10 Ways to Protect Your Toddler While You Are Cooking

All parents know the difficulties that we have when it's time to cook dinner and your toddler is underfoot the entire time. It can be hard to get your meal completed and keep an eye on someone who is only knee high. You need to make sure that they aren't getting into things that they shouldn't and that you don't accidentally knock them down while running from fridge, to stove, to sink and back again. How can you cook and protect your toddler at the same time? If can be done and here are 10 ways to protect your toddler while you are cooking.

1)Talk to Your Toddler About the Word HOT - Toddlers need to be taught about the word HOT as soon as you can. They need to know that when something is hot we shouldn't touch it. Explain that hot things will give them "boo-boos" and that they should never touch the oven or stove top because it could be hot. You will need to be consistant in your efforts to teach your toddler about HOT and you will probably have to remind them over and over about not touching the oven when it is in use, but it will all be worth it in the end.

2)Keep Handles Turned Away - When you are cooking you should always keep the handles of the pots and pans you are using pointed away from the edge of the stove top. By turning the handles inward you will be reducing the chance that your toddler will reach up and grab a pot full of something boiling and bring it down on their heads. A pot of boiling water can cause serious burns on your toddler of they were to spill it on themselves.

3)Keep Cooking Utensils Out of Reach - Just like with the handles above, you should keep your cooking utensils out of reach. When a toddler sees something interesting they will always go right for it and that goes for the spoon that you just used to stir raw meat or the knife that you just used to cut up some raw chicken. A toddler can really injure themselves by grabbing a knife off of the countertop or become very sick from touching something that has been used on raw meats.