HappyHalloween

Your guide to a safe and spooky Halloween

From StaFF reportS

Halloween is one of the most exciting holidays for children because they

can dress up in elaborate cos-tumes and act out of character. However, as the sun goes down and trick-or-treaters start roam-ing the streets of your neighbor-hood, there are several things to worry about as a parent or guardian.

Potentially hazardous cos-tumes or accessories, tainted candy and crossing the street at night without supervision are only a few concerns that should be addressed prior to a child leaving the house.

Children ages 5-14 are four times more likely to be killed while walking on Halloween evening, compared with other evenings of the year, accord-ing to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which operates three hospitals with more than half a million patient visits annually.

Falls are the leading cause of injuries among children on Hal-loween. Halloween is a fun time for children, but it also is an im-portant time to be extra vigilant for possible safety hazards—so

that your children have a fun and safe evening.

Beverly Losman of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Safe Kids Georgia offered these tips to parents who want to make this a safe Halloween:4Avoid costumes with ex-

cessive flowing fabric, such as capes or sleeves. Loose cloth-ing can easily brush up against a jack-o-lantern or other open flame, causing your child’s cos-

Keep your childrensafe on Halloween

Keep your childrensafe on Halloween

tume to catch on fire.4Make sure your child’s costume fits properly. Oversized

costumes and footwear, such as clown or adult shoes, can cause your child to trip and fall, bringing them home with more scrapes and bruises than candy. Avoid wearing hats that will slide over their eyes.4Accessorize with flexible props, such as rubber swords or

knives. Inflexible props can cause serious injury in case of a fall.4Apply face paint or cosmetics directly to the face, and make

sure it is non-toxic and hypoallergenic. A loose-fitting mask can obstruct a child’s vision. If a mask is worn, be certain it fits se-

curely. Cut the eyeholes large enough for full vision. 4If possible, choose a brightly

colored costume that drivers can spot easily. If not, decorate the costume with reflective tape and stickers. 4Always supervise children under

the age of 13. Older children should trick-or-treat in a group, and a curfew should be established for them. At-tach the name, address and phone number (including area code) of chil-dren under age 13 to their clothes in case they get separated from adults. Have each child carry a cell phone or some loose change in case they need to call home.4Children should only go to well-

lit houses and remain on the porch within street view.4Teach your child to cross the

street only at crosswalks or intersec-tions. Make sure he understands

never to cross between parked cars and to always look both ways before crossing. Remind your child to stay on the sidewalk, if pos-sible, and to walk facing traffic. Children should walk, not run, and avoid using shortcuts across backyards or alleys. Use flashlights when trick-or-treating in the dark.4Remind your child not to eat any treats before you have a

chance to examine them thoroughly for holes and punctures. Throw away all treats that are homemade or unwrapped. To help prevent your children from munching, give them a snack or light meal before they go trick-or-treating.4Parents of food-allergic children must read every candy label

in their child’s Halloween bag to avoid a potentially life-threaten-ing situation for the child.

Halloween safety includes good food choices‘Allowing your child to consume three cups of

sugar is like standing by and watching them eat200 packets of sugar.’

Dr. Stephanie WalshMedICAL dIReCTOR OF CHILd weLLneSS AT

CHILdRen’S HeALTHCARe OF ATLAnTA

From StaFF reportS

Many of us spend hours decorating the house and creating the per-

fect costume for a spooky Hal-loween, but the spookiest part of Halloween might not be the scary costumes or the spider web on your front porch.

The scariest part of Hallow-een might be the amount of fat, sugar and calories consumed by trick-or-treaters.

By visiting 15 houses, the average trick-or-treater can collect up to 60 pieces of “fun-size” candy on Halloween night, health officials estimate.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta looked at the calories, fat and sugar content of a bag of typical Halloween treats and found it to be equivalent to 4,800 calories, one-and-a-half cups of fat and three cups of sugar.

“Allowing your child to con-sume three cups of sugar is like standing by and watching them eat 200 packets of sugar,” said dr. Stephanie walsh, medical director of child wellness at Chil-dren’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

“Halloween and candy are synonymous, but it’s important to provide sweets in moderation and focus on the fun and family time of the event — not the candy.”

According to walsh, candies

with rich ingredients, such as chocolate and peanut butter, have the highest sugar and fat content. And many specialty Halloween candies, such as candy corn, contain unhealthy amounts of sugar if not con-sumed in moderation.

Childhood obesity has be-come a threatening epidemic in the United States, and health officials are working to spread the message that it’s a problem that is usually avoidable.

To combat this chronic illness, dr. walsh offers several tips to help families have a fun and healthy Halloween:4The key word is moderation.

Collect the Halloween candy from your kids after trick-or-treating and allow them to have one or two pieces per day. 4Offer to “buy back” the can-

dy from your kids in exchange for a small toy. 4Provide plenty of water with

the sweets, and set aside time to be active to help burn the extra calories consumed.4Provide a nutritious meal

that includes fruits and veg-etables before going to gather candy. This will lower your child’s appetite for the sweets they are about to collect in the hours to come.4distribute candy with lower

sugar and fat content, such as Sweet Tarts, to trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood.

Halloween safety includes good food choices

From StaFF reportS

Halloween can be a fun time for the entire family, including the four-legged members. But there

are special considerations when it comes to keeping your canine partici-pants safe through the festivities.

