Is the Easy Bake Oven Safe?

When looking at popular gifts for young girls, there are few that are as enduring and popular as the Easy-Bake oven.  The Easy Bake oven is a real working oven, which was first offered for sale in 1963 by Hasbro.  The first prototypes had a light bulb as a heat source and were non functional.  However, the modern version uses a heating element and is capable of baking small cakes and bread buns.  To date, over 16 million Easy Bake ovens have been sold.

Many parents, however, have concerns regarding the toy.  Is the Easy-Bake oven really safe for children?  

As to whether or not the Easy-Bake oven is safe for children is difficult to say.  A vast majority of the devices never experience a problem and instead provide children with endless amusement.  On the other hand, there have been just short of one million recalls of these toys since May of 2006. 

It is also important to note that the oven reaches temperatures of up to 400 degrees, which means that children can suffer burns in some cases.  The baking mixture is pushed into the oven in a pan through a slot, and hence the oven is thought to be safe for kids.  But many children (as children do) insist in sticking little fingers into the slot to ‘check’ on the cakes, resulting in them having to be taken to the doctor and treated for burns.

The Easy-Bake oven may be a lot of fun for young girls, but it is not a toy to be left in their rooms for unsupervised use.  This toy is safe in most circumstances, but caution and monitoring are recommended to help prevent unnecessary injuries to your children while using the device.