Halloween Safety Tips for Your Family

Do you remember dressing up and trick-or-treating as a kid? For many of us, those are cherished memories that we want our children to have, too. We want our kids to have fun on Halloween, but we want them to be safe as well. That’s why we’ve compiled some Halloween safety tips to make your Halloween spooktacularly safe.

Costumes

• Make sure your child’s costume is flame-resistant.
• Avoid masks; face paint and hats are a safer alternative. Just make sure the face paint doesn’t cause a reaction for your child! Test it ahead of time on a small patch of skin.
• Consider adding reflective tape to your child’s costume to make them more visible at night.
• Make sure shoes fit well and costumes are short enough to avoid tripping hazards.

While Out and About

• If older children are trick-or-treating alone, make sure to agree upon a route that they will take and a time that they are to return home.
• Remain on well-lit streets and use the sidewalks.
• Only cross the street at established crosswalks. Never cross between parked cars or out of driveways.
• Teach your child to make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them.

Food Allergies & Treat Safety (from the AAP)

• Always read the ingredient label on treats. Many popular Halloween candies contain some of the most common allergens, such as peanuts or tree nuts, milk, egg, soy or wheat.
• If the ingredients aren’t listed, arrange for a treat “exchange” with classmates or friends. Or, bag up the goodies your child can’t eat because of an allergy and leave them with a note asking the “Treat Fairy” to swap them for a prize.
• Be aware that even if they are not listed on the ingredient label, candy is at high risk of containing trace amounts of common allergy triggers, because factories often produce many different products. Also, “fun size” or miniature candies may have different ingredients or be made on different equipment than the regular size candies, meaning that brands your child previously ate without problems could cause a reaction.
• Teach your child to politely turn down home-baked items such as cupcakes and brownies, and never to taste or share another child’s food.
• Many households are beginning to offer non-candy alternatives for children who have food allergies.  This year, a TEAL colored pumpkin at the front door helps designate just such hosts.

With these tips, you can keep your family’s Halloween fun and scary – the good kind of scary! On behalf of the PIP team, have a wonderful (and safe!) Halloween with your child.