November 2020: Cooking Safety
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Winter holidays are quickly approaching! Many families celebrate by spending hours in the kitchen preparing meals. However, the kitchen can be a dangerous place for children, with hot ovens, boiling soups, and sharp knives. A few simple prevention tips can go a long way in keeping everyone safer in the kitchen.
Keep young children out of the kitchen if possible. Activities like puzzles, books, holiday movies, and recipe prep (that can be done outside of the kitchen) are great ways to keep the kitchen less crowded and the children busy. If your child is eager to help out in the kitchen, read over this guide from National Fire Protection Association for age-appropriate activities your child can do.
Use the back burners of your stove, turn pot handles away from the edge, and mark a 3-foot “kids-free zone” around the stove. Using the burners towards the back of the stove with the pot handles turned away from the edge can prevent young children from touching a hot surface or pulling down a hot pan. Outlining a “kids-free zone” shows children the area is off-limits.
Keep appliance cords away from counter edges and out of reach of children. To keep children from pulling appliances down on themselves, tuck away the cords of appliances like blenders, slow cookers, and food processors so that they aren’t close to the edge or dangling off the countertop.
Know how to put out kitchen fires. The winter holidays are the peak days for cooking fires. Learn more about putting out cooking fires from the National Fire Protection Association.
Archived
Toolkit Outreach Week: November 16th - 26th
We are hosting an outreach week November 16th – 26th using our updated toolkit on liquid nicotine. Each year, U.S. poison control centers receive thousands of calls about young children who have been exposed to vaping-related products. To protect children from liquid nicotine poisoning, safe handling and storage of vaping-related products in the home is critical. Our toolkit materials will be available soon, so keep an eye on your inbox for our announcement.
Take Action
Every month, we are promoting a new action that each family can take to keep their children safer. This month, we want every family to designate a 3-foot “No Kids Zone” around the stove. Keep children safer in the kitchen by marking a clear boundary around the hot surfaces and liquids on the stove and in the oven.
Follow along every month for a new action, and share with us how you're preventing child injury in your home!
2021 Toolkits Survey
Do you have a topic you would like us to create a toolkit on? Are there materials that we can create that can help you and your organization? We are planning our toolkit topics for the 2021 calendar year and would love to hear from you. Tell us your ideas and preferences here.
Coming Up
On Our Twitter Calendar
Nov. 2 - 8: Winter Safety Awareness Month
Nov. 9 - 15: Stair Safety
Nov. 16 - 22: Toolkit Outreach Week: Vaping
Nov. 23 - Nov. 29: Thanksgiving Safety
Events
To highlight the significance of injuries to children as well as the importance of injury prevention, the Injury Free Coalition for Kids™ will launch the country’s first “National Injury Prevention Day” on Wednesday, November 18. They invite your institution to join the multi-center, multi-city effort to work with your city and their landmarks in this important event. The event includes a Twitter chat that is set for 1–2PM EST on Wednesday, November 18th, using the hashtag #BeInjuryFree. Read more about how you can participate in National Injury Prevention Day here.
