Cookers are one of the most dangerous appliances in the house, and represent a variety of dangers in several different ways. Apart from keeping your child out of the kitchen completely, which is often simply not possible or practicable, there are several baby security products which should be used to help prevent the possibility of a dangerous accident. Today we run you through the best ways to make your kitchen baby-proof.
How do I protect my baby from the oven?
One of the first things to consider is a lock on the oven door. The oven door handle is usually an ideal height for your toddler to grab hold of, and since these open downwards it is inevitable that holding on to this will result in them opening the door downwards, and falling on to it. If the oven is on, this is of course extremely dangerous. Oven door locks are cheap and very easy to fit.
The glass front of an oven door can often get extremely hot, so you might consider applying an oven door protector, which still allows you to see through it into the oven to check on the food, but stops the oven door window from getting hot enough to be dangerous.
How do you baby proof a stove top?
Pots and pans on the hob are very dangerous, and whilst the advice is to only use the hobs at the back of the cooker, this isn’t always possible of course. If your child reaches up and grabs a handle of a pot, or even touches the pot itself, this could be very nasty, and so a hob guard is ideal.
Protect your little ones from the hob!
A hob guard is a plastic strip which sits at the front of the hob area, and basically acts as a screen, preventing children from reaching up and placing their fingers anywhere near the hobs or the pots and pans.
How do you child proof a drawer?
Also, think of child-proofing your kitchen drawers. You can do this easily with drawer locks. You can use them as well for the cupboards. This kind of locks come normally on a pack and are a very cost-efficient solution that enables to lock the drawers automatically when it is closed.
How do I keep my toddler out of my hob dials?
Finally think about the hob dials. If your child accidently turns one of these they could switch the gas on, without it being lit, representing a real danger for everyone in the home. Hob dial guards prevent accidental turning of these, keeping your child and your family completely safe. On the market there are plastic guards specific for this purpose that are installed on the dials of the hob.
We hope this kitchen childproof checklist has helped you getting ideas to make your home safer for your baby.