Providing your children with nutritious meals is an instinct for most parents. A parent’s daily concern is to ensure that they consume fruit, vegetables and other nutrients properly. However, how often do we consider the cookware and kitchen tools with which we make our children’s meals? And the materials used to make their plates, bowls, and sippy cups?
By purchasing easy-to-clean plastic products, we’re subjecting children to potentially harmful materials in the kitchen. When warmed, either from food, the microwave or when washed, many plastics, such as melamine, can feasibly omit toxic chemicals.
Perhaps, you’ve heard about BPA-free plastic products — the plastics made without bisphenol A, which is an industrial chemical found in polycarbonate plastics. Research shows that cooking or dining products made with BPA can infect food or drink. Certainly, there’s a great deal of concern about how it effects children. BPA exposure in babies and children can cause depression, impact hormonal development including the thyroid, and can cause an increased risk of cancer in later life.
While plastics are not easy to evade when buying kitchen equipment or dining utensils for kids, there’re some materials which are better than others.
Here’s a list of substitute materials that you can use to cook for and serve your kids in safe hands:
These plates and cups resemble plastic, especially when they come in bright colours but are actually made from bamboo fibres. Anti-microbial and anti-bacterial, bamboo is biodegradable and recyclable, and at the same time, it doesn’t absorb any smells or moisture. Also, it’s stronger than oak! Products made of bamboo can be thrown around by clumsy kids — without harming to the spoons, your floor, or your child!
The one downside is the short lifespan. When put in the dishwasher machine, bamboo with wear down quicker than washed by hand so it’s only usable for a year or so. It’s not suitable for the microwave as the heat can break down the material’s binding resin, as well.
Cooking stuffs made from bamboo are safe and organic to use. Be careful to choose the products which don’t add melamine as a necessary concern, however.
100% Food-grade Silicone
Silicone utensils took off a few years ago on account of their durability. As it’s light-weight, bendable and impossible to break, everyone had to have the latest silicone baking set and flexible spatula, all in a range of different colours. Since food-grade silicone is hypoallergenic, easy to clean and hygienic, it’s a safe to use and fun inclusion in the catering market — especially because the babies love the eye-catching colours. Moreover, many plates and trays come with suction pads making the utensils impossible for your babies to throw around!
Not only it’s suitable for your babies to eat off, but you can also cook with silicone utensils; they’re safe at high temperatures, meaning the products can be used in the microwave. They’re also dishwasher-safe, non-porous, and don’t retain food odours and colours. The soft material prevents scratching your pans and the flexible cupcake trays make baking with your children easier.
Wood With Non-toxic Varnish
As durable and strong, wood is a cheap go-to material for most of our kitchen tools. It has been our favourite kitchen product throughout centuries of cookery as it’s natural, biodegradable and soft to use in pans. That isn’t to say it is perfect, as well. While wood doesn’t release chemicals, it has porous structure — or means odours are often absorbed, and it can easily stain. Wood products soaks up water and should not be washed in the dishwasher because they can become water-logged or crack in the intense heat. Additionally, wood splinters and shards can break off.
For food safety, recommended woods for culinary duties are olive, teak and maple. These’re dense and sturdy — less possible to crack, splinter or absorb water. To maintain them, using a food-grade mineral oil for preventing liquid absorption that can preserve their lifetime.
For this reason, wood utensils and eating equipment are an eco-friendly alternative to silicone. They’re biodegrade when your children are ready for adult-sized utensils, too.
Stainless-steel is a fusion of various metals melted down to create a durable, easy to clean, and corrosion resistant material. It’s impervious to absorbing odours and stains and low maintenance as requiring little care.
While stainless-steel products are unusual, we have learned that they’re much safer than plastics and are increasingly available on the market these days. For example, stainless-steel baby bottles, which include silicone sleeves for easier grip in little hands, are both lightweight and dishwasher-safe for convenient cleaning. As this metal is durable, they can drop it on the floor without causing damage. Absolutely, the only downside is that: stainless-steel foodstuffs can’t be microwaved!
As known, stainless-steel is an incredibly popular material for cooking utensils So, you can have a peace of mind that saucepans and frying pans, cooking gadgets, utensils and cutlery for older children to hold are all suitable and safe. Yet, for another level of protection, ensure to use no-metal tools, like wooden or plastic, with multi-ply clad stainless-steel pots and pans — deep scratches can expose the aluminum or cooper core of the pans and can possibly leach into food.
I hope that this list is helpful and reassuring for concerned parents. Nowadays, there’re many companies that only want to provide the safest options for our children — not only these products are healthier alternatives to the traditional chemical-leaching plastics, they’re superior replacements, in many ways.
The eco-friendly character of bamboo and wood-based utensils are reliable upgrader — Say, though your children grow up and their interests change, you won’t be stuck with piles of poisonous plastic. Stainless-steel stuffs have a long lifetime that are helpful to save money in the long run because you can further adapt your baby’s sippy bottle into a drink holder for a confident young lady or man! Food-grade silicone can also give your children their own first taste of cookery as grippy bases and silicone handles make the experience easier and more enjoyable for them.
So, let’s explore these safe and fantastic options!