Candy is everywhere on Halloween, of course. It’s on bowls, on tables by the door, and in trick-or-treat bags carried at dog-level by children who usually aren’t paying close attention. not to mention all the candy that gets dropped on the floor throughout the night.

For a number of reasons, according to dogChannel.com, the website for dog lovers, it’s important to make sure that your dog doesn’t have free access to all of that candy.4Over-eating of sugary and fatty

candy by dogs can lead to pancreatitis, even when the candy is not specifically poisonous to them.4Some candy, though, especially

dark chocolate, is highly poisonous to dogs and can lead to sickness and even death. Chocolate of any kind should never be fed to dogs or left where they can get to it.4Candy wrappers pose a special dan-

ger to dogs, as the cellophane and foil

Keep yourpets safe, too

Keep yourpets safe, too

ones cannot be digested and can wind up causing life-threaten-ing bowel obstructions that can only be cleared through surgery.4Raisins can be deadly to you dog. They are highly toxic and

can cause kidney failure, leading potentially to death. Keep snacks with raisins in them far away from your canine friends.4dogs should not eat the shell or seeds of squash or pump-

kins.4Costumes can include pieces that are enticing, yet danger-

ous, for dogs to chew on. do not allow your dog to chew on glow sticks, which can cause mouth pain, irritation and drooling, along with intestinal blockages.4Keep kids’ costumes out of reach of your dog to remove

any temptation to chew on the shiny and unusual parts that can resemble chew toys.4If you’re dressing your dog in a costume, make sure the cos-

tume is neither too tight nor too loose, as injuries could result from one that doesn’t fit well. Also, put the costume on early to give the dog time to get used to it.

Children can enjoy some Halloween candy and still avoid sugar-related tooth de-cay, according to dr. Margaret Mitchell, a Chicago dentist.

Mitchell told Healthday news that the key to prevent-ing tooth decay lies in limiting not only the amount of candy children eat, but also how long the sugar remains in the mouth.

Brushing teeth as soon as possible after eating candy may keep harmful bacteria from developing, she said, and eating the candy quickly in one sitting decreases the amount of time it is contact with the teeth.

Children and parents can take several additional steps to protect their teeth, said Mitchell, owner of the

Mitchell dental Spa. These include:4Take inventory. Parents

should examine their chil-dren’s candy and remove any-thing they consider unaccept-able before allowing them to eat it. 4Avoid anything tacky or

gummy. This type of candy can stick to teeth and cause decay. 4Be consistent. no matter

what time of day children eat candy (day or night), they should remember to have good dental hygiene. 4Take precautions. Before

Halloween rolls around, a dentist can put sealants into children’s teeth grooves to protect them against cor-rosion caused by too much sugar.

TAke sTeps To proTecT TeeTh

From StaFF reportS

Halloween is one of the best times of the year for chil-dren, but it can be one of the most dangerous as well. Since more pedestrians are on the roadways on Hallow-

een, the Virginia department of Motor Vehicles urges driver to be extra alert.

dMV recommends motorists enter and exit driveways slowly and carefully, and stay below the posted speed limit, especially in residential areas. They should avoid passing other vehicles since they may be slowing down for trick-or-treaters, and should look out for children darting out between vehicles.

According to Safe Kids USA, on average, twice as many kids are killed while walking on Halloween as compared to any other day of the year.

Therefore, parents and caregivers are encouraged to trim children’s costumes or candy bags with reflective tape that will glow in the beam of a vehicle’s headlights. Costumes should

Be careful on the streets

Be careful on the streetsbe short enough to prevent children from tripping and falling. Pedestrians are also encouraged to carry flashlights on Hallow-een.

while trick-or-treating, children should walk (not run) from house to house and use the sidewalk if available, rather than walking in the street. If there is no side-walk, pedestrians should walk beside the road, facing traffic so drivers can see them.

“Parents should remind their children not to assume the right of way,” said dMV Commissioner Richard d. Holcomb, the Governor’s Highway Safety Representa-tive. “Just because one car stops, doesn’t mean others will. Also, drivers may have

trouble-seeing trick-or-treaters.”Parents and caregivers are urged to plan

their trick-or-treat route ahead of time to avoid busy, high-speed or multi-lane roads. They should decide before leaving home how the group will cross any streets.

According to the national Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Halloween has one of the highest rates of pedestrian injuries and fatalities in the United States. The number of deaths among pedestrians ages 5-14 is four times higher on Hal-loween evening than any other evening of the year, reports the Centers for disease Control and Prevention.

“On Halloween, motorists are urged to watch out for trick-or-treaters, but they

also need to be aware of the possibility of impaired motorists,” Holcomb said. nHTSA reports that 48 percent of all high-way fatalities across the nation on Hallow-een night in 2009 involved a driver with an illegal blood alcohol concentration.

In Virginia, there were 308 crashes, 159 injuries and three traffic fatalities on Hal-loween in 2010; 41 of the crashes and 29 of the injuries were alcohol-related.

“we urge Halloween party-goers to des-ignate a sober driver and keep the party off the road,” Holcomb said. “not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for impaired driving are significant.”

‘We urge halloween party-goers to

designate a sober driver and keep the party off the road.’

Richard D. HolcombTHe GOVeRnOR’S HIGHwAySAFeTy RePReSenTATIVe

HappyHalloween