are aware of hazards.

Some other childproofing and baby safety tips include:

1. Make your baby safer by not carrying drinks or hot food over the top of them, or while you are carrying them.
2. Make your baby safer by reducing the chance of them climbing when you don’t want them to by removing chairs or steps.
3. Make your baby safer by using highchair harnesses to prevent them from falling out.
4. Make your baby safer by ensuring that you clear up anything that is broken straight away.
5. Make your baby safer by ensuring that they wear shoes or slippers, especially after glass or ceramics have been broken.
6. Make your baby safer by removing choking hazards if they drop on the floor, such as grapes or olives.
7. Make your baby safer by keeping plastic bags and boxes with sharp edges such as aluminum foil well stashed.
8. Make your baby safe by getting a trash can that is difficult to open.
9. Make your baby safer by educating them about risks in the kitchen.

Ensuring baby safety in the kitchen is an important aspect of being a responsible parent. To be able to keep your baby safe, you must be constantly on the lookout for potential risks, but there are some baby safety ideas that you can already have in place. Alongside looking out for your baby safety, you must also look to teach your child about safety in the kitchen so that it can look after itself now and in the future.