This is a subject that many of you may be interested in as we are nearing the school summer holidays here in the UK. Many of you might already work with epoxy resin, and your children might already have asked if they can get involved too, or on the other hand you might never have used epoxy resin before and yet your child has seen it being used on Social media and asked if they can have a go.
In this blog we will share all the guidance we have on how to make sure that you and your kids are safe if you choose to work with our brands epoxy resin this summer and beyond.
The guidance in this blog is for our brand only, other brands may differ as all brands are formulated differently and may not be as safe to use as ours can be.
What is the minimum age to use Craft Resin?
This isn’t a straightforward question as you know yourself as parents, different aged children can be more capable of using different crafting materials than others. As a general guide, we would suggest that if your child is 12 and above they will probably be ok to use our products - However any child of any age should always be supervised by a responsible adult at all times whilst using Craft Resin.
The guidance of 12 being said, if you don’t think that your child at that age will be safe while using epoxy resin, then go with your gut and wait till they are older. You know your children much better than we do and as different children are at different stages of maturity at all ages, you are the best guide on this.
Should my child take any safety precautions?
Yes, absolutely. You and your child should take the safety precautions we set out in our safety blog to ensure that you are both protected whilst using our epoxy resin:
Safety Guidance For Using Craft Resin
Although our resin is one of the safest on the market, that stands only when the guidance is followed, so please do ensure that you get plenty of ventilation in the room you are working/curing your work in, that you wear respirators as you probably won’t be able to tell if your ventilation is good enough and that no skin comes into contact with the resin/hardener, wear gloves, clothing to protect yourself, consider buying children goggles to protect their eyes and tie long hair back.
Children can be more sensitive to things than us adults can be and so please take every precaution you can to keep them protected whilst working with epoxy resin.
Children don’t always have the same restraint to not touch parts of their bodies/hair/eyes/skin with their gloved hands that may have epoxy resin on them as us adults do. This is where you will need to make them aware of this and to supervise them at all times to help them to not get epoxy resin in the most random of places!
As with yourself, if epoxy resin does get on their/your skin, then wash this off immediately with warm water and soap and monitor. If irritation does occur then seek medical assistance straight away by contacting your doctor. Not everyone reacts to epoxy resin coming into contact with their skin, however anyone can even if they haven’t in the past, so it’s best to keep it off your child’s and your skin.
Can I leave my child alone when working with epoxy resin?
We would not advise leaving children alone whilst working with Craft Resin, children should be supervised at all times. If your child is 17 years old, and has been working with epoxy resin for a while now, then we would suggest the risk of leaving them to work with epoxy resin alone would be minimal and you could potentially take that risk on if you had to pop out of the room for a short while.
However this is taken on at your own risk, again you know your child and if they are mature enough to know how to be sensible with epoxy resin. But please think are you or another responsible adult close enough to come and help them should they need any assistance at all.
A lot of the guidance for children using epoxy resin is the same for adults, however children don’t always have the same understanding and maturity as us adults do and so being with them to supervise them whilst working with epoxy resin is essential.
As a brand we can only share this guidance and hope that you choose to follow it. We cannot be held accountable if any of the guidance above and in our safety blog is not followed. Your child is your responsibility, only you know if they will be safe working with epoxy resin or not, if you are in any doubt then we would suggest holding off working with epoxy resin till they are older.
They can always start learning about epoxy resin and researching before they start using it and so if they are too young right now to start creating then we would suggest they learn all they can ready for when they are able to start. They’ll then be much further ahead of many others who pick it up without actually knowing what to do with it!
And lastly before we go, just because you love creating with epoxy resin, doesn’t mean your children will. By all means ask them if they’d like to work with epoxy with you, but don’t force them. They won’t follow the guidance, or be sensible with epoxy resin if they really don’t want to do it!
We hope you all have a wonderful time getting creative and enjoying the summer holidays with your children.
Team Craft Resin