Keep Your Children SAFE This Halloween

Halloween ghost stories and scary movies make for a lot of fun during October, but you want to make sure that your kids stay safe around the ghoulish holiday.

Costumes

1. Make sure costumes are bright and have reflective tape on them. If the weather is cold and your children need to wear a coat over their costume then add reflective tape to the coat.

2. Incorporate glow sticks to the costume to increase your child’s visibility to cars and other trick-or-treaters.

3. Carry a flashlight so you can see the path or sidewalk to reduce chances of tripping and falling off curbs or imperfections in the infrastructure.

4. Don’t wear a mask, painting your child’s face allows them to see more clearly and hear what is happening around them.

5. Make sure any costume accessories are made of soft materials. A hard plastic sword could cause injury to yourself or others.



Candy

1. Stay on sidewalks and paths as you go through the neighborhood to collect candy and be wary of residences with entries that look too dark or unsafe.

2. As you walk around the neighborhood, use marked cross-walks for crossing the street or cross at corners with formal stop signs for traffic.

3. To minimize risk, keep candy collection to your neighborhood or a closed party. You can also attend a local “trunk or treat.”

4. Inspect candy for original wrappers and potential hazards. Make it a game—have them graph how many types of each candy they collected and how many days the candy can last if they only eat three per day.

Another thing you must do is to keep candy away from pets as ingesting chocolate can kill a dog. Pets also are easily scared or spooked by costumes or unusual activity and may become defensive. If you own a pet, keep it safe indoors and away from little trick or treaters.

Have a safe & happy Halloween everyone!