The kitchen is where the action is. It's also where roughly 67% of home burns involving children happen. When your baby starts crawling, this room goes from "the place you make dinner" to "a minefield of hot surfaces, sharp objects, and toxic chemicals."
Dramatic? Maybe. Accurate? Absolutely.
Floor Level First
Before you worry about the stove, start at the floor. That's where your baby lives right now. Dropped food, pet bowls, crumbs, small magnets that fell off the fridge — all of these are choking hazards at crawler height.
Get a small trash can with a locking lid or move it behind a latched cabinet door. Babies are weirdly attracted to garbage. Don't ask me why. It's a universal truth of parenting.
The Stove and Oven
This is the big one. Stove knob covers are non-negotiable if you have front-mounted controls. A toddler can turn on a gas burner in about two seconds. They think it's a toy.
Use back burners whenever you can, and turn pot handles inward so they don't stick out over the edge. An oven lock is worth the $15 investment. The oven door gets hot enough to cause contact burns even when you're just preheating.
Some parents install a stove guard — a clear shield that blocks access to the burner area from the front. They work well, though they can be annoying when you're cooking.
Cabinets and Drawers
Every low cabinet needs a lock. Every one. Not just the one with cleaning supplies under the sink (though that's priority number one). Babies pull out heavy pots, stack them up, knock them over. They find the cheese grater. They discover what happens when you pull every piece of Tupperware onto the floor at 6 AM.
Magnetic locks are our favorite. They're invisible from the outside, and you open them with a magnetic key you keep on top of the fridge. Spring-loaded latches work too but they're more visible and some persistent toddlers figure them out.
Appliances
Unplug countertop appliances when they're not in use. A dangling toaster cord is basically a handle for a baby to yank. Same goes for the coffee maker, blender, and electric kettle.
If your dishwasher doesn't have a child lock, get a strap lock for it. Open dishwashers have exposed knives pointing upward, hot steam, and detergent residue. It's honestly one of the most overlooked kitchen hazards.
The Fridge
Fridge locks exist and they're worth considering once your kid can stand. Water dispensers are another concern — some kids figure out how to activate them and flood the kitchen. Or worse, get the hot water dispenser on models that have one.
Cleaning Supplies
Move them up high or lock them down. "Under the sink" is the first place every baby explores. Switch to child-resistant caps if you haven't already, and consider swapping to non-toxic cleaners where you can. We're not saying vinegar cleans as well as bleach — it doesn't. But for daily countertop wiping, safer alternatives exist.
The kitchen doesn't need to be off-limits. It just needs to be prepared. Most of these fixes take an afternoon, and your baby can safely explore the room you spend half your life in.