Make Cooking a Safe Family Experience Leigh

Many parents know that cooking with your children is a wonderful and cheap bonding experience, but it's important to remember that many household accidents occur in the kitchen.

The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) has joined forces with Fay Ripley to encourage more parents to start cooking with their children - with the emphasis on safety.

“It’s brilliant to involve children in cooking," says Fay. "It’s great fun and you can teach them all about food nutrition and safety. The key thing is to do it when you have enough time. When you’ve got a spare half an hour, that is the time to get cooking, all put on aprons and make it an event.

“Learning to follow recipes, preparing food and baking dishes helps children to develop skills for the future as well as being a great activity for spending family time together.  It’s also a great way to teach children about safety in the kitchen, while they’re having fun.”

Recent hospital data shows that one in ten children’s accidents happen in the kitchen and nearly 800 children under 12 were admitted to hospital last year with burns or scalds from hot drinks, food, fats and cooking oils. So, following the release of Fay’s Family Food , the mum of two is helping the accident prevention charity to support parents to use their time in the kitchen with their children to teach important safety lessons and keep little chefs safe from harm.

Katrina Phillips, Chief Executive of CAPT said, “From around the age of five there are tasks children can start learning to do under supervision in the kitchen. And as children grow and develop life skills, they can get more involved in everyday kitchen tasks.  This helps them build confidence and skills whilst learning about the dangers too.”

Baking together tips from CAPT

• If using any hot appliances, such as a kettle or oven, make sure children understand how this can be dangerous and keep young children at a distance
• Show older children how to use an oven glove when taking anything out of the oven and how to put it down safely on a heatproof surface
• Pick a recipe that is easy to follow and doesn’t have too many ingredients so that you can focus on supervising your child and not reading through the recipe – this also helps to keep it fun
• Before you get started, allocate tasks to children which are right for their age and ability, for example buttering a cake tin, sifting flour or cracking eggs
• Supervise and show children how to use kitchen equipment safely, i.e. when grating vegetables or whisking eggs
• Always supervise children when they are using knives or other potentially hazardous utensils  

• 50g butter or margarine
• 100g plain flour
• 50g oats
• 25g sugar
• 2 eating apples
• 50g sultanas

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