Halloween Safety Tips

Halloween Safety Tips for Parents & Kids

It’s that time of year when excited, distracted children dress up like their favorite ghouls and goblins and head out at dusk to knock on doors and fill their goody bags with all sorts of treats. It’s a time-honored, cherished tradition with which most of us grew up with and which most of us associated no risk, just unbridled fun. Therefore, we may not give much thought to the inherent dangers in modern-day celebrations where Halloween has become increasingly high-tech and the world has become increasingly more dangerous than the world in which we trick-or-treated. Here are a few Halloween safety tips to keep you, your family, and everyone’s children safe and to keep those tricks and treats from quickly turning into tragedy.

Halloween Safety Tips for Parents

We at Advanced Bio Treatment are parents, too, and in our daily work lives, we see far too much preventable tragedy. Therefore, we want to pass on these Halloween safety tips for parents to help you keep the fun in Halloween while alerting you to the inherent dangers of this holiday.Following are a few Halloween safety tips for parents whose children will be out on the streets trick-or-treating.

• Always accompany children under 12 who are trick-or-treating.
• If your kids are trick-or-treating alone, make sure you know the route they will be taking.
• Make sure your kids are traveling in a group, not alone.

Go over Halloween traffic-safety rules with your children, including pedestrian rules:

• Walk on sidewalks.
• If no sidewalks are available, walk facing traffic and as far to the side of the road as possible.
• Look both ways and listen for traffic before crossing.
• Cross only at corners or in crosswalks.
• Never attempt to cross a street from between parked cars or in the middle of a block.

• Make sure children’s costumes do not obstruct their hearing or vision. Masks should be replaced with safe makeup or face paint.
• Make sure the length of children’s costumes do not cause them to trip or fall.
• Make certain children’s costumes have reflective tape on them and that your children carry or wear glow sticks and carry flashlights with fresh batteries.
• Set a curfew.

Halloween Safety Tips for Parents: Trick-or-Treating

Many parents load up their kids and their kids’ friends in the family SUV and take them out of their own neighborhood and into other neighborhoods to trick-or-treat. In some cases, neither you nor the children know the residents of these neighborhoods, thereby increasing the chances of dangerous encounters with strangers and of treats that have been tampered with. Consider allowing your kids to trick-or-treat only in their own neighborhoods and only at homes whose residents you or someone you trust knows.

• Most Halloween safety tips for parents focus on checking treats for tampering and providing only factory-sealed treats for trick-or-treaters who come to your home. While these are certainly critical Halloween safety tips, parents may also consider limiting where their kids trick-or-treat.

• If you’re driving, watch for children darting out in front of you, especially near driveways and parked cars.

• If you take your kids trick-or-treating, make sure kids are not hungry when they go out trick-or-treating. That way, they won’t be as tempted to snack on their treats before you have a chance to examine their loot.

• Carry a flashlight with fresh batteries in it.

• Always walk right up to the door with your children.

• Never allow your children to approach any vehicle unless you are with them.

• Make sure costumes are bright and flame-retardant. Don’t forget that there are fire hazards like candles everywhere on Halloween.
• Put reflective tape on costumes.

• Make sure children know their phone numbers, home addresses, and how to dial 911. Pin their names, addresses, and phone numbers to their clothing underneath their costumes.

• Instead of a mask, which can obstruct children’s vision, consider safe makeup instead.

• Be aware that many Halloween props like wands, swords, sticks, and knives, can present safety hazards. Choose safe props for your children.

• If trick-or-treaters come to your home, make sure all walkways and steps at your home are well lit, safely lit, and clear of wet leaves or snow.

• Make sure you remove all tripping hazards, such as garden hoses and toys, from your yard and porch.

• Keep pets restrained. Consider locking them in a room while trick-or-treaters are visiting your home.

• Check all labels on treats to make sure treats contain no ingredients to which your child is allergic.

• Check goody bags for choking hazards, such as gum, small toys, and hard candy.

• Check all goodies for any signs of tampering, such as tiny pinholes or tears in the wrapping.

• Discard all home-made goodies, and unwrapped goodies unless you are certain they come from a trusted friend.

Halloween Safety Tips for Parents: Parties

Here are a few Halloween safety tips for parents who host a Halloween party or allow their kids to attend a Halloween party:

• Bobbing for apples is a great way to expose children to lots of nasty bacteria. Make sure you thoroughly wash apples and other raw fruit and vegetables in cool water and also brush them with a produce brush.

• If you’re hosting a party, make sure you provide only pasteurized juice and cider. Make sure your children drink only pasteurized juice and cider at parties they attend. Unpasteurized juice and cider may contain harmful bacterial like Salmonella.

• Never allow children to ingest raw cookie dough or cake batter. It may contain raw eggs.

• Make sure all perishables are refrigerated and sit outside the fridge no more than one hour.

• Keep all candles and decorations with candles in them, like pumpkins, where children and pets cannot trip over them or knock them over and where the candles cannot ignite curtains or furniture.
• Consider lighting pumpkins with battery-operated candles, flashlights, and glow sticks instead of candles.

Halloween Safety Tips: Kids

National Crime Prevention Council: Halloween Safety Printables

Kids are excited and distracted on Halloween, so it’s important that the adults in their lives remind them of these important Halloween safety tips for kids:

• Always trick-or-treat in groups, never alone. Stay with your group.

• Trick-or-treat only in neighborhoods and at homes where you know the resident of the home.

• Carry glow sticks or wear glow jewelry.

• Add reflective tape to your costumes.

• Make sure costumes are short enough to prevent tripping.

• Never use decorative contact lenses. They are dangerous and illegal without a prescription.

• Carry a flashlight with fresh batteries in it.

• Carry a cell phone.

• Watch for cars who may not be watching for you.

• Wait until you get home to snack on your treats. First check your treats, or have your parents check them, before snacking on them.

• Never approach a vehicle, whether or not someone is in it.

• One of the most important Halloween safety tips for kids is NEVER enter anyone’s home unless you know the resident very well.

We are Advanced Bio Treatment. We are here for you 24 hours every day of the year, and we take emergency calls and work with your insurance company. Should you need our services, please call us at  800-295-1684.