Female Speaker: When you think of your kitchen, what comes to mind? Probably, all the cooking, the cleaning, and the craziness, right? It also comes as no surprise that a lot of series household injuries happen right there in the kitchen. Here's Holly Resnick.
Holly Resnick: My family and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but between the stove, the hot pans, and the boiling water. It's a scary place for kids. So, I invited Burn Expert Kirsten Balding (ph) into my home to help me learn how to keep my kids safe and maybe learn how to cook a little bit. Is that too much to ask?
Kirsten Balding: Yeah. That's probably too much to ask. Kids are fast, kids are unpredictable. It's up to parents to keep our kids safe in the kitchen. So, that's our goal, is to see what we can do to prevent those injuries from occurring.
Holly Resnick: Most of us know about not letting the kids touch the top of the burner, but what else is there to look out for?
Kirsten Balding: Well, in the kitchen, for preventing burn injuries, there is hot water from a tap, microwaves, where you get superheated food, hot coffee, hot tea, hot food, those kinds of things; grease fires, for just having something on the stove top catch on fire.
Well, the first preventative measure that I'd like to show you is at the stove top. One of the very best things you can do is, remember to turn your pot handles in towards the center of the stove.
One of the other things that you can do at the stove top is actually to remember to cook on the back burners. Simple and easy! Isn't it?
Holly Resnick: Yeah.
Kirsten Balding: Another important safety tip is to check the hot water that's coming out of your taps. Set your hot water heater to a 120 degrees and also test the water. You can test it with your wrist. The skin on your wrist is about the same thickness as a child. So if it's too hot for you, it's too hot for your children.
Keep a fire extinguisher handy, small fire extinguisher to help you put out small kitchen fires.
So Holly, when you get your whole family together in the kitchen, you can see how easy it is for kids to get scalded. So, one of the best things to do is move our coffee cups and our hot food away from where kids can reach, out of this, out of the edge of the counter. You've got to supervise your kids in the kitchen. There's lots of hot food and hot coffee. Know where your kids are. For older kids, set some boundaries about what they can be doing in the kitchen.
For younger kids, we might actually create a safety zone out the entire kitchen. Keep them out of the kitchen while you're cooking. Create some hot zones or some safety zones. Make sure that the kids stay away from the stove top and the oven. Make sure you know, if the coffee pot is going that they are not near that. Toasters, microwaves, keep them away from all those places.
Holly Resnick: Mom's going to cook guys, let's get out of the hot zone! Let's get out of the hot zone! Thank you Kirsten for coming today! Everything we talked about seems really simple and effective. So, I appreciate that!
Kirsten Balding: Welcome!
Holly Resnick: Just to recap, number one, make sure your water heater is set at the right temperature. Number two, create a Hot Zone. Number three, supervise your kids in the kitchen.
So remember, fire and burn injuries in the kitchen are serious. But, you can prevent them by these simple safety rules. Make them habits every time you're in the kitchen.
Female Speaker: A special thanks to Oregon Center for Applied Science who researched, complied and created the lifesaving information that you just saw. For more information about the Oregon Center for Applied Science, you can visit their website, orcasinc.com.
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