Tips for a safe and healthy Halloween

While Halloween is full of fun and spooky surprises for all ages, there are also some hazards that can land your family in the Urgent Care. Here, the team at Sanitas Medical Center provides some Halloween safety tips to keep your family happy and healthy this year.

Halloween road safety

According to the National Safety Council, children are more than twice as likely to be hit and killed by a car on Halloween than any other night of the year. With drunk drivers on the roads after Halloween parties, and kids excitedly running across the street in the dark, the roads can be a dangerous place for your child on Halloween. To keep your children safe, follow a few simple Halloween safety tips to reduce the chances you'll need to visit a doctor this Halloween.

• Make sure your children are adequately supervised with an adult accompanying them while trick-or-treating.
• Visit houses on the same of the road before crossing to visit houses on the other side to avoid crossing the street frequently.
• Give your children a time to be home by. Drunk drivers become more common the later it gets, so try to get your kids home relatively early.
• Make sure your children are easy to spot in the dark. Whether it’s with glowsticks, flashlights, or reflective take, make sure your child can be spotted easily at night.

Costume hazards

The best part of Halloween for many children is getting to dress up! Whether they’re going as a ninja, they’re favorite cartoon character, or a classic princess, nothing brings a child more joy than being able to dress up. But this fun can also have a downside.

If you’re child’s costumer is too long, you could have a major hazard on your hands. Costumes that are too long can pose a tripping hazard to children, resulting in scrapes, bruises, and trips to a Sanitas Urgent Care.

Masks and costume contact lenses can also cause issues. Masks can impair your child’s peripheral vision, and spooky contact lenses can cause permanent damage unless prescribed by a doctor.

Keep your kids out of the Urgent Care this Halloween by following these safety tips:

• Make sure your child’s costume is the right length. If it fits everywhere else but is too long, consider having it hemmed or using temporary sewing tape to fold it to the correct length.
• Avoid contact lenses that aren’t prescribed by a doctor, no matter how much better they make a costume look.
• Double check that your child’s mask doesn’t impair their vision at all.

Not so sweet surprises

Kids can’t wait to get home and start enjoying their candy once they’re done trick-or-treating, but it’s very important that you make sure to check their candy before they consume them. Throw away any spoiled, unwrapped or suspicious items. And if you have babies and toddlers around, keep in mind that many candies and candy wrapper can be a choking hazard for them.

Make a plan with your kids to ration out the sweets over the days or weeks following Halloween to avoid tummy aches and teach healthy eating habits. 

Halloween is one of the trickiest holidays for kids and parents of kids with allergies. If you’re planning to offer candy at your home to trick-or-treaters, consider offering non-edible treats too. The Food Allergy Research & Education’s Teal Pumpkin Project has some great ideas for non-food treats. 

If your child has food allergies, you’re likely already used to checking the ingredient labels of anything your child eats. Give a pass to any treats without a label or homemade treats by someone unfamiliar with your allergies where cross contamination is likely. That cupcake is not worth the risk!

Sanitas. Always by your side.

At Sanitas, we take your care to heart. We hope you have a fun, safe and healthy Halloween celebration. And know that if you need us, we’re here for you. Be prepared by locating the Sanitas Urgent Care center closest to you and get mySanitas Chat app.