When cooking with your toddler, it’s important to teach knife safety. While toddler knives are considered to be safe as they are designed with toddler safety in mind, It is never too early to start teaching safety skills and can be taught in age appropriate ways.
Toddlers need to learn that knives are sharp and they can cut you.
Rules our toddler chefs follow:
- No reaching onto cutting board for food when adult is using sharp knife.
- This rule is a work in progress and our little toddlers will most likely need to be reminded of this rule over and over again, especially if they are excited about whatever it is you are cutting.
- Note: even with this rule, be extra mindful of little fingers when cutting food. Toddlers are sneaky and quick, and can get their fingers into danger zones grabbing bits of food.
- Sharp knives are only to be touched/used by an adult.
- This rule makes cooking run a lot smoother when you don’t have to worry about your toddler grabbing your sharp knife when you place it down, even just for a couple of seconds (toddlers are fast!) to grab something.
- Knives are not a toy – no playing, swinging, or touching yourself or others with blade of knife, including toddler knives.
- While there isn’t really a safety risk with toddler knives, this is a good time to start building this habit.
- Knives stay on the counter.
- This rule helps ensure knives aren’t played with.
Starting with basic knife safety rules from the beginning helps to create lasting safety habits. Building these habits now will help your toddler safely and confidently use sharp knives when they are older and ready.
Types of toddler knives:
- Chopper: designed to cut by pushing straight down. This is a great knife for our littlest of toddlers to learn the concept of cutting with a knife. We purchased a wooden one from Etsy but this is a good plastic option on Amazon.
- Plastic chopper: https://amzn.to/3Kogvpq
- Serrated knife: usually plastic. Requires sawing motion which is required for cutting a number of foods. These are the knives we use and love.
- Plastic serrated edge knives: https://amzn.to/43Ss5Rc
- Plastic chopper + serrated edge knife set: https://amzn.to/46hvRTY
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