Danger – toddler cooking

Hmm, well not the actual toddler cooking, but the toddler’s ‘food’.

We have an Aga.  It’s great, not only for food but also for drying clothes, warming yourself etc.  There’s no way N would be able to open the doors as they’re quite heavy.

But as well as an Aga, we also have an electric oven.  An electric oven where the door is very easy to open.  And where N likes to put his food….plastic fruit and veg or his mixed baking comprising Playfoam.

What gets me is that he has nursery where he can play to his hearts content with the kitchen equipment, and at home he’s got a little microwave oven he uses to ‘cook’ items.  I’ve told him many a time that he must not touch the oven, to watch out when it’s on, and he doesn’t go near it when he knows I’m cooking with it.

But several times I’ve seen him putting bowls of ‘food’ in there (with me following him to remove it).  Unfortunately I’ve missed it twice before pre-heating the oven.

Here’s what can happen when you have an oven that the toddler thinks is for his use.

Interesting points I found out:

• Plastic fruit is a nightmare to remove from oven shelves once cooled.  However, there’s no smell when it’s cooking.
• Playfoam stinks when it’s cooking.  And smokes lots.  After only a small time.  It is though, very easy to remove from oven shelves, and retains it’s sticky, squash attributes.  In fact, apart from the beads shrinking and therefore a combination of our eight ball pack becoming the size of one ball, it still does the job it was made for.

I now have a sign stuck on the tiles behind the oven saying ‘remember to check the oven for toys!’.  Hopefully I’ll remember in future to check before turning it on.

What have you found in your oven?