I agree for the most part.

as a mom of 4 - the youngest is now nearly 4...

I really don't like the ranges with the knobs in front. yes, they make shield guards for them, but they are a pain. and yes, I've had a toddler reach up and fiddle with it... leaving my gas range on (with no flame, but you could hear the gas)

I think you hit the nail on the head - a poorly designed kitchen is more of a threat to youngsters. My brother has a double wall oven, set rather low... at the end of a corridor kitchen... where people/kids coming in are turning a corner. More than once when he had the bottom oven open, their toddler would come toddling/running around the corner and Frank (brother) would immediately have to reach out and save the collision. (and has been burnt in the process - thankfully not the 14 mos old)... In this case, poor design. Extra low oven. right in the path of a high trafficway/blind corner.

A lot of gas ranges and cooktops come with safety knobs. Turn the knob, gas won't turn on. If you try to turn it on, it buzzes loud enough to jump you out of your chair two rooms away. I know. I have one.

Of course, I do understand why children get injured in kitchens, looking around at my neighbors with young kids. While the parents do their best to slowly and meekly explain why it might be dangerous to play with a stove, the decision is really up to the child. If they don't agree with you, sorry. You just have to keep trying to reason with them, and hope that eventually they deign to grant you the favor of leaving the flame off.

Personally, as I've said before, I love this new development in child rearing techniques because it really gives Darwin space to do his thing.

The funniest and saddest thing I've seen on this board are posts from parents who want their gas knobs welded shut but think nothing of building in a ten-foot walk to the sink to dump out boiling pasta water, put their ranges and ovens in main traffic paths, or insist that a range with 8" of landing space is "fine."

Go get 'em, Darwin. You! Outta the gene pool, now!

My new range doesn't buzz, a la Marcolo's, but it does shut off the gas flow automatically if there's no flame. Not only is is safer than any range I've previously owned from toddler hands, but also from the much more common occurrence of adults accidentally bumping the knobs on while working around the stove.

The toddler stage passes in the blink of an eye, even for a series of children. Of course, if you DO blink your eye during that time they will fall/choke/burn themselves. There were months at a time, for example, when we had to banish all kitchen and dining room chairs from the house, because unstable youngsters were able to climb them, but not safely. One does what is necessary, for the short duration of the developmental stage, and then goes back to real life afterward.

One of the stages we're in here now is that my 8-year-old is enthusiastically learning to cook. I'm thrilled that the range's knobs are within his easy reach, so he's not leaning over anything hot to use them. I'm glad the oven is low enough for him to access safely.

I just took two of my sons to a cooking class called "Kids and Fire," where, gloriously, they got to grill, broil, and even use a blowtorch on the creme brulee at the end (YES, with much supervision and hands-on help from the chef). It's better to teach respect for the dangers of the kitchen, and proper techniques when age-appropriate, than to shield kids from all exposure.

Before anyone responds with fervor about age-appropriateness and blowtorches, I have to clarify that really, no one took the situation at all lightly. No one handed such a thing to a kid and said "have at it." Adults were in charge of the flame at all times.

He who burns, learns.

I've never been concerned about my range or a low oven, because the outside of the door is never hot enough to burn, but you can feel the heat coming from it, that's enough.

I have however, on numerous occasions, sent up warning flares about ranges and ovens in traffic paths. That's just dangerous. I've told this story before, but having raised an ADHD boy to the current age of 14 has only supported my prejudice against ranges and ovens in a traffic path.

In theory he who burns, learns. Unless he's an ADHD kid. 4 separate ER/walk-in visits for bleeding head wounds because of the ping pong ball nature of the child. I can only imagine there'd have been a few burn visits if our range was in a traffic path instead of the base of a U.

Mnerg, I was going to respond with fervor about how awesome that was. I've seen National Geographic-type shows featuring 20-month-old tribal toddlers chopping food up with gigantic machetes in perfect safety, because they'd been taught well and were supervised, and I'm a big believer in showing kids how to do something safely as opposed to gradually moving all your knives, hot pans, blowtorches, etc. farther and farther up the walls in the effort to keep them out of the reach of growing children.

This is not just about kids. Burn-free design is really an aspect of universal design. Anyone--senior, busy professional rushing out the door, tipsy dinner guest--can hurt themselves in the kitchen. Most of those injuries result from a few specific things, and I think the worst case scenario is a pot full of boiling liquid or worse, oil, toppling off a stove. Yet people continue to put cooktops on TINY islands, or cook with long pan handles sticking out into the main cooking path, or telling us (can you tell this is a particular peeve of mine?) that a 7-foot walk to the sink with boiling pasta water is "fine." (Have I mentioned that one enough yet?)

Kids are fine and smarter than we give them credit for. I moved into a house with a 60" commercial range, which consisted of 6 20k btu burners, a 24" griddle, an uninsulated oven door (HOT), and a salamander at toddler finger level. At the time, my kids were 4, 2, and 6 months. I made sure they understood it was hot. I showed them the flame and let them hear the whoosh of the gas (standing pilots can make quite a show). When my littlest was learning to walk, I rarely used the salamander or the oven. I kept pots in the back burners. If I was simmering something on the stove, I pulled off the knob after I set the temperature so they didn't turn it up (once I had a dog jump on a knob and ruin a boeuf bourguignon and a Le Creuset). Mostly, I watched my children in the kitchen. Now, at 6, 8 and 10, they cook with me or for me and have no restrictions on equipment usage. Toddlerhood is so temporary. It should never dictate design, except in a preschool. Sorry--hot button topic for me. So many kids are WAY too pampered and free of responsibility these days.

How 'bout... No No No... Hot.... Owie.. HOT

Worked with my two.

That about covers it, Remodelfla. :-)

I think many children can be trained to not touch something you don't want them to touch. Starting when they're little (say around a year or so, give or take a few mos.), we teach them, "HOT, don't touch." A cup of coffee or tea can be helpful for this. Babies are naturally curious and want to see what mom or dad is drinking. We take their hand and put it to the side of the mug (when it's hot enough to be uncomfortable; not hot enough to burn.) Then we look the baby in the eye and say, "Hot. Don't touch. HOT." Reality can a very good teacher, especially when used by a parent to educate a child in a safe manner. Waiting until a 2 year old is ramming through the kitchen at an open stove door is not the time you want to educate them. But if children already practiced the "hot" lesson on the coffee mug, and you've explained when you are using the stove, that it's hot, the pots and pans are hot, see the steam-it's HOT, I'm turning the handle in because the pot is hot, stand back while I drain this HOT pot. . . many accidents can be prevented.
One of our six is more "bull-headed" than the rest seem to be. He thought it was fun to get some little burns from our wood stove. We happen to have a friend who years ago burned over 80% of his skin from a jet fuel accident. When I asked him one day, he very graciously showed some of his burned skin(normally covered by his sleeves) to our children and explained how those burns have changed his life. Seeing someone in this way really helped drive home a lesson I was having a hard time getting across to our Mr. Experimental.
We too, have our children cooking in the kitchen along side us. They love to help, and are learning to use knives and appliances as they grow. Yes, there have been a few minor burns, a few little nicks, but they also learn to be more careful, which is not dissimilar to the scrapes, bumps and bruises from playing outside and being children.

good to know about the much safer front knobs. obviously my old range did not have them.

I love the idea of that cooking class.

and I am somewhat humorously remembering a terrible stage of life in my parenting... my nearly 4 year old has been the cause of MANY gray hairs. She is far more adventurous than any of the other kiddos have been. No stool is too high, no climb too impossible sort of child... Starting when she was 14 months old, she started dragging chairs from all over the house to aid and abet her in her quest to get climb high. At the time, we lived in a split-foyer house -which had railing half "wall" on the upper level - with a full story long drop to below. I'll never forget the heart attack I had the first time she took a chair over to that railing... climbed up... and was perched, ready to fall... (this was about 15 months old). Needless to say, furniture was re-arranged that day. Any moveable chair was placed far, far away. (hard to do in a small split foyer - which was pretty much open living space). Even now, I find her in very scary looking situations (dragging a round, backless counter stool to the OTR micro to make popcorn, standing on it tiptoe! Really? really?) I digress.

Design of a kitchen is a far larger aid (or hindrance) to the safety of its inhabitants.

And say a prayer for the parents of the adventurous toddler... or hyped-up kid... or tipsy guest... ;-)

I never showed too much interest in the stove but I did try to bite through the Christmas lights on the tree. The lightbulb was red and that was my favorite color.

Some of it comes down to common sense, some of of really comes down to luck. We were not allowed in the kitchen when meal prep was going on and my nieces and nephews were also told in no uncertain terms to stay out of the prep area as well, come hell or high water. That didn't mean pots had the handles sticking out with impunity, but keeping the kiddies OUT lessens the chances of accidents